~First things first~

~The Simulator~
The package also included 2 hours on a BSM simulator in Aberdeen - about an hour and a half's drive from my hometown, Arbroath. I travelled through, feeling optimistic, but after my two hours, I felt I had learnt nothing and had wasted two hours of my life on a fruitless activity. The simulator began with slowly taking me through the controls of the car. It then made me do activities such as weaving in and out of cones - pointless tasks which would I would never be asked to do in the practical test. Aside from this, the controls on the simulator were very difficult to use, especially the gear box and the handbrake. Also, the engine sound was not very loud at all, making practicing clutch control virtually impossible since the biting point gave no distinct noise and the simulator did not move with the bite. Finally, I found it impossible to complete some of the tasks due to this and every time a task was failed, the simulator voiceover went over the long sets of instructions again and again. And so my two hours flew by with me learning little more than how to steer - and not even brilliantly. However, I was prepared to give the driving instructor a chance and expected to do well once I got behind the wheel of an actual car.

BSM insisted that I have a two hour lesson to begin with because they would take me through a cock-pit drill etc. I was reluctant as I thought it would be a long and tiring lesson for a first time but agreed since they explained it would be the best way to start. My driving instructor (who I will refer to as John for annonymity) started off making a good impression by arriving five minutes before the start of my lesson. He drove me out to the industrial estate where there are many quiet roads to practice on, but on the way, he asked me a few questions about my impressions of driving and what I expected in terms of lesson amounts.

He then asked me near the end of the lesson how many lessons I wanted to book ahead. I said that I would only book my 6 hours worth because I didnt know if I could afford the prices of driving lessons since I am going to university next year and need all the money I can scrape together. He then said to me that BSM were the cheapest in the town. He told me that lessons with him would be a full hour's lesson whereas the other instructors in town would charge me a little less for 15mins less. To begin with I thought that maybe that he was speaking reasonably, but after a few more lessons, I totally changed my mind about them.

~Lesson Number 2~
This came a week after the first one - but a day before I expected. I was up in my room doing my homework like a good girl and my Mum's fiance came in and asked if anyone had a driving lesson since the BSM car was sitting outside. I ran downstairs and sure enough, there was my instructor. When I ran out of the door, he had a look of sheer amusement as always on his face. When I questioned him about the day of the appointment, he shrugged and grinned and said that he had lost his diary and that he hadnt been sure about the date and so had guessed about the date. Of course, since I had a lesson on that day last week, it had seemed obvious that I might have booked it on the same day the week after. So anyway, I was quite annoyed and not really concentrated properly but I made the best of it. This time, we went straight out into the countryside. I got up to national speed limit etc. but all it really did was give me more experience with driving at higher speeds. Unlike with the instructor I am now with, I got up to 4th gear but never to 5th. I never really got taught any clutch control and barely did any town driving at all. Considering the price of the lessons and the fact that I had been getting better turning corners on quiet roads - under full instruction - I had hoped to be taught something new. I was beginning to see where he had got his "44 lessons on average" from. To say the least, I wasnt too happy. Especially since I had booked all of my lessons in advance.

So, I waited patiently for my 6pm lesson. I even got ready early since he had a habit of arriving before my lesson. However, 6pm came and went with no driving instructor. Then, at about 6:10pm the phone rang and it was my instructor, telling me that he had just got home having had a slow puncture on the way back from his last lesson. He had apparently been unable to contact me before then because he didn't have my number on his mobile phone. He said that he could take me out but that he would be uninsured. I said that I would leave it for the night but rearrange a lesson after my next booked one. Needless to say I was - as we scots say - "fizzing". I decided that the best thing to do would be to get in touch with BSM themselves but since their office hours coincided with my school hours, my mum phoned up instead. Apparently, they had been told that my instructor had a slow puncture and had to cancel my lesson. However, they were told that I was offered a lesson that night but that I had happily turned it down. I think I can safely say that I sounded anything but happy on the phone that night. Luckily, mum managed to book a lesson for me the next day. I say luckily because by that time I had arranged for a new driving instructor to take over so I could actually learn something. When I eventually got my third lesson, I did most of the same things as in the last two lessons, although I did go on the town's dual carriageway and went around a few round-a-bouts. However, I was still just being told exactly what to do and when to do it. For example, I was never told to get down to 20mph before changing to 2nd gear at a junction, nor to change to 1st gear at the last moment before having to stop at a closed junction.

Once again, nothing much happened. I did an "under full instruction" turn in the road and more junctions but learnt nothing. Obviously, by the end of my time with BSM I was glad to leave forever. My instructor seemed to think that there was a chance I would be coming back to BSM but he must have convinced himself that I was a stupid little girl - not a 17yr old intelligent woman - ok, so maybe thats boasting! But he just didnt seem to respect anything I said and seemed to want to drag my lessons out as long as possible. I quite believe that his average number of lessons is 44 - thats if he can smarm people into staying with him that long.