Frequency of Driving Lessons- www.BIGTOM.org.uk

Most Learners settle for one session a week for their driving lessons.  It was being done that way when I learnt how to drive 27 years ago, and it is still a popular way of doing it.  Let's look at how the frequency of your driving lessons can impact on your rate of learning.

The Driving & Vehicle Standards Agency are an independent organisation who oversee the standards of the driving test and the Examiners, and they tell us here that it takes on average 47 hours with a Driving Instructor to pass the test.  If you have clicked through to that link, you'll notice that they also include an average of 20 hours of private practice in a car, in between the driving lessons with a Driving Instructor.  

Now personally, and this is just my opinion, I am only speaking here for myself and no other Driving Instructor, my experience has shown me that if you pay attention to the frequency of driving lessons, duration of session, and this element of private practice then that can drive down that average figure of 47 hours.  

I make the above statement with the benefit of monitoring this over the 7 years I've been in business.  Let me expand on this a little:

A chap who recently learnt how to drive with me went to test yesterday, and passed first time with just 1 (minor) driving fault recorded by the examiner.  He was taking 2 hour lessons on a Friday morning (fitted in nicely with his diary), and he did 16 of those sessions.  So it took him personally 4 months to learn to drive.  About 2 months in to his course, he bought a car, and his Dad started taking him out in between lessons with me.  The family represents England in a form of martial arts and when they had a tournament or awards ceremony to attend, my Learner would drive to it.  These were proper journeys I'm talking about here, the Father would plan a route to avoid motorways (Learners are not legally allowed on them), and a 150 mile round trip journey was not unusual.

Another chap earlier in the year, did 30 hours of training over a 2 week period and passed comfortably first time.  He did no private practice in between lessons because he was fitting in 3 hours a day from Mon - Fri for 2 weeks.

So I know from my personal experience that duration of sessions, frequency of sessions and amount of private practice does have a bearing on efficiency of learning.  You would be simply amazed at the progress a Learner can make on my 20 hour, 5 day, Intensive Driving Course.  

But, and this is a big but, do not under-estimate the importance of your own personal attitude to learning to drive. It is crucial to identify what kind of learning style meets your personal learning preferences.  Some people like driving sessions to be short but often, others can handle longer sessions but less of them.  Knowing what will work for you personally is important.  And you need to be real about this, discover what will work for you then realise the consequences of that.  For instance, if you choose to do 1 hour per week for example, then you know from the DVSA that it will take you on average 47 weeks (with 20 hours private practice included) to pass the test.... about a year.  

So in summary, my advice is to consider your budget, consider your diary (what you can physically fit in your  ordinary week), whether you will have the opportunity to practice in between driving lessons, and most importantly, consider your learning preferences.  As a general guide for you, the shorter the period of time for the course, the longer the driving sessions = the more intense the training i.e. the more steep the learning curve.  Some people like that, some even strive on it, and some people will not like it one bit.

Just make sure that if you are selecting an Intensive Driving Course, that you are told before hand how much driving you will be guaranteed to do on that course.  It is a golden thread of my own courses that 'the more you drive, the more you experience, the more you learn'.  Doing a 5 day course for example with driving for 20 hours having had no other previous driving experience will be just the start of the learning process.

I hope this has been useful to you?  Please feel free to add comments or questions below or at least 'grade' your reaction in one of the boxes below.

BIG TOM Driving School  Intensive Driving Course in Stamford, Spalding, Peterborough, Grantham, Sleaford and Boston 0800 689 4174