What do you think about intensive driving courses?

Soldato
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I'm about to book my first driving lesson, still shopping around. It seems the going rate is £21-£22 per hour down here.

But i'd like your opinions on intensive driving courses, i've seen them for about £500 incl driving test
 
To start off with I would prefer just 1hr slots because I remember doing my first 2hr lesson and I was pretty tired out after it. So maybe 1-2 lessons before it?
 
They are ok, but only teach you how to pass your test, not how to drive.

That's pretty much true of driving lessons though.

I did a 4 day course for my bike license, then normal lessons for a car, and tbh I don't think the end result was any different, they're just different methods, only the 'course' method is pretty much standard for bikes.
 
When it comes to driving lessons, you should not need any more than 1 or 2 lessons for the actual practical side. The rest is just experience.

If you think you are comfortable building up the experience quickly in intensive courses, do it. It wont be any better/worse than the "regular" way.

Actually learning to drive comes once you have learnt to pass your test, pass it, and get on the road yourself.
 
When it comes to driving lessons, you should not need any more than 1 or 2 lessons for the actual practical side. The rest is just experience.

If you think you are comfortable building up the experience quickly in intensive courses, do it. It wont be any better/worse than the "regular" way.

Actually learning to drive comes once you have learnt to pass your test, pass it, and get on the road yourself.

Please tell me your joking? 1 or 2 lessons. The average time to pass is 40 hours and thats taking the people into account who have been learning for years.
 
Please tell me your joking? 1 or 2 lessons. The average time to pass is 40 hours and thats taking the people into account who have been learning for years.

No, what he is saying is that learning the mechanics of driving does indeed take about 2-3 hours of lesson. But you need a few more under your belt to get some actual road experience, learning different junctions and the like.

I only had 7hrs of lessons, plus the hour before my test.
 
Please tell me your joking? 1 or 2 lessons. The average time to pass is 40 hours and thats taking the people into account who have been learning for years.

Can't see why not. Can easily teach someone the fundamentals of how to drive and the rules of the road in 2 hours. The rest is just being able to actually do it. 40 hours is silly, personally I'd welcome a limit on number of lessons and tests, if you can't do it in 3 goes you're not cut out for it and shouldn't be on the road.
 
I had around 20 hours but felt ready after 10, I just had to keep on top of practise whilst waiting 9 weeks for a practical test.

Can't see why not. Can easily teach someone the fundamentals of how to drive and the rules of the road in 2 hours. The rest is just being able to actually do it. 40 hours is silly, personally I'd welcome a limit on number of lessons and tests, if you can't do it in 3 goes you're not cut out for it and shouldn't be on the road.

That is truly one hell of a cretinous rule. Some people aren't 'natural' drivers are require more tuition. Maybe if you start hitting 10+ fails then you really aren't fit for the road, 3 is extremely harsh.
 
Can't see why not. Can easily teach someone the fundamentals of how to drive and the rules of the road in 2 hours. The rest is just being able to actually do it. 40 hours is silly, personally I'd welcome a limit on number of lessons and tests, if you can't do it in 3 goes you're not cut out for it and shouldn't be on the road.

Yet again you come out with another cracker.

You should probably try engaging your brain before you post in future.
 
That is truly one hell of a cretinous rule. Some people aren't 'natural' drivers are require more tuition. Maybe if you start hitting 10+ fails then you really aren't fit for the road, 3 is extremely harsh.

If you're not a natural driver, you need more lessons, not more tests - surely?
 
I would prefer it if they actually focused more on why people failed their test instead of the whole book it agian and just try again (get lucky this time) culture.

In-fact the whole teaching/testing needs overhauling. Look at Finland for a great example of preparing new road users for the road by skid pan sessions.
 
Yet again you come out with another cracker.

You should probably try engaging your brain before you post in future.

What are the other 'crackers' then?

Driving is not something to be taken lightly, piloting a complex machine at speed that is quite capable of killing it not a joke. There are far too many total muppets on the road that simply aren't up to the job and should take the bus.
I guess most of these idiots who don't look where they are even going are the ones who failed multiple times on observation and got lucky then disregarded the rules once they'd passed.

I can't see why anyone would be against taking idiot drivers off the road, it's in the best interests of everybody.
 
Sometimes people feel ready, take the test and fail due to nerves or plain bad luck. It's very very easy to fail a test.

Depends what you mean by "bad luck". What sort of "driving test failing scenario" would involve failing because of bad luck?

I'd argue that it's probably just as easy to pass the test as it is to fail. What's the national first-time pass rate? About 45-46%?

The issue of being nervous for a driving test is a difficult one though, that's for sure. And I'm not sure there's an answer to that. Apart from the fact that if you're nervous, you're probably not confident that you'll pass, which means you should go and practice until you ARE confident that you'll pass.

*shrugs*
 
Depends what you mean by "bad luck". What sort of "driving test failing scenario" would involve failing because of bad luck?

I'd argue that it's probably just as easy to pass the test as it is to fail. What's the national first-time pass rate? About 45-46%?

The issue of being nervous for a driving test is a difficult one though, that's for sure. And I'm not sure there's an answer to that. Apart from the fact that if you're nervous, you're probably not confident that you'll pass, which means you should go and practice until you ARE confident that you'll pass.

*shrugs*

spot on. If you're too nervous to pass a driving test then you're certainly too nervous to be allowed to drive on your own amongst the busy traffic of todays roads.
 
spot on. If you're too nervous to pass a driving test then you're certainly too nervous to be allowed to drive on your own amongst the busy traffic of todays roads.

Rubbish.

I could walk along my 1ft high, one brick wide garden wall all day long and not fall off, but could I walk along a 1 brick wide wall that was 200ft tall even if there was no wind? Could I ****.

I know people who were physically sick from nerves on the day of their driving test, they don't chuck up every time they get in a car.
 
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