Everyone must be in a good mood today, the new reviews page is filled with 4/5 star ratings. Must be...
Everyone must be in a good mood today, the new reviews page is filled with 4/5 star ratings. Must be the sun finally returning.
Member since:22.09.2005
Reviews:124
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Yikes, turning 17 was more daunting than I thought it would be, what with all my friends already learning to drive (or having passed) I almost felt pressured to get through the whole process, although not overly - I mean I know I had many happy months still ahead of me being a passenger and getting lifts for zero petrol money. Happy days, although to be in control was something that needed to be done.
I've always been a young one in my year; taking forever to become a teenager, and even longer to get my nice shiny 16+ card.. little did I know it's actually the ugliest and least useful ID in the world. I guess it could be worse, afterall I'm only born in May and there are members of my immediate family born in July and August. Now that's young. I can't say I really rushed to book my first lesson, I guess being scared of failure is what put me off combined with the fact I didn't want to payout for any tuition.
Around July 2006 I was 17 and 2 months, so it was time to really put my foot on the gas (pun intended) so after a leaflet coincidently came through my front door advertising a new independant driving instructor starting up I thought I'd take him up on the offer of 10% off your first lesson. I felt that using someone independant would be more personal than using a big company like BSM or AA, because I've heard nothing but bad things about AA and BSM are apparently really slow at passing people. That's all rumours I guess, and I'll never know the truth.
I had literally NEVER driven a car before, and I didn't know how. Picking me up he decided he'd drive me at first to somewhere a little more quiet and as he did this he talked me through what he was doing - but the only thing on my mind was how difficult it was going to be. My nerves had started to settle down though, because I do tend to get nervous before things although once I'm doing them I'm absolutely fine. He pulled up on the side and on a large hill in my village he let me sit in the drivers seat for the very first time.
Before I could do anything though he talked me through MSM - as in the messenger I thought, but then I clicked it was MSM, not MSN. Mirror, signal, manouever, and I had no idea how important that would come to be because ultimately whether or not I do this properly would decide if I passed or failed. It was just earlier this week one of my friends received only 4 minors on his test but got a major for mirror work! Ouch. Starting up it would be hard to stall on the basis that I was on a hill and the car was going to roll forward as soon as I took the handbreak off anyway, this worked out as an easy break for me and eased me in. Doing laps of the village I had to turn around every now and again and go back the way I came to avoid roundabouts, but it was an ok first lesson. I knew there would be a long way to go.
The next lesson I was straight on to roundabouts, and I thought things were moving a little quick for me but I could imagine I'd cope with it. He drew me a nice little map of where to allign the car and where to indicate depending on where you're going, although most of that is common knowledge anyway. Stalling at a busy roundabout though, horrible, and it would take me a while until I had a lesson where I didn't stall at all. Stalling isn't as bad as most people make it out to be, it isn't that REALLY embrassing moment. As long as you keep your composure you can recover really quickly and not hold up any traffic.
If I could give just one piece of advise it would be about keeping your composure when driving and staying CONFIDENT. If you get in the drivers seat and think you're going to drive brilliantly today, you probably will. If you sit in the seat and you're a mess it will show in your driving. Perhaps that's why if you're drunk it shows you're a drunk mess in your driving. It's all about a state of mind, because now I've passed it's easy. It wasn't all easy though.
This will sound silly but one of my main problems with driving was the steering, which is insane because I always thought it would be the easiest part. It was a matter of I didn't turn the steering wheel enough, not the common problem of people who cross their arms. I'm not sure how I steer now because I've never really taking any notice of myself but I'm pretty sure it's the 'push and pull' method of pushing the wheel around then pulling it back using two hands constructively. Having said that I find myself driving with just one hand on the wheel lately, BAD NATHAN!
Spending
£22 (although my lessons went down to £20 because I was regular) a week for an hour and only doing things like driving around my village to practice steering was a pain in the ass, which is why I was lucky my mum was picking up the bill. It got really frustrating at some points, I even took a lesson off when I was only feeling just slightly under the weather, but I decided I couldn't give up because it would only take longer. Sometimes I felt like my instructor, because he was new, wasn't entirely sure what he was doing. You see all these adverts on TV around the Driving InstructorsCollege and there must be so many new ones coming into the industry, are they all really going to make good instructors? Whether or not I found a good one was going to take me a long time to decide, I haven't even fully decided now, but I've passed so I can't slate him.
I guess I should have said this earlier but for my lessons (and then my test) I was using my instructors Ford Fiesta with a 1.6 engine. It had the dual controls, obviously, and it was silver if anyones interested. Not the prettiest of cars but fine to learn in. The gears were all in the same place they would be on my own car, a Rover 200 (1.1). My instructor was never really late, and only cancelled for family problems. I did have to chop and change the days I had my lessons sometimes, but that didn't bother me as I have a very flexible schedule. Once he was 30mins late because he had forgotten we'd arranged it for half an hour earlier, I still got my hour lesson though and luckily that didn't mess up my day. I wasn't sure if it was my mistake or his, but when he tried to get me to turn home only half way into the lesson I had to call him out on it! He was sorry.
As my quest to pass my driving test continued and I was finally going off into the tiny, busy roads around town, many people around me were passing and I wished it was as easy to get the full license as it is to get a provisional. Not that my provisional was that easy to get ahold of, my lovely green card with the big L on it did arrive after having sent the forms 2 times - but that was my error. I quite liked the picture I took of myself for it, although out of the three options I took there wasn't much to choose between. I had my eyes shut in one. Because my passport has ran out and I haven't been on holiday lately, I had to get a friends mother to vow that I am the real deal.
To get any further it would not be only about my driving, there is also the theory test to contend with and I booked mine for £17.50 (I think) on a Friday morning. Not only was my mum picking up the bill again, she gave me a lift into town to take the test - I did have to get a bus back though. I was quite nervous before this, which was funny because I never got nervous before any of my GCSE's. The layout of the test centre in Cambridge wasn't any help, because after going up many flights of stairs it was a maze of corridors following arrows before I found where I had to go.
Originally I was revising using my brothers out of date manuals, he has about three, and they're still in my room in fact propping up my alarm clock so I can see the time over the creases in my duvet. Luckily a friend of mine had his CD-ROM that BSM gave him when he was taking his theory, and that proved REALLY useful. The disc had all the questions that featured in the real test, as well as example Hazard Perception Tests. Getting that for free from a friend - bargain, or to quote Mastercard - 'priceless'.
Some questions are hard and some are easy, it all depends how much you've really paid attention to the road before you've revised for this test. One tip I can give is that you never give an answer that would show frustration, anger or not being rational - so you can never say use your horn basically. I got 34/35 on the questions, which I was really proud of. I was more worried about the Hazard test than anything though, and I was worried that I would mess up on one of the 15 clips they show (I think that's the right amount, correct me if I'm wrong). You're supposed to click whenever you see a developing hazard, and I clicked too many times on one clip meaning I got disqualified for that one, although as I recovered my things from the locker provided I had a slight inkling I would pass.
Before I say if I passed first time or not I will say that I got there about 20 minutes early for my test yet still went in immediately, and you have to sign some little screen to validate it's you as well as show all the paperwork they ask you to bring - don't you dare forget it! He pointed down a corridor and there was another quite elderly man standing behind a screen of glass where I could see many people taking their tests, and then he directed me to a computer and told me to wait whilst he sets up the test. It will come on the screen when it's ready, and you have the option of audio or not. Also at the end of the test they asked me some extra questions that didn't actually count towards the actual test, but I wish I hadn't agreed to answer them because they made the wait of finding out my result longer!
The same man who I had first met on entering the room hadn't me the piece of the paper over the desk folded up. He's not allowed to discuss the result with me, so as I exited the room I unfolded the paper and.... and...... I passed! Phew. One weight off my mind.
You're probably thinking what a lucky so-and-so for having my mum pay pretty much everything to do with my driving education, well my two older brothers didn't start learning until after they were 18 and that was when they had received their big 18th birthday pay off from my grandparents, but I wanted to be the member of my family to pass before everyone else and when/if I get my 18th birthday money obviously I will give my mum something nice with the money. She's brilliant, but at least she doesn't have to pay out every week anymore.
Christmas came and went bringing a few weeks off but then I was back with vengeance, if perhaps a bit of rust. What's the best way to shake the rust off? Spend the first 2 minutes of the lesson doing a lap of the village, then bring on the big bad world. With my theory test passed I was able to book my test for January 18th and that it would now be a race against the clock to perfect those manouevers.
THE BIG FOUR; turn in the road, reversing around a corner, bay parking and reverse park. Turn in the road is also well known as a three-point turn, although on your test you can do it in any amount of turns depending on the width of the road, the smaller the road the better it is to practice on for the real thing. Going in first gear, turning quickly, putting the handbreak on, putting the car into reverse, using mirrors, it all sounds a bit much but it is one of the easiest of the lot. Thing is I don't even do it properly now I've passed, and tend to hit the curb because I want to get around as quick as I can. I blame this fast lifestyle the world has transformed us all into!
Reversing around a corner is one of the two I had to do on my test, and it involves doing just as it says - reversing around a corner but staying as close to the curb as you can, and then reversing straight for a bit - although in my actual test he didn't make me reverse for long, but that's probably because I'd made some good mirror spots of people around me and I was also staying really close, so he must have noticed how great I am at it. My driving instructor tried to teach me a particular way of doing this but I found it easier just to do it my own way, just remember if you hit the curb you WILL fail your test. Also it can be a good idea to tilt the left hand mirror so you can see how close you are to the curb.
Bay parking I hate and never truly perfected, but who needs it? Luckily this didn't come up on my test.
Reverse park is the second of the two I did on my test and this may sound crazy, but it's one of my favourites. For those who don't know what it is, it's like parralel parking only you're just reversing in behind one car, not actually in between two cars. Going forward slightly passed the car and then reversing back before turning the steering wheel, then turning it the other way into a full lock I found it quite easy just using my mirrors and noticing when the right times to turn are. You don't have to be all that close to the curb either because you'll only get a minor, and not a major. On my test I actually adjusted what I did and that lead to me getting a minor he told me, because what I had done at the start first was better. When he said to me, "Tell me when you're finished" and I said in a worried tone I'm finished now, I thought I'd failed for sure - and this was only a few minutes in!
That's enough test preview though and I'll set the scene for January 18th, my test day, before talking you through the rest of the test. Laying in bed the night before I kept telling myself there's nothing to be worried about, if you fail - who cares? If you pass - well done. To be honest though I wasn't that nervous for the test, I was probably more nervous about my theory test, which is strange because I'm normally better at the mental side of things rather than the practical. There was always the possibility that my test could be cancelled though, which was a worry, even though my mum would get her close to £50 investment back - I just wanted to get it over and done with. Why would my test be cancelled you ask?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6272193.stm
You might remember that day now. The stormiest day of the year so far.
My instructor would pick me up at 8am, meaning I had to get up about 7.15 to get ready. That would give me time for an hour lesson before hand, then get to the test centre for my test at 9.17 (to be precise), and I'd paid to book the car and instructors time for 2 and a half hours (£50 in itself!). It was not until this last minute lesson that I did the emergency stop for the first time, and I didn't really get to grips with it - watch out if you see me on the road stopping suddenly - but because of the conditions of the day I was told I probably wouldn't have to do it anyone, but if I did just do it as best I can.
I had booked my test for so early in the day, not because I'm a morning person, but because of all the rumours that if you have your test earlier in the day you're more likely to pass and also you get an easier test. Also the earlier in the month you take your test, that's supposedly supposed to have an effect. All wives tales really, but I wasn't going to ignore them. The test centre was really daunting, especially as a lorry had parked opposite the entrance, meaning I had to go into the other lane and then turn into the centre where a queue of cars were already waiting on the slope behind the barrier. Getting in the centre my instructor advised me to reverse into the one space he could find, because at least then I wouldn't have to reverse out. He told me he wished we had a bit more time to practice some more, great way to boost my confidence, but I was planning on showing everyone I CAN drive, and I can do it WELL.
Sitting in a small waiting room along with 2 other people waiting to do their test I was told it's the worst feeling waiting for your name to be called out, but if you stay calm like I did then it shouldn't be. I was really relaxed at this point. Someone came in asking someones name, because their test conductor was caught in traffic and that would mean their test would have to be rearranged. How gutted I would be if that was me. Then came in the other two people who were going to conduct tests, and sure enough my name was called. I got quite a young bloke, and I tried to get on immediately with him - first impressions could help me pass afterall.
After showing him I really am who I say I am and signing a form, he led me out of the waiting area and to an area where you read out a car license plate to test your eyesight. I could swear he gave me the hardest one, as it ended in something like '0DO', I called him on how hard it was and we had a laugh about it before making the way to the car.
Then there's another formality that can get your minors before you even start up, and that's the 2 'Show Me, Tell Me' questions that you get asked about the car. On that BSM disc my friend gave me are the answers of the actual questions you get asked, and as well as my parents helping me and my instructor giving me an answer sheet they were quite easy to revise. I think the two I got asked were how can you check the oil level and how can you check your reverse lights are working.
Starting up, nerves kicked in, generating too much revving, but calming myself down and sorted that out quickly. About 5 times in the test, if not more, I was asked to pull over to prove I can pull up on the side of the road without hitting the curb and then start up again safely. I was you have to do it THAT many times in a test, but luckily that was quite a strong point of mine. I looked in my mirrors about every 3 seconds, and was always checking side mirrors when indicating and checking my blindspot over and over. I was NOT going to get failed on mirrors, unless it was for being too safe.
As I mentioned I did my reverse park early on in the test, and as I finished this the wind really started getting up and rain coming down. It wasn't until a few minutes into the rain getting worse that it hit me to turn my lights on! Another reason why I thought I'd failed. Then, with it being bad weather, I met a lot of traffic because people were out in their cars. I emerged into the traffic easily because someone was nice enough to let me in. In fact people were REALLY nice to me whilst I was on my test, letting me across and all sorts on my test - they must have seen the guy in the bright yellow jacket. They were never this nice when I was learning. Of course I couldn't put my hand up to thank them to flash them because that's also a fail, apparently.
The tester wasn't going to make me hang around in the traffic for to long and asked me to turn off. It's funny how they speak like robots, at the start you get the lecture on how just go straight ahead unless he says so, it's all very professional. I did my reversing around a corner close to a section of mini roundabouts and when doing them I actually got a minor for not checking properly, but that would only be one of 6 I would tot up. I was scared of failing because I was going too fast, so often I found myself going 5mph below the speed limit, and for that I got 3 minors! Shocking, but at the end of the test he told me that he understands why I was probably going so slow. Not a bad guy to take a test with really.
I thought I'd failed so when the tester turned to me and said you've passed the biggest smile in the world overcame me, and my instructor looked on shocked not thinking I would pass. He took my provisional away and told me a new full license would be posted to me, which I've not received and it's nice and pink! As he opened the door I also opened my door to let my instructor in to drive home (you're not allowed to drive home whether you've passed or failed because you're not in the right state of mind or something) and as that happened a gust of wind came through the car sending my pass certificate flying out of the car. Just my luck! How embarrassing. My certificate only got a little wet though, so it was still useable if the cops pulled me over.
Getting home I was so happy. It was such a great feeling, better than sex, and Jan 18th is now probably my second favourite day of my life - after my last day of school. I had no idea I'd be as happy as I was, shouting that I'd passed to the rooftops of my house. It takes a long, long time to sink in that you're now going to be driving on your own and it's pretty much only just sunk in now - exactly a month since I passed.
What final pieces of advice can I give? - Stay calm - Be confident - Get your theory over and done with quickly - Don't put pressure on yourself - Try to pass when you're young, it's easier
The journey of learning to drive is now over for me, and it was about as long as this review, but I hope I've given a good read and helped a few people in the process. I'm so glad that I'm never going to hear the words, "Don't flap," from my instructor when I'm not in a very good mood - and when you pass you will be too.
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Excellent Review
I really enjoyed reading that, My test is very soon and I am really, really worried. I dont feel ready although my instructor thinks I am. What makes it worse is the fact that many of my mates have passed there test despite that there younger than me :(
stevencozens34 30.04.2007 21:45
Useful tips and excellant detail. Worth reading.
grapesoda 12.04.2007 19:17
Congrats on passing! I HATE driving though and I'll be staying off the roads. x
Feb 18th, 2007
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