The Ultimate Learning to Drive Thread - MK II

Ahh I need help..I went out driving with my dad today and either it was just a terrible lesson or I am just terribly bad!! I tried doing a reverse park and reverse round a corner and both didn't go very well...I'm not sure if it's just cos it's a different car or i just can't get the hang of it...

I know they are quite hard to explain but was wondering if anyone could talk me through how they have learnt to do these two manouvres? it's just my dad seems to think i've been taught wrong (i don't necessarily think so though..) but thought it would be interesting to see if anyone can describe what they do...

feel so depressed that i still can't do it!!

Reverse round a corner:

Park up near but not right next to the curb.
Observations
Start to reverse slowly
While looking round, always glance your eyes into your left mirror to see how close the kerb is. If the kerb starts to go out of the view of the mirror put a bit more steer on, if your going towards or too close.. then let some of the steering go off.

Reverse park:
Pull up next to the car 1 door width away so your backs are next to each other.
Start to reverse and put one full rotation of wheel to the left
When your wing mirror is level with the back of the car one full rotation to the right
When the kerb goes out of view in your left mirror full lock to the right.

Put different people do it different ways so nothing is essentially wrong if it works for you.

For the reverse around corner: all of it sounds like what I do...but at which point do you start steering? because i've been taught to reverse back to the first curved kerbstone..but i find it hard to know when i'm there..is it mainly about just judging it correctly?

When you want to park in a car park, do you signal left, to show that you will park and let the cars go past you?

That's what I did today, signaled left, with my breaks on and most cars went through. One of the cars albeit a few bays away but it's was about 6 / 7 bays away, and there was a trolly park there and she was stopped behind me with my signal still on, she overtook and went past me, I haven't had the chance to park, and she called me a fat cow who doesn't deserve to be on the road.

I must say, her calling me that really killed me today Felt quite annoyed and depressed by her. I felt I did everything by the book, so I'm just checking with you guys now...

Why did you signal and wait?

Just pull into the space...

nope. Signalled and waited for all the cars to go past. About 4 cars went past whilst I was waiting still with my signal was on...

Why though?

If your parking a car you indicate and pull into the space not wait for cars to go past you no?

I was going to but someone came right up me, so I couldn't do a reverse bay park, which is what I wanted to do... therefore I had to wait for them to go past in order for me to do the bay park.

Ah gotcha, what a weird woman.

Me?..

if so I'm sorry. I really can't drive into a bay for some reason, I seem to misjudge it and have to reverse, therefore I perfer to do a reverse park when I can do it all in one

No the other woman .

ha, i know, i also dread to think!! how much longer do you think you have to go until you take your test?

Not sure- still isn't booked. I need to do two more manouvers and dual carriageways, I think. I really can't afford much more, but I can't just stop.

As for your last question, I've been taught two ways of doing left reverse- One where you look in the left wing mirror and another (possibly easier) one where you use the back window. The back window one only seems to work in hatchbacks, though.