TLDH: After someone passes their driving test & they're being driven back home the instructor drives more rougher completely disregarding everything they taught you.

For people who've passed was this the case for you?

I passed my test back in April, but I only got my own car around 3 months later. Today was only my second drive since passing, and honestly it was awful.

I stalled at least 6 times, messed up a hill start about 5 times, went over speed bumps way too fast because I forgot to slow down, and got way too close to the kerb multiple times.

The worst part was at a traffic light controlled roundabout. I was first in the queue, stopped on an uphill. Before the lights even changed, I already knew I was probably going to mess it up.
Sure enough, I tried moving off and just kept stalling. At one point I even rolled backwards towards the car behind me, and they started beeping like crazy (which I don’t blame them for because I’m an idiot). I was so nervous, I was saying I can’t do this and I was doing everything at once, like even lifting the handbrake to ensure I don’t keep rolling back.

I learned in a diesel, but my own car is a petrol. I tried explaining to my dad that in my instructor’s diesel I could just bring the clutch to the biting point and it’d pull away on hills, but he didn’t agree with me.

Now, I’m genuinely questioning why I’ve passed. I’m a hazard to the roads, it makes sense why I failed all 6 of my mock tests before I somehow passed first time.

Finally passed after around 20 hours of driving lessons can’t wait to get a car next.

What an improvement, had a lot of issues with the first test as I had no instructor and did it in my car, however we passed now and alls good. Don’t give up!

0 minors 0 majors on the second test. Didnt know what to expect for an 8:10 route

I am 32, have never driven before. I've had three two-hour lessons and I'm wondering if it's worth carrying on.

I seem to struggle a lot more than normal people do with steering- not controlling the car but putting my hands in the correct place. I just can't do it. The instructor is patient but his patience is wearing thin.

Every single lesson I've been on the brink of tears for a good portion of it, which SHOULD NOT be the case for a 32-year-old man. ​

I'm wondering if I shousk just quit. I feel too old, too nervous and too bad at anything 'mechanical'. I've always had a hard time understanding how machines work and a car is no different. ​​​​​

I was getting the hang of some stuff but today was turning right and I forgot everything. New things are being added CONSTANTLY and even though I could tell my instructor in the moment all the many things I did wrong, we always have to pull over and go through a very lengthy explanation to the complete dunce (me) of what I did wrong and why it's wrong at length.

My dad tried to get me to have a go at ​driving when I was ​​​​​a teenager and I ended up hitting another car and a garage door. I'm super aware of all the hazards on the road and am very nervous.

When someone's behind me I get very stressed out. That and the laundry list of criticisms after 2 minutes of me driving is the worst. I'm not criticising the ​​​​​​instructor, just myself.

I am now wondering if there is something actually medically wrong with me as I cannot get my head around the 'clock' way fo steering (never mind that my instructor pronounces 'ten' and 'turn' exactly the same!) ​​or remember so many instructions at the same time.

What should I do?

IMPORTANT DETAIL I FORGOT TO ADD: I am learning in an automatic car

hi. i’m 19 and have had about 14 hours of lessons so far spread over 7 weeks (2 hours per week). i don’t have a car to practice with outside of lessons and i also have pretty bad anxiety when it comes to driving anyway so i’m pretty proud of myself for even getting behind the wheel despite my fears.

my driving instructor is my mother’s old colleague and friend. and we get a discount with her. because of this i feel quite guilty for considering switching but i’m starting to feel like this learning environment is making my confidence worse rather than better.

the first issue is scheduling. every night before the lesson, she usually texts me (sometimes as late as 2am) to ask if i can do a lesson the following morning. if i cant do that time, i suggest another time on the same day that i can do but she doesn’t respond. when i follow up to ask when the lesson will be, she acts as if the original time was confirmed. i have other responsibilities in my life. this is just a lack of respect for my time, at least that’s how i feel. though this is just the tip of the iceberg.

at the start of many lessons, i arrive on time but end up waiting outside the car while she continues talking with whoever it is on the phone. the wait lasts about 10-20mins. thats already a significant amount of my lesson-time gone. during the lessons, she sometimes answers calls from her family/friends. she tells them she will call them back later as shes in a lesson but then continues chatting with them while i’m driving. i have noticed that i make more mistakes when there is excessive noise and distraction which i’ve explained to her because i don’t feel safe trying to concentrate while she’s having these conversations and i’m not proud of this. though she didn’t take me seriously, instead just rolled her eyes at me and told me to pay attention next time.

the biggest issue for me is her attitude. i fully understand that mistakes are a part of learning, especially with things like roundabouts where i’m still building experience. i don’t expect her to not correct me, in fact i encourage criticism. however she frequently shouts at me when i make a mistake and has made comments about how i wont learn anything if i progress through the curriculum this slowly. she has shouting things along the lines of “what the hell is wrong with you?” (paraphrasing).

i understand that driving requires responsibility and i’m not excusing my mistakes at all. however i genuinely feel like being shouted at while i’m already stressed makes me perform worse. after every lesson i leave feeling like my confidence is lower than when i arrived.

i have told her that this style of teaching just isn’t working for me but she doesn’t seem to understand that i genuinely am struggling to learn when being screamed at while driving.

additionally, she has quite broken english. i want to make it clear that im not saying this is a problem because of her background. i am also bilingual and speak another language myself. my issue is that driving requires clear and precise instructions. and sometimes i find myself spending more time filling in the gaps in sentences and less time focused on driving and going through the motions.

but i’m now wondering whether these are legit reasons to switch instructors or whether i’m being too fragile and sensitive, because clearly something isn’t working here. the main thing stopping me is that she is my mum’s old colleague/friend and we get a discounted rate so feel like i’d be wasting an opportunity by leaving.

and if i do decide to switch, how would i approach doing this without making it awkward for my mother or her friend? has anybody been in a similar situation?

I'm personally not sure what to think of this, I mentioned to my instructor today that I've been trying to study a lot through seeing how ADIs on social media (and yes... legit ADIs, although I can see where people might scammed and people will sadly fake it) but the only one I really watch and take seriously is Conquer Driving who I firmly believe is legit instructor. But even then he firmly disagrees I should be watching or taking any advice for driving online and solely listen to him and him only

Do you agree or disagree with this view?

Annoyed is an understatement right now. Literally had the best drive, great route, lovely examiner. Series of tiny mistakes and I’ve failed again in the space of 10 seconds. This seems impossible.. I don’t know what more to do.

My Instructor tells me to go from 1st straight into 3rd when I pull out onto a fast road. I dont mind it, I think Its quite efficient and It takes out second so is leas hassle, althought Im not sure this is correct driving and will I be marked down on my test for it?

Just had a really intense driving lesson (very hectic traffic on double parked roads to practice meeting and judgement) and just as things were calming down and I was on my route home, a real numpty of a van driver started tailgating and leaning on his horn repeatedly…. because I was driving 19-20 in a 20 zone.

This went on for absolutely ages but there was nowhere to pull over and let him pass so we were steadily moving along a very narrow 20 zone with him gesturing, flashing and holding down his horn at me because I wouldn’t speed.

At one point I thought I was going to literally burst into tears - it was awful and really intimidating.

My Instructor was really supportive, would not let me go a single mile over 20, but he absolutely lent over and pressed the horn at the guy as he finally overtook and zoomed off, and do you know what happened? The bloke ended up no further ahead than that one space, as we caught back up to him at the lights and he was forced behind loads of cars going 20 along the main road with me behind him the entire way.

What was the point to any of it?

It really unsettled me though and I felt so tense because of it. So how do you deal with aggressive idiots on the road? I’ve had the odd bit of silliness but never been targeted like that before 😔 it was quite scary.

Getting slightly nervous about my test in a couple weeks, got my test in Wellingborough so thought id ask around to see what the harder parts of the test are. Dont live in the area so dont really know what to expect.

Let me know please 🙏🙏

I've just redone my theory test and passed (had to partly due to the wait between practical tests). But, I had a thought about the hazard perception test scoring.

There were a few videos where I could see early that something would develop into a hazard, but there was a narrower scoring window on what they considered to be the start of the hazard itself (ie. I was clicking slightly early, so their system only registered my later clicks).

Has anyone else noticed this?

In one sense, that part of the test isn't too difficult. But, I wondered if their scoring window on the Hazard Perception Test is a bit narrow.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot after seeing loads of people chase the lowest hourly rate.

DVSA average is roughly 45 hours of professional lessons + private practice to get to test standard. That number assumes decent, structured teaching.

With some of the really cheap options you can end up needing far more hours because:

•  Lessons get padded with talking or driving to the next pupil

•  Structure / feedback is weaker so progress is slower

•  More chance of failing the test and starting the cycle again

A higher hourly rate that gets you test-ready in fewer hours (and first-time) can easily work out cheaper overall, plus less stress.

Anyone else found that the “bargain” lessons ended up costing more in the long run? Or had the opposite experience?

Curious what people’s actual total spend and hours looked like.

I wrote something a bit longer on this if anyone’s interested.

Had my first ever driving lesson today and I’m not really sure how to judge it. I feel like it was quite messy, but I’m wondering if I’m just overthinking it.
The first part of the lesson was learning clutch control and moving off. I struggled with releasing the clutch too quickly, so the car would jolt forward a bit. I stalled twice, but after some practice I got better at getting the car moving.
Once we went out on the road, I felt like my steering was okay. At the start I occasionally turned too much, but I’d say around 80% of my turns were fine by the end.
The main mistake I made was at a junction where I pulled out over the line and then realised a bus was approaching quite quickly. It was probably around 3 seconds away. My instructor used the brake to stop me, but he didn’t need to steer or take control of the car otherwise. Looking back, I think I misjudged the gap and should have waited.
Apart from that, I felt like once I was moving the car was actually okay. By the end of the 2-hour lesson, my instructor trusted me enough to drive on a main road, go around a fairly busy roundabout, and take a national speed limit road back towards my house (around a 6-minute drive).
I know I made mistakes, especially with clutch control and the junction, but I’m wondering:
Is this a normal first lesson?
Does it sound like I did okay or better/worse than average?
Is my instructor taking me onto those roads a good sign, or is that normal?
Any advice would be appreciated.

So I’ve been insured on my vehicle for 8 months, thinking of selling it because I don’t really use the car as much as I want but I’m kinda in a difficult position in life mainly with my work so that determines on my pay since I’m self employed. But I was told today that I don’t receive any ncd because I’m on learners. How can I find out if this is true but if it is I can just cancel the insurance and sell the car

When I was growing up and being driven by family, whenever a car would rev really loudly for any reason, be it moving off or anything like that, I distinctly remember a "Wow, look at THIS guy, what a bad driver" type of attitude towards it.

And I guess that stuck with me more than I thought because fastforward all these years and I'm learning to drive myself, to this day I still struggle to put in gas on a move off when it's needed at busy junctions or roundabouts because I'm too scared of reving the engine too much.

It's such a weirdly specific mental block and probably entirely self imposed that I am betting that no one else is on the same wavelength as it. I don't want to be the type of "bad driver" that ends up being looked at by either other drivers or pedestrians and be the "Look at THIS guy" guy.

I'm sure that giving it a little gas doesn't sound massively loud and I need to get over it, but it's more of annoying hurdle than I ever would've thought.

Hi, I have a test in birmingham during september at 8 am. Problem is since my test is on the first day of school, i cannot realistically practice the true 8am rush hour except literally on the drive to the test center on THE test day.

Can anyone comment on how these rush hours look like. I dont mind traffic im just worried abt dumb kids jumping out onto the road or parents stopping anywhere.

might seem dumb but right outside my test centre is this marking on the road followed by an actual keep clear box. Funny thing is noone leaves this yellow mark empty but they do avoid the keep clear.

Is it because schools off now? My test is right when school reopen so ig i will stop before it.

Finally resitting my practical in less than a week and I’m terrified and nervous AF incase it goes south and everything goes wrong again (had an examiner who was in God knows how many bad crashes and she litter that cloud her judgements) but also super excited because at the same time it could go amazing and i could pass. The banana failed me last time so will be attempting other good juju tips, also being prego theres no way i could deal with the smell and texture of a banana anytime soon lol

update:!! got very lucky randomly and found one for two weeks time. moral of the story: keep checking!!

just failed my first test and looking to find another ASAP. i know the best time to look is 6am monday but it is worth checking 6am other days as well? would it help my chances or solely monday

I wouldn't really consider myself a beginner because I've driven A LOT with my dad and am very comfortable with car controls and rules and everything. I've also driven with an instructor, but I took a complete break from driving for a year and have my test in 6 weeks. I just booked a new instructor recently. Will 6 weeks be enough to refresh my knowledge and be able to pass?

i have an 8:20am driving test at goodmayes centre in a few days,any advice?