[theonefrombrum]

I'm not trying to be mean or anything but 50 lessons is an incredible amount to have and to still not have grasped driving is worrying tbh. Once you know what to do, know which pedals to press and when and know when to change gears etc (2 lessons max) it's simply a case of just driving and paying attention and if after 50 lessons you still can't do it then i would really consider whether driving is for you.

[jameslad]

(Original post by Pippie2222)
Hey everyone, thank you for taking the time to read this/reply

I've had 50 driving lessons so far and my test is in three weeks time. In that time leading up to my test I'll probably have another 6 hours worth of lessons.

This past week and a half, I have had the worst driving lessons yet. I think what's frustrating is that I know I have had so many hours of practice and yet I am still doing things that would be an instant fail in the test.

My instructor is really good, he will go over anything I don't feel happy with as many times as I would like, so it's not to do with the teaching. It's just me.

So today, yet again I have just had a really bad lesson and it's really getting to me now I feel like I am never going to get these problems sorted and i'm just doing worse and worse.

But anyway, here are the main issues I had today and I was wondering if anyone has any advice or tips for me - because right now I feel like I should just stop and stop wasting my parents money!

- Tight lefts out of a side road into the main road - I keep going up onto the curb when I'm turning left. It is so frustrating as sometimes I can do it, other times I go up the curb everytime!

- Reverse around the corner - I often go to wide on the sharper corners (however I do no now how to fix this after my instructor showed me a number of times)

- Stopping too far behind the "STOP" lines.

- Parrallel park - I don't look out the back window enough

Hey, look. I took 60 driving lessons, took my first test at 50 lessons and i failed miserably. I was still making mistakes right up until the day of my 2nd test! I was so confident that i was going to fail but i some how passed it! The test is so much different that you're usual driving, all you have to do is drive for like 40 minutes and just believe in yourself! If you need advice, be sure to PM me!

Hope i helped

[Pippie2222]

(Original post by theonefrombrum)
I'm not trying to be mean or anything but 50 lessons is an incredible amount to have and to still not have grasped driving is worrying tbh. Once you know what to do, know which pedals to press and when and know when to change gears etc (2 lessons max) it's simply a case of just driving and paying attention and if after 50 lessons you still can't do it then i would really consider whether driving is for you.

Hey oh no no I can drive! I mean I can 'drive' without having to be prompted with no difficulty - its not really the fact that I can't drive - its the fact that I make stupid mistakes one lesson that I haven't made before - because since I've posted this I haven't actually made any of the mistakes again and I've resolved
Them! But the problem is, is that I'm quite inconsistent with my problems - one lesson I can do something almost perfectly the next I can't - my instructor seems to think it is purely nerves because I know I have a test looming. I think when I posted this I was being really hard on myself - I can drive! I just make one off mistakes that really knock my confidence!! Thank you for your reply - do you have any tips for nerves? :-)


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[Pippie2222]

(Original post by jameslad)
Hey, look. I took 60 driving lessons, took my first test at 50 lessons and i failed miserably. I was still making mistakes right up until the day of my 2nd test! I was so confident that i was going to fail but i some how passed it! The test is so much different that you're usual driving, all you have to do is drive for like 40 minutes and just believe in yourself! If you need advice, be sure to PM me!

Hope i helped

Hey oh thank you so much!! It's nice to know there is a glimmer of hope pahahaha!! Thank you lots!! Do you have any tips for nerves and calming down etc? Xxx


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[xoxAngel_Kxox]

While I think the word "incompetent" may be annoying you slightly, I wonder whether you are really ready for a test if you're still mounting the curb whilst going around corners? The point is that there could easily be pedestrians on those corners standing on the pavement, and you would run into them if you made that mistake whilst on your own in a car. Passing your driving test is showing that you're competent on the roads and safe enough to be alone in the car without an instructor. Judging by your pessimism towards your own driving, and the mistakes that you're making, it doesn't sound that you're ready to be alone driving yet. But you know what? There's nothing wrong with that! Everybody learns at a different rate, and at some point it's going to click and you'll wonder why you ever struggled with it.

Please don't think people are getting at you for calling you incompetent, but the truth is that if you're still mounting the pavement then you're NOT safe to be driving alone. But that doesn't mean you'll NEVER be safe- just not yet! Take things at your own pace.

[minthumbugs]

I stop too far behind at junctions as well and my instructor told me if I know I'm stopping too early, ease off the brake a bit and then stop when I'm a bit further ahead. For me it's about controlling it as I'm not a good judge of distances.

With the tight lefts, I found I would go onto the kerb or go too wide if I was looking down at the road. It is so so so much easier if you LOOK into the road you're turning into instead of the kerb, the lines or the corner. When I look into the road I don't even think about the corner and I don't have any problems. When I go wrong on a corner my instructor just says 'where were you looking?' and it shouldn't be straight ahead but I still do it!

As for having 50 lessons, everybody learns at different speeds! There was someone who had 30 lessons and still couldn't steer in a straight line and someone else had failed 9 tests, so don't worry about it. If you keep making the same mistakes, I found it helped if you go in with a different mindset and open up a bit more. I'm quite reserved with my instructor but I found when I loosened up I wasn't so focussed on the small things and it all...made sense and was a bit more natural I suppose. When you make a silly mistake, take a deep breath and move on. If you beat yourself up about it, you won't improve. I got quite angry with myself for stalling recently but it happened to my parents the other day and my instructor the other week and they've been driving for, well, decades!

[Pippie2222]

(Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox)
While I think the word "incompetent" may be annoying you slightly, I wonder whether you are really ready for a test if you're still mounting the curb whilst going around corners? The point is that there could easily be pedestrians on those corners standing on the pavement, and you would run into them if you made that mistake whilst on your own in a car. Passing your driving test is showing that you're competent on the roads and safe enough to be alone in the car without an instructor. Judging by your pessimism towards your own driving, and the mistakes that you're making, it doesn't sound that you're ready to be alone driving yet. But you know what? There's nothing wrong with that! Everybody learns at a different rate, and at some point it's going to click and you'll wonder why you ever struggled with it.

Please don't think people are getting at you for calling you incompetent, but the truth is that if you're still mounting the pavement then you're NOT safe to be driving alone. But that doesn't mean you'll NEVER be safe- just not yet! Take things at your own pace.

Hey yeah thank you! Your post is a lot more helpful than whoever the man was before - it wasn't the fact that he called me incompetent it was his patronising tone that narked me hahaha! But thank you for your reply I havevnt actually made that mistake again since that one lesson! And before that one lesson I've never had much of a problem with mounting the curb before so I think it was just one of those days. I am just hard on myself which is probably why it came
Across negative and that's something my instructor picks up upon! Thanks :-)


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[jameslad]

(Original post by Pippie2222)
Hey oh thank you so much!! It's nice to know there is a glimmer of hope pahahaha!! Thank you lots!! Do you have any tips for nerves and calming down etc? Xxx


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

It's okay!!

This video helped me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m784_RlJ1pw

[pinda.college]

(Original post by Pippie2222)
Hey yeah thank you! Your post is a lot more helpful than whoever the man was before - it wasn't the fact that he called me incompetent it was his patronising tone that narked me hahaha! But thank you for your reply I havevnt actually made that mistake again since that one lesson! And before that one lesson I've never had much of a problem with mounting the curb before so I think it was just one of those days. I am just hard on myself which is probably why it came
Across negative and that's something my instructor picks up upon! Thanks :-)


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Ignore those 'patronising' comments and focus on your driving

How has the reverse corner been going for you since I first posted?

[Pippie2222]

(Original post by pinda.college)
Ignore those 'patronising' comments and focus on your driving

How has the reverse corner been going for you since I first posted?

Hey! Thank you for asking!!
so much better!! hahahaha I actually printed out your reply and showed it to my driving instructor and we did it your way to try it out instead of doing the method my driving instructor teaches and it worked SO much better for me!!!! I just found it a lot more straight forward! Out of the 7 left reverses i've done so far only one has gone wrong and that was due to me being too late to steer! so I am so grateful!!! Your tips just helped explain things a lot simpler for me! I really do think it was a bad lesson but i am glad i had it because if i hadn't I wouldn't have learnt from you! so thank you lotsss!!!!!!

xxx

[pinda.college]

(Original post by Pippie2222)
Hey! Thank you for asking!!
so much better!! hahahaha I actually printed out your reply and showed it to my driving instructor and we did it your way to try it out instead of doing the method my driving instructor teaches and it worked SO much better for me!!!! I just found it a lot more straight forward! Out of the 7 left reverses i've done so far only one has gone wrong and that was due to me being too late to steer! so I am so grateful!!! Your tips just helped explain things a lot simpler for me! I really do think it was a bad lesson but i am glad i had it because if i hadn't I wouldn't have learnt from you! so thank you lotsss!!!!!!

xxx

Haha I am pleased my advice has helped you, and I cannot beleive you actually printed my reply and showed your instructor

Anway it sounds like your driving is improving slowly but surely, and the fact that you show so much enthusiasm is terrific. Do not worry about the number of lessons you take (unless it's a finanical burden) because I took loads of lessons over the duration of two years, passed the first time round though. Each lesson is only making you a better driver, even if you have a bad lesson where you make tons of mistakes, you will learn from them. Please keep us updated with your progress on this thread and be sure to PM me when you pass

[Pippie2222]

(Original post by pinda.college)
Haha I am pleased my advice has helped you, and I cannot beleive you actually printed my reply and showed your instructor

Anway it sounds like your driving is improving slowly but surely, and the fact that you show so much enthusiasm is terrific. Do not worry about the number of lessons you take (unless it's a finanical burden) because I took loads of lessons over the duration of two years, passed the first time round though. Each lesson is only making you a better driver, even if you have a bad lesson where you make tons of mistakes, you will learn from them. Please keep us updated with your progress on this thread and be sure to PM me when you pass

Hahahaha well I would have forgotten what you said otherwise so I just thought I will just print it out! hahahahhaa Thank you it is - I will do it - even if it takes me until i'm 90! hahahaha! Arr that's really goood! Yes yes yes that's so true - that's really good to think actually!!! that's really helpful thank you lots!! I will definitely pm you and let you know how things turn out!! hahahaha thank you lots!!!!! :-) xxx

[Pippie2222]

(Original post by victormeldrew)
Hello Pippie2222

People learn skills at different rates. However, after 50 hours learning to drive you should have mastered the basics such as controlling the steering, and the footbrake.

Mounting the kerb after turning left, or stopping short of the ends of roads, are common faults with beginners. They are not minor faults. I would not want to share the road with you while you are at this level of incompetence, nor would any other driving examiner. If you are still committing these faults you are nowhere near ready for test, despite what others have said in this thread.

Perhaps you are naturally slow at learning to drive (possible, but unlikely), or your instructors are no good (very likely). Good teachers are rare.

Have a look at my series of YouTube videos on learning to drive and the driving test: 'Choosing a Driving Insructor', 'The Driving Test. Reversing around a Corner' and 'Life, the Universe and Driving Tests' , all by lacontrabasse.

All the best

Victor

Hi Victor - not sure if you remember me - but anyway just thought i'd update you, two weeks after posting this thread I passed first time with only 1 minor on the parralel park. Yes - and this was the girl you called incompetent. Thanks

[xoxAngel_Kxox]

(Original post by Pippie2222)
Hi Victor - not sure if you remember me - but anyway just thought i'd update you, two weeks after posting this thread I passed first time with only 1 minor on the parralel park. Yes - and this was the girl you called incompetent. Thanks

Well done!!

[e1usive]

Well done pippie, I'm happy for you!!


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[victormeldrew]

(Original post by Pippie2222)
Hi Victor - not sure if you remember me - but anyway just thought i'd update you, two weeks after posting this thread I passed first time with only 1 minor on the parralel park. Yes - and this was the girl you called incompetent. Thanks

Hello Pippie2222

That's great news! Incentive comes in a variety of forms.

All the best

Victor

[arshad.vahora]

Not looking enough through back window.....would probably hardly will get you a minor...you just need to move your head 360 when parking and try going as slow as possible ( I personally don't use accelerator paddle at all when parking unless on a hill types road..) so you get more time to correct things.....and it feels safe and smoother....that's what examiner marks you for.

Not stopping at correct distance.....just kill your speed way before a junction/roundabout...and just come to stop slowly (my instructor tells me to make sure that the stop line is under your side mirror before you stop - this helps a lot, well at least it helps me).

[arshad.vahora]

And also money saving tip.

Just get temporary insurance in your parents car....its like £40 for a week or £80 ish for a month.....much cheaper than paying £20 or so per hour.....

[Dmon1Unlimited]

How many lessons is average?

If you know your faults then try your best to get it to credo into your mind the second the situation occurs... Memorise that stuff...

[pritzooo]

Hi Pippie2222, Im so glad you posted this as i am in the same situation as you were! I still make silly mistakes and have had 50+ lessons, and next week is my first test :s. However after seeing your success it has made me more confident that I stand a chance to pass . How did you keep focused during the test?
PS the video jameslad posted is great!