Driving is starting!

One tip is to have lots of patience - driving lessons and tests take absolutely ages, months. This is why I still haven't got a driving licence, the lessons just did my head in.

If you interpret the examiners directions wrong as i did in my test make sure you go the right way about going the wrong way as he told me when i passed. "Well Mr Carter, apart from you interpretations of my directions your driving was o.k. So I'm going to pass you, but you must pay more attention to the directions people are giving you" was his exact words.
That's not before he had a go at me for going the wrong way. "Where're you going, I didn't say go this way" he said. All because i got in the wrong lane at the Magic Roundabout.
Everybody in Swindon gets tested across the Magic Roundabout.
Darren.

Count on having 20 lessons....and you MUST have 2-hour sessions. Don't if you can help it leave it week-on-week for your instruction as you will forget everything and have to keep refreshing. If you don't like your instructor, change, or even change schools. You will just fester and have a terrible time. And waste your money. Also, so try and get practice in outside lessons in a car.

Finally, for heck's sake get the theory/hazzard perception CD and practice, practice, practice as otherwise you will never pass the darned tests together. You might also consider taking your test in a quieter area. For Southampton (two test centres) anyone might be better off going to Salisbury say.

Come on theres been worse. I didn't tell my instructor 10, i just said i would like to take 10 and see where we go from there. See how much i have progressed. I mean't it in a light hearted way. But i do not mean to learn in a light hearted way and i know yes that driving can be very dangerous. All i am saying is i am doing this on a budget. But i have listened to all of your comments and take them all on board.

Now where did i put those L plates?

Oh no i have enough for 20 lessons. and 1 x faliures on boths tests. But i plan to learn as much as i can before i book the test so i don't fail!
To note are all my hard earned savings. I have always wanted drive so nows the chance for me

I haven't even started yet. There were very few situations when a car would have been useful during my university years in Cambridge, apart from evacuating after exams. Never mind where you'd park a car and how you'd persuade the proctors to give you a permit.

I'm considering learning now, but can't see myself getting a car until I have a house with at least an allocated parking bay even then I'd only drive at weekends. There is now way that I'm swapping my season ticket for a car to get to London every day.

The problem that I expect to have is not money, but finding the time to have enough lessons. I might have to go for full days at weekends or similar.

Avoid BSM like SARS!!!!! I suggest you have a word with your freinds, if any of them drive and ask who taught them. BSM are bad news. Well from what i have heard!

I have a couple of friends who have learned/are learning with BSM, no complaints at all. One passed first time, which she was really thrilled about!

I learned with a private instructor and passed second time (first time was my own stupid fault).

As has been said already, find an instructor who you're comfortable with. They should review your progress after x lessons so you have some idea how you're doing and roughly how many lessons you'll need, tho that's not an exact science!

I passed with BSM! Twelve 2 hour lessons... instructor was a bit abrupt with me, but passed quite easily on my second attempt! Did it all before all this theory test malarky came in. Had a car, small Ford Fiesta, nice red colour, old Y reg [1983] 160k miles, one previous owner, in great condition... until someone clanged me up the tail... split the fuel tank... Funny thing was, the car that hit me had more damage!!! Sold for scrap and haven't had a car since.

Overall, be aware of surroundings, dogs running into the road was one thing I had to deal with on my 3rd lesson... Even the instructor nearly wet himself...

Pay no heed to anyone who tells you BSM are very good or very bad, because it means very little. They are so big they are bound to have some instructors that are better than others. All people can tell you is their personal experiences with BSM - I passed first time with a BSM instructor but some of my friends have had bad experiences with them. It's luck of the draw. Which reinforces my earlier point that it's so important to say something if you're not happy with him/her.

If it's not too cheeky of me to ask, how much are driving lessons these days? I paid £17 an hour with BSM back in 1992 and that was including my student discount! Luckily I only needed 17 lessons. And I was 17 years old at the time, too. I guess 17 must be my lucky number. ;D

I think I paid £13-14/hour when I was learning to drive in 1997-98. I learned with a small independent driving school (2 instructors) and (just) passed first time. I don't remember how many lessons it took, but I know my test was 6 months and 4 days after my 17th birthday - coincidentally my sister also passed her test (first time) 6 months and 4 days after her 17th birthday!

I didn't have anything like dogs running accross the road in the early stages of learning, but on about her 5th or 6th lesson my sister encountered someone heading towards her the wrong way on a one-way street!

My girlfriend at the time failed her first test by pulling out in front of a bus about 500 yards from the test centre.

Re: BSM, my impression they are a "franchise" to train Instructors for a fee, who then subsequently are self-employed, enjoying the BSM advertising, car provision facilities, and national advertising introductions?

Hence, see how you get on with the particular instructor you get by contacting them - if you are uncomfortable after a "trial" lesson, definitely look for another instructor.

On your test, you'll almost certainly get a pretty laid back examiner with whom you'll immediately develop contact chemistry. That is why they are selected as Driving Test Examiners.

I fully echo the postds above that if you make an mistake or a directional misunderstanding arise, don't panic and Drive By The (Highway Code) Book.

And, a personal comment, Please continue to do so throughout the rest of your driving career as well

Make sure you share that with an Instructor who knows you enough to input to you either persuasion, confidence, advice, or bollock you when you do something stupid when - by then - you ought to have learned better!!!

I learned with a local school who employed several instructors. I had the same one most of the time but "got on" with all of them. Passed first time six weeks after my 17th birthday, despite stalling pulling out into the main road about the second turn from starting my test! IMHO driving needs to be "defensive" and no way get yourself into a situation where you could panic. As soon as you see a potential problem, apart from the physical reactions like mirror, slowing etc., you want to plan your "escape" like aim behind a tractor or car pulling out right in front of you, or check if you can use the right hand... the worst is a head-on.

FWIW, I drive assuming everyone else on the road is under the influence of drink or drugs, un-insured, banned for 3 years, and out to impress his passengers by taking foolhardy risks.

Despite that, I usually manage to keep to the maximum speed allowed under prevailing speed limits, except when slowing as a precaution when I identify potential hazards, and even if driving alone I "imagine" a passenger to whom I endeavor to provide a smooth, comfortable and safe journey.


Credentials: Full car licence holder since 1967, confessing I picked up 3 penalty points in 1990 from an unmarked Police car when I'd opened up to 90 on a fully open 3 lane dual carriageway in the country after being held up for 15 minutes with road works etc - yup. Should have stuck to 70, regardless. My Fault. Sad thing is, these days, you stick to 70 mph on a motorway and people keep speeding past you. My solution, ***don't hog lanes***.
But otherwise completely clean licence from qualifying and no blameworthy insurance claims since I first started driving as a learner.


Good Luck, OP, and to anyone else relevant.
(So why are you driving a car and not using the Tube? ;D )

Hope this helps.

OngarParkNRide