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Driving Lessons in Grantham.  Driving Lessons in Peterborough.

If you are about to start learning to drive, then I have some advice for you; take a look through the following, and pay particular attention to the bits that really affect YOU.  I will say from the outset that it is very important to recognise that you are the most important person to consider, and some time and effort spent right at the start, identifying a training provider that can meet your needs, will be so beneficial to you.

    1.        Learning Styles

We all learn new things at different rates and in different ways.  If we ENJOY the subject matter, then we will probably learn faster, as we will be more inclined to give it our full attention, for longer, and be more willing to ‘engage’ with the content.  How we like to learn is equally important to consider, for instance do you know if you like:

• 1:1 training or learning in a group
• to be shown and told what to do and given the opportunity to repeatedly practise it until you get it completely correct or given the chance to experiment and make your own progress
• constant feedback of what you are doing well and not so well, or do you prefer to reflect on your progress yourself
• calmness when learning or are you happy to learn fast and intensely
• your learning to be goal orientated, planning in sessions to meet timescales, or do you prefer to have no time pressure at all
• do you like to build up mutual trust and respect with your trainer, or do you like to distance yourself from your trainer
• time intervals between training to allow you to relax and reflect, or do you prefer more steep learning done over a shorter period of time
• a ‘softly softly’ approach to your learning, or are you happy to get really stuck in, straight away

Just pause for a minute, and think of something that you have recently learnt, and try to identify which of the above relates to you.  You may be learning a language, a musical instrument, how to ski, how to read/write.... whatever it is, there will be preferences that you have, you just need to identify them.

    2.        Learning Techniques  

This is the method of learning that you prefer, the actual way you do it.  Let me give some examples for you to consider what you like:

• to be given very clear direction of what to do, do you need to see, hear, feel how something is done before you attempt it, or do you just like to give it a go and you’ll see how it goes
• complete silence while you concentrate, or do you like to talk to yourself when you are learning something, or do you like someone nearby to give you constant reassurance
• to make the learning personal to you, otherwise you just wont get it, you need the learning points to be meaningful to you personally, or are you happy to follow a more general approach to the learning
• to be given the opportunity to see/hear how you are doing by way of a recording, or do you prefer to be told from your trainer how you are progressing
• to have very definite, little chunks of learning and see how each bit fits into the bigger picture, or simply go with the flow, and learn in no particular structure
• to practise on your own without your trainer, or do you only like to learn with your trainer present

    3.        Scope of Learning

The extent to which you want to learn.  Think about what you like for the following:

• to really master the subject, you aim to be at least as good as your trainer
• to get to a standard that suits you, or do you prefer your trainer to set the standard
• to bring a sense of realism to your learning, you don’t want to just pass tests, you want to actually be good enough to use this new skill lots and lots
• to be quite choosy about which bits you intend to learn, or do you like to learn everything that your trainer introduces

I hope that has helped you be somewhat clearer on how you like your learning experiences.  This is important because it means that you will be more motivated to learn, you will learn more efficiently and the learning will be longer lasting.  When learning to drive, those factors affect how much it costs, how much of your time it takes to learn, and your safety; pretty important to you I imagine.

Now you have done all that hard work, you have armed yourself with the knowledge of how you need to go about learning to drive, to make it a successful experience to YOU.  Start talking to Driving Instructors and explore how many of these boxes they can tick for you.  Remember, this is about your needs,  it is a question of whether they are able to adapt to you, not for you to adapt to the way they do business.

Last bit of advice, do not rush that last job above, take your time, do not select who you talk to by how much they charge per hour, talk to them all, and then you will start to get a true picture of who works for their customer.

Happy hunting!

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