Advice on driving lessons for DD please

daveyjp

Number of lessons depends on the learner, but from my dads experience of 20+years teaching those having two lessons a week pass quicker.

Local recommendation is the only way to go. My dad has never advertised, but he is always busy. Tell your daughter to make a note of which instructors she sees around the area, busy ones will be seen all the time.

Avoid any she sees regularly out teaching late on a Sunday evening - no instructor should be that desperate for work!

southernscouser

Bloody hell! :eek:

Admittedly this is ten years ago (bloody hell, I'm officially getting old if I can say that) but I paid £13 a lesson. I had around 20 hours worth of lessons! :think:

sophisticated.

1. I had about 50 lessons I think, I passed second time (4 months after my 17th birthday.) My mum can't drive so I very rarely drove outside of my lessons. It was £160 for 10 lessons (this was in 2007).
2. I went with a local school
3. I did my theory test at the end of January and took my first test in March.
4. The official DSA CD-ROM was the best as the exact same questions were asked in the real thing! I had full marks on my theory

dizzy_izzy:::

As a former driving instructor, my advice:

* Check that the instructor is fully qualified, some instructors will be working on a trainee badge, this means they will have passed a Hazard Perception Test and Multiple Choice Question test, an advanced driving test and had 20 hours tuition in how to teach people to drive, this may be there first lesson.
Now for the scarey fact, Without mentioning company names, a well known national driving school has quite a few trainee instuctors but you wont be told if your instructor is a trainee and will end up paying the same hourly rate as a qualified driving instructor.
How to tell if your instructor is qualified:
All driving instructors, qualified or not, should display a licence displayed on the windscreen:
Trainees have a pink licence (Valid for 6 months)
Qualified instructors have a green licence
The average pass rate for trainee driving instructors on the final exam, test of instructional ability is roughly 1 in 3.

* Virtually all driving instructors are self employed. Instructors working for schools such as BSM and the AA are working under franchise, however there are some benefits and drawbacks with franchised versus independant instructors:
1. Schools such as the AA or BSM accept payments by credit card or debit card, independant instructors are less likely to take payment by card.
2. Independant instuctors are normally cheaper
3. It can be easier to make bookings with AA/BSM as you can contact the office, rather than tring to get hold of the individual instuctor
4. BSM/AA will normally be able to substitute a new driving instuctor if normal instructor is ill or stops working or if the instructors car develops a fault
5. My personal opinion is that independant instuctors are more likely to provide better value for money lessons as there own personal reputation is at stake, but this is my own opinion (I use to work for a franchised school and then moved to independant)

With regards to independant practice drive with you, I would recommend asking the instructor as they will advise the best timing and areas of driving that need more practice.

I used to recommend to my students to take the theory test after around 4-6 lessons, this helps to put the theory to practice and will help with the Hazard Perception Test in particular.

Make sure that if you buy theory CD's or books that they have been endorsed by the Driving Standards Agency as they set the test.

With regards to the number of lessons, typically at 17 must students would take somewhere between 20-35 hours of tuition, but a good instructor should be able to give a guide after the first 3-4 lessons.