Sarah Louise: Learning to drive?

I am currently learning to drive with the driving school BSM and I wanted to share my experience and my advice and tips for anyone that is thinking about learning to drive too. In the UK you have to be 17 before you can start learning to drive in a car and you can apply for your provisional 3 months before your 17th birthday.

Choosing the right instructor and driving school for you?
I am currently on my 4th driving instructor and my third driving school. When you are looking for who you want to learn to drive with try and know more about the school or a particular driving instructor before you book with them.

My first driving instructor was a man called Burt and he had taught my friend and her mum and loads of people in my area and I had heard good reviews about him. He was a good teacher but when I went on holiday he decided that he didn't want to teach me any longer and he sort of disappeared. I then had a two hour driving lesson with Edgar from the AA driving school. He was an okay driving instructor but he just didn't suit me and to book more lessons with them you could only do it by calling them and you couldnt book more on the day.

I then moved onto BSM with the driving instructor Abbey. He was literally the worst driving instructor ever! He was always late (once even half an hour late), he took me on really busy and scary roads on our second lesson together, he took over the driving if I made a mistake and he was just very moody and he had anger management issues. So I changed my instructor to Michael and he is such a better instructor and he makes driving alot easier for me and he suits my driving needs alot more than the others did.

So please do read into what driving schools are around your area and if you have any doubts in your mind about a particular instructor change them or dont book with them.

Prices?
At the moment I am paying for 6 lessons at once which costs around £160 but if you wanted to pay for 2 hour lessons at a time it costs £55 pounds with my instructor. Some driving school have deals on where you can get your first lesson for free and you can pay for 6 hours or 10 hours at a time. However different driving schools have different deals on and they have different prices so research the different schools and look into the different pricing options before you book your first lesson.

Booking your theory?
When booking your theory you need to make sure that you are revised and that you do mock tests so that you are 100% ready for it. Also make sure that you book your theory test as soon as possible for you because without doing it you will not be able to take your practical test and when you do your theory test you can focus on your practical. When you do your theory test there are two different categories: the multiple questions and the hazard perception test. So make sure that you are ready for this by doing mock tests or reading books to revise.

Books?
I would recommend that you buy the highway code book because it is so helpful and you can find out what the different signs on the road mean and you can read about motorways and about car distances. This costs £2.50 from Waterstones. You can also use this book to revise and get ready for your theory test because you might not know what certain road markings or signs mean so it is a must read.

Another good book is the theory test for car drivers which cost £7.99 from Waterstones. There are 14 different sections within this book and in each section are a number of questions that they ask you that could come up in your theory test. You can tick the boxes that you think is the correct answer and then you can find the answers at the book of the book so you can see what ones you got right and the ones that you got wrong you can revise that question and then you can go back and do the test again and see if you got the ones that you got wrong last time right.

Apps?
I have got two apps on my phone from BSM which are the theory test and the hazard perception test. On the theory test app you can do the theory test which tells you at the end if you would of passed or failed and then you can review your questions and see what ones you answered correctly and what ones you didn't. However if you dont feel ready to do your theory test you can review the questions which gives you the answers or take the practice test and you can look through this until you feel ready to take the mock test.

The hazard perception test there are 15 clips and they have all different environments and hazards that come up. You have to click on each hazard as soon as it comes up but if you click too many times, not too many times or too quickly it could give you a zero score even if you have clicked on the correct hazard. At the end of the clip it will give you the chance to view how many points you would of gotten on that clip and you can also view the solution to see what hazards come up.