Free Driving Knowledge Base

You cannot start to learn to drive a car until your provisional driving licence has been accepted and is in your possession. Generally you won’t be able to learn to drive until you are 17, but if you are in receipt of the higher rate of disability allowence you can start to learn how to drive when you reach your 16th birthday. You are allowed to apply for your licence up to 2 months before your licence is due to start. But you are not allowed to drive on the road until your licence has arrived and not until you have turned 17 (or 16 if that applies to you.) To apply you will need to fill in an application form, which you can get from most post offices – it is a D1 form.

Finding an instructor and booking a lesson:

When you are looking for an instructor it might be worth asking around friends and family first to see if they can suggests anyone. Whilst there are many very good instructors out there, like with everything, there will be ones who just want the money off you and don’t give you what you need/want. If there aren’t any that people can recommend then there will be lots in the phone book. Ring up plenty of driving schools. You will probably want to know what car they use (manual or automatic), what length of lessons they do, when do they do them (evenings and weekends?)The cost for a normal lesson and then do they do any student discount, discount for multiple bookings etc. Check how they charge for the test day (do they charge for 2 hours or however long you are out for, or are there special test fees?) Do they do any theory tuition? There will be some schools that you like the sound of more than others. Book one lesson with one of them and see how it goes. Don’t get talked into block booking lessons with them to start with, whilst you do save in the long term paying for 10 lessons in one go – or whatever their offer is, if you decide you want to swap after a couple of lessons with them, you wont have saved anything! Some people will be fine with the first instructor they go with, and others won’t. It is your money though, and you are paying them, so if you aren’t happy with them you can swap after as many or as few lessons as you want.

EDIT: Just adding a point in here. There are alot of questions from people about if the AA/BSM etc are better than other driving schools. There is going to be mixed opinon on this one! AA and BSM, along with other driving schools and individual instructors have to pass the various parts needed to come an instructor. I think the AA only use fully qualified instructors (with a green badge) some places use partly qualified instructors (with a pink badge.) This doesn’t mean that a pink badge instructor won’t be good, just that they aren’t full qualified yet. You can always request that you have a green badge instructor if you want anyway. But, going to the AA/BSM is no guarantee of quality. There will be good instructors and bad instructors anywhere you go. Most places will give discount for block booking, student discount etc. I’m not trying to tell anyone to go/or not to go to the big companies, just don’t assume they will be the best and don’t try ringing any others. Personally I woudn’t have gone with them on principle, as I didn’t see why they should charge more for different postcodes and why they had to charge me about £6 more per hour than any other company.

Book your first lesson for a time when you are happy with it. It might be best having it from and to home to start with, people often have them to/from school, college etc, but it means that you won’t have friends watching.

Instructors will have dual controls (clutch and brake) and they can use the gear stick and handbrake from their side of the car, and will even turn the wheel if it is needed, so really they can do most things to control the car – except accelerate. Instructors should be calm etc during lessons, and take everything at the individuals pace – but like teachers at school, some will be better at it than others. You shouldn’t stay with an instructor if you don’t feel comfortable with them, don’t like their teaching style etc.

The First Lesson:

Generally, although I know this can vary, the first lesson will be spent on quiet roads learning the basics of the car. If you already know this then tell them, but a lot of people won’t, so they will explain how the car works – the brake, clutch, accelerator, how to change gear. The handbrake, indicators, lights etc. They will show you how to start the car and move off, most people will then have a drive around quiet roads just learning how the car feels when it is moving etc.

Learning to drive:

I think the DSA quote that it takes about 30 hours on average for people to learn to drive. Don’t worry if you take longer than this! Everybody is different and will learn at different paces. You will get there in the end if you stick at it! If you are only have 1 hour a week, you will obviously take alot longer to learn than someone having a 2 hour lessons &/or driving with parents at home.

During the lessons you will learn all the things that you need to pass your test. You will learn how to turn left and right, and deal with big junctions. Learn how to do roundabouts, dual carriageways, country roads, busier roads (near schools, shops etc.) You will also learn the manoeuvres needed for your test, these will be turn in the road, parallel park, reverse round the corner, emergency stop (and maybe the bay park – depending on which test centre you will be using – they don’t all require this one.) See the links and info below about the manoeuvres.

Driving with Parents (or friends):

Alot of people will want to drive other than just lessons, alot of this is personal preference. Generally it is probably a good idea to have some lessons with an instructor, just to check that what parents etc are saying is right, things could have changed alot since they passed. Your parents may well be good drivers, but not know how you should do the manoeuvres for them to be test standard etc. Although, having said that – its up to the individual. If you are driving another car, you will need to be insured on it, have L plates showing on the car, and can only go out with another driver who has held a full licence for 3 or more years.

Personally, I couldn’t afford insurance long term, but had a week before I took a test, but I found that I struggled to get used to my mums car and it really knocked my confidence. If you can, it might be worth picking an instructor with the same car as your parents.

Theroy Test:
You can take your theroy test as any point after you are 17 (and when you have your provisional licence.) Although it is only valid for 2 years so there is no point taking it if you aren’t planning on learning to drive fairly soon afterwards. Also, it can be easier if you have some lessons before you do it, then you will already be aware of some of the signs, roads markings etc and will have started to develop some sense of hazard awareness.

It is currently £21.50 for the theory test.

There are two parts to the theroy test, the set of MCQs (pass mark 30/35) and the hazard perception (pass mark 44/75) …..

The hazard perception part
With the hazard perception, you need to click whenever there is a hazard developing, something which could cause the driver to have to slow down, change direction etc. Without seeing the clip you mean, I’m not sure what it was, but the driver may have been slowing down as they came up behind the bike – meaning that you needed to. Were you coming towards the it? You might have needed to move road position to let the cother car have enough room to go round.

You want to avoid clicking too much, or in a pattern. Click when you see a hazard coming up and then when you get closer to it. For example, you are coming up to a parked car – click – the car may move away, someone open the door, you need to move around it, etc. When you get closer to it (they may then start to open a door etc) click again! I found that otherwise I was often clicking too early – before the hazards had developed enough. You want to try and ‘look ahead’ down the road so that you can see what is coming towards you – like you would when you are driving, so that you see things as they are developing rather than just when you are on top of them. There will be one clip on the test that has two hazards rather than one, so dont worry about clicking for more than one thing – just dont get to clicker happy!

It is worth getting a CD to practice on, alot of it is just getting the knack right for what they actually want you to click on – just practice loads on the disc and look at the feedback they give you as to what you should have clicked on. I found the actual thing easier than the practice disc that I had been using.

MCQ Questions:
There is a huge bank of questions from which the questions for the theroy part are taken – this means that you could end up with a range of questions – and they will be different for each person and each time that they take it. There can be questions on road signs, (there will be a picture of a sign and options for what it means.) Questions about braking distances (best thing with these is just to learn them!) Questions about first end things (only basic though), for example there is a motorcyclists on the road after an accident, what is the priority,? Talking to witnesses, maintaining his airway, trying to pull his helmet of etc… Questions about pedestrian crossings.

The best thing is to get a copy of the highway code and know your road signs and read through them. You can get practice CDs and books with all the questions in.