Out of curiosity was it much easier to pass back then? Since your kiddos have learnt to drive I imagine you are qualified to answer that for me! I've had conflicting information from people who learnt to drive then, some saying it was an awful lot easier as it was less strict and there were less cars on the road, others saying it was just "harder in general". (I have seen you have sort of answered that in other replies now

)
I wouldn't say so because I had mates (who I thought were better than me) who failed over & over.
You'd get stupid things like they failed because they didn't keep up with traffic which meant they would have to do 35 in a 30 zone and then the next time they failed because they did keep up with traffic.
We didn't have written test but instead a few questions after the test which I buggered up big style.
Can you read the number plate on that lorry?
Eh J eh K er L don't know eh maybe 3
It's JKL 303C
Oh I thought you meant the lorry way up there
When driving in the countryside what do you have to look out for?
Other cars?
No
Lorries?
No
Sheep?
No
Cows?
No
Falling trees?
No
I'm running out of stuff
What do farmers drive?
Landrovers
No - what else do they use for their job?
Tractors
At last
We didn't have 'minors' either and some of the stuff that were wrote down on both my daughters tests, we would have failed straight away back then and it all depended on how the tester was that day.
I had the testers tester and my driving instructor gulped.
My reversing was awful and as soon as I re-adjusted he told me to drive on and I knew I had failed.
I then kept forgetting to look left & right when going down this certain street in Fenton but I kept tutting every time I missed and saying I should have looked.
In fact every time I made a mistake I would vocally say what I'd just done wrong.
All that stuff plus the disaster of the end questions and I had 100% failed but I nearly fell over when I'd passed.
There's zero chance I would pass now, I wouldn't pass the written test for starters.
I have always said that all drivers should have a 2 yearly update written test or similar.