Driving Lessons Progress

One of the most frequently asked questions a provisional driving licence holder starting lessons wants to know the answer to, is how do I know that I am making progress with my instructor?

Because individuals learn at different paces, the number of driving lessons taken is no indicator of what stage one should be at, rather the learner driver needs to assess on a daily basis what they have gained during each tuition session.

Every DSA qualified instructor should be following a structured approach to your lessons, this would include introducing the new skill, offering a briefing, then a full talk through allowing you to practically try the skill out yourself. Having had a few practises of trying the new skill with your instructor's full talk through, you should now progress to a stage where you only need to be prompted to do the newly learnt skill. With practise you will soon get to a stage where you only need to be prompted once in a while and still be able to do things at the dsa standard. This is a sign of progress.

Lets take an example of doing the turn in the road exercise, before you start this manuever, your instructor should have taught you how to reverse a car and use clutch control both going forward and backwards.
The driving lesson briefing will explain to the learner usually with the aid of diagrams how the exercise should be carried out, the main safety concerns and the expected standard you are striving to achieve.



During the talk through stage, the instructor gives you a step by step guide in performing the turn in the road, starting with Preapring, Observations, moving off, steering the vehicle, approching other side of road, etc.

After 2 or more attempts depending on the indiviual, you will now move to the prompted stage, and if this goes well, then you will have learnt how to carry out this exercise.
Progress would now mean that on the next few lessons you will carry out the 3 point turn in the same location, move to a slightly more busy road, learning how to deal with traffic, from there you should also gain experience doing the manuever at night (if possible), on hill or downhill.

So if after a few lessons on this manuever, and you only carry it out in the same road, are still having full talk through, don't full understand reference points, then your progress is not as it should be, and you and your instructor need to address any issues that is preventing you from moving on.



With a bit of practice and time, you should have enough experience and confidence to pass the driving test, remembering, one step at a time.

If you require high quality affordable driving lessons from a very helpful, patient and fully qualified instructor, then why not call or send me a text message on 07956233032

Thinking about becoming an instructor? Don't just make a decision based on the red driving school TV advertisement, do the proper research and know all the ADI training options available to you.

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