What are the Licence Requirements?
You will need to have either a valid UK Provisional or Full Driving Licence to cover the vehicle tuition is being given for. This requires a minium of category "B" to be covered.
IMPORTANT: You must have both parts of the licence, the photocard and paper part.
You must be 17 years old or over.
How many lessons will I need?
This depends on the individual. Our average is 30 hours per pupil to pass the test. However we would strongly recommend a minimum of 35 hours as the more driving hours you have with tuition the less is your risk of an accident in the early months after passing your test.
The DSA recommend even more, over 45 hours for the same reason. In addition we would recommend taking the Pass Plus not just because it reduces the cost of your insurance, but because it greatly reduces your risk of an accident in the early months after passing your test.
You can greatly improve your skill and experience if you can do some private practise in addition to the tuition lessons. We will give you guidelines and recommendations on what practise you should do privately if you have this opportunity.
Why might I fail my practical test?
There are lots of reasons why this my occur. Here is a non comprehensive list of some of the more common reasons:
- Unduly nervous: The more relaxed you are about the test the better your chance of passing. Try to treat the test as a lesson with a different instructor, or you are going for a drive, you need to get from A to B but don't know the way... your passenger (the examiner) knows the way and can direct you, although he may get a bit lost occasionally and you find you have to turn around or park up. It helps to do some mock tests and if you feel you are particularly likely to be nervous its beneficial to do a mock test with a different instructor. We provide this service.
- Peer or Self-inflicted pressure to pass: This is common with young men, their mates put the pressure on. The best solution to this problem is; don't tell them when your test is, be relaxed for the test and don't worry whether you pass or fail. The more you worry about failing, the more likely you are to fail. Also make sure you are test ready do not let pressure from your friends push you into taking the test before you are ready.
- Not Test Ready: The most common reason for failing is that you are simply not test ready. The DSA recommend about 45 hours with a professional instructor (ADI) and as much private practise as you can. If you cannot drive for at least 45 minutes with no prompts (that's driving related instruction, not direction related) from your instructor/qualified passenger, then you are not test ready. Your Driver Record sheet needs to have a "5" in all categories before you are test ready.
- Drive the way your instructor taught you: Another cause of not passing the test is that on the test you drive in a manor that is different to the way your instructor taught you. A frequent mistake is to drive slower than usual, taking longer at junctions than normal, to the extent that traffic is held up without reason, taking to long to get up to speed resulting in other drivers having to, unnecessarily, slow down for you. This will result in a rapid accumulation of driver errors and an almost inevitable failed test. The only thing that could be worse is to drive too fast, with agressive braking or sharpe acceleration. Its a balance, the examiner wants a comfortable ride making good progress, keeping up with the flow of trafic without breaking any trafic regulations.
I am moving house and will be unable to continue my lessons. Can I get a refund?
Certainly, but the amount you will be refunded depends on the number of hours you have had and the course you were on. The refund is as follows:
If you paid for 10 hours but have had less than 10 hours (in other words this is your first 10 hour block booking) then the refund will be based on the total you paided for the 10 hours minus the number of hours tuition you had, charged at the single lesson rate.
If you paid for 20 hours but have had less than 20 hours but more than 10 hours then the refund will be based on the total you paided for the 20 hours minus the number of hours tuition you had, charged at the 10 hour course lesson rate.
If you paid for 20 hours and have had more than 20 hours then the refund will be based on the total you paided for the 20 hours minus the number of hours tuition you had, charged at the 20 hour course lesson rate.
So in this example the learner completed 24 hours of lessons, that was a 10 hour course which they completed and then a 20 hour course that they did not complete. The refund will be:
24 - 1.5 - 10 = 12.5 hours of 20 hour course completed (the 1.5 is the assessment lesson)
So in this case the 20 hours cost £240 so the refund is based on the 20 hour rate, as more than 20 hours have been completed. Therefore refund is:
(20 - 12.5) x 240 / 20 = £90