Category - Driving Tests

Well done Sarah, who passed yesterday with 10 driver faults. It was her second test with me, but her eighth attempt overall!

Sarah’s biggest problem has been her nerves – she had been prescribed beta blockers and I made sure she took them for her test. She can drive, but she easily gets distracted by making things too complicated or overthinking them (as we walked into the test centre she asked which way she should drive to go out of the car park – I just said not to drive through a wall, because there was only one way in or out, and we’d just used it). On both her tests, I got texts late the previous evening asking things that weren’t important.

To be honest, I think the reason she hadn’t passed previously is that she’d had instructors who merely pandered to her nerves instead of trying to deal with them. I focused on the fact that she could drive, and built her confidence up from there.

Another milestone is that this was the first time I have had anyone in floods of tears – and I mean hard tears – because they passed. It meant that much to her. And she admitted that the possibility of passing, this time or in any future test, had not occurred to her.

Well done Misha, who passed at the end of last month with just two driver faults. Misha is a professional carer who works those God-awful hours carers often do, and being able to drive is going to make a big difference to him. He plans to start looking for a better job in nursing.

It was hard for him, because his current job is so poorly paid, and it was only because a relative paid for the test that he could afford to even take it. A satisfying result for both of us.

Well done Ayesha, who passed a few weeks ago with just two driver faults. It wasn’t her first test, but it was certainly a very good performance. We finally cracked her intermittent problem with roundabouts (intermittent in that it only ever happened on test).

It was her third test with me, but she’d failed four times before that – always involving a roundabout somewhere. The biggest problem was getting her to acknowledge that whatever her brain told her to do automatically was wrong, and that she needed to think more. I finally got through!

Well done to Arjun, who passed first time last week with just 2 driver faults. He’s doing a Masters course at Nottingham University and will need to get around. He plans to get a car straight away.

He was an interesting one – he’s been driving since he was 10 in his home country and as a result had got a lot of the typical bad habits you associate with that. But we managed to overcome them and a good result came out of it.

Another interesting detail was that his inability to follow road signs is probably his weakest point, and this came out on the test – but since he did everything properly it didn’t result in any faults. People should remember that when they start worrying about independent driving.

Well done to Carrie, who passed with just 3 driver faults last weekend. She has always been a particularly good driver and deserved to be out on the roads long before this.

Now those odd shifts won’t be as much of a problem, especially early winter morning ones. She already has a car waiting and will be out straight away.

Well done Chloe, who passed last week with 9 driver faults. She was nearly sick several times while we were on our way to the test centre, and almost decided not to go through with it. Fortunately, she did. And the rest, as they say, is history.

As I pointed out to her, her demeanour after she passed improved significantly compared to what it was before. She’s already signed up for Pass Plus, and hopes to get a car very soon.

Well done Helen, who passed with 5 driver faults in early February. I have to say that she has probably been the nicest person I have ever taught (though that may have been down to the fact that she thought my jokes were funny).

I had to force her to do her theory test, and the same with the practical. The funny thing was that she was convinced she was going to fail the first time she took it – and was then angry with herself for failing over such a silly mistake. After that she was desperate to take another, which was great.

Another nice thing was that her parents bought her a small car for Christmas. I know she’ll be a safe driver, and now that she has a new career path sorted out, being able to drive will be an important asset.

A little late posting this, but well done to Phil who passed first time in early February with 6 driver faults. This was a rearranged test, the first having been cancelled back in January as a result of the snow we had.

He’s recently gone self-employed and needs to be able to drive a van, so passing was vital to him. It’s great when you can help someone in this way.