Driving Tests - Diary Of An ADI

More FOI Driving Test Rubbish

25/08/2013

I’ve mentioned in various article recently about FOI requests, and how they are able to bring the average hack at local newspapers to orgasm in five seconds flat.

This one is quite amusing, because it is particularly inept in its attempts to interpret statistics. The headline trumpets that Blackburn is the hardest place in Lancashire to take your driving test. It then goes on to cite a pass rate of 47.7% compared to the average of 51.5% across the county (Lancashire).

That is statistical noise, and is meaningless. It’s even inside the 5% variance that the DSA uses to make sure its examiners are doing their jobs properly. But that doesn’t stop a driving instructor from saying:

Some other areas are definitely a lot easier, but I think it’s a very good thing to drive here. If you can drive in Blackburn you can drive anywhere.

Someone else who doesn’t realise that a 4% difference is meaningless, or that 47% and 51% do not constitute “easy” and “hard”.

More Bad Pass Rates – But You Have To Read This To Believe It!

21/08/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Bad Drivers, Driving Tests, DSA, News

You often hear ADIs going on about only teaching people the bare minimum of skills required to pass the driving test instead of teaching them how to drive properly. The DSA’s strapline is “Safe Driving for Life”. So it beggars belief when you see a story like this.

On the surface, it’s just another FOI request blown out of proportion by some local hacks. But the really frightening part is the case studies they’ve dug up.

The article reports that Failsworth test centre has the lowest pass rate in Manchester, at 39.2% (bolstered by a really funny (not) reference to the name). It points out that Hyde test centre is 16% higher than this, at about 55%. As I mentioned recently, no one is ever prepared to refer to the population demographics in the areas they are comparing. Failsworth (marked as “A” on the map), being much closer to the centre of Manchester (and virtually part of Oldham), has a much higher proportion of non-UK national citizens. Hyde (marked as “B”) is out in the sticks, even though it is still part of Greater Manchester. Indeed, it is only about 6 miles from Glossop – which is so rural not everyone has electricity there yet! The article also says that Buxton – 25 miles out into the countryside – has a pass rate of 61.4%. Obviously, higher pass rates are the story editors’ only focus – but it does illustrate my point.

But here’s the best part. They give several examples. Firstly, someone called Kate Emmott failed at Failsworth, and is now planning on taking her test at an “easier” test centre. She says that she got a “major” fault (marked as “serious” on the test sheet) for not driving in a bus lane. She says:

It was coming up to 10am and I was worried about it. I think I had a really strict tester to be honest.

If Manchester’s bus lanes are anything like the ones around here, their morning hours of operation are 7.30-9.30. Being “nearly” 10am is not the same as 9.30am, and failing to realise this is not the result of a “strict” examiner. It’s the result of being a bad driver.

Then there is the case of Emily Bleackley, who failed her test four times in Failsworth, and then passed “weeks later” in Hyde. The report says:

…her second fail last December was for ‘getting lost’, while her third attempt was scuppered when she slowed down to let a car pass. Her fourth attempt was down to bad ‘filtering’ with other traffic, she says.

So here’s someone else who cannot equate bad driving with failing your test. You don’t fail for “getting lost” – unless you get lost and then make bad mistakes. Slowing down to let people pass – probably on a busy road, since we’re talking almost the centre of Manchester – is dangerous and the sign of a frightened rabbit! And “bad filtering” almost certainly means not being aware of what others are doing, and changing lanes without proper safety checks. In spite of this, Ms Bleackley says:

…[my] instructor could not understand [my] fails either… She said she couldn’t believe I’d failed because my driving was completely up to standard. I was in tears after my tests at Failsworth.

I’m sorry, Emily, but you listed at least three good reasons why your fails were totally justified, and it is shocking that your instructor thought you were “up to standard” if you were so obviously unable to cope with other traffic. You weren’t up to standard – that’s why you failed, and for reasons which are absolutely clear. And it is worrying that you subsequently passed at a test centre where you’re shortcomings perhaps weren’t challenged. Are you going to drive exactly the way you did on those failed tests now you’ve got your licence? Like not driving in bus lanes, slowing to a crawl when you get scared, and weaving from lane to lane without checking first?

The DSA is quoted as saying:

Pass rates can be influenced by various factors. Some people may take more lessons and be better prepared for the test. Statistical factors can also play a part as the number of tests conducted at different test centres varies significantly.

However, every driving test is conducted to the same strict requirements. We train examiners to a high standard and closely monitor their work to ensure that all tests are assessed consistently across the country.

But nothing can hide the fact that some test centres – and their routes – are inevitably going to be easier, and this is always going to result in some people passing their tests when they have underlying issues with their driving. Although it isn’t the DSA’s fault, the two examples above provide clear evidence that two very substandard new drivers have been put on the roads by the system – and it is therefore the system which is at fault. Unfortunately, the system is too complex to be able to reliably identify every single variable involved, and it is left to people like Ms Bleackley and her driving instructor to open their mouths and provide the necessary pointers to where some of the faults with it might lie.

Another news story adds weight to this, and I’ll put an article about that together shortly.

Test Pass: 19/8/2013

19/08/2013

DOAADI

Driving Tests

Well done Sheila, who passed today with just two driver faults. It was also very pleasant to hear the examiner say it was a nice drive.

This was her second attempt in just over two weeks, and she would have passed the first time if it hadn’t been for an unfortunate mishap near the end – but the less said about that, the better! At least until her kids are old enough to tell them about it, anyway.

She’s been a good pupil. Always on time, no cancellations, and determined to get things right.

Birmingham (And Yorkshire) Learner Test Fail Rates

13/08/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, News

The Birmingham Mail has apparently done one of those FOI requests and discovered that some Birmingham learners have failed their test 21 times. It reports:

23 failed 21 times or more
105 took 16-20 attempts
863 took 11-15 attempts

It also quotes similar figures for the theory test:

70 had taken the test more than 20 times
165 took it 15-19 times
780 took it 10-14 times

It also says – without explaining the significance of the detail – that the figures cover the period 2004 to 2013. Almost a decade! So hardly the end-of-the-world scenario being implied. Furthermore, The Birmingham Mail makes the familiar mistake of behaving as if the world begins and ends with its readership. If it had done even a small amount of research it would have found this almost identical article in the Spenborough Guardian (in Yorkshire, if anyone was wondering).

The Spenborough story seems ecstatic over the fact that:

¼ of the worst drivers in the country were tested at Heckmondwike
five women made 158 attempts between them at that test centre
one learner took 34 attempts
2 women each took 32 attempts
two more took 30 attempts

Again, these data cover almost a decade, and the Spenborough Guardian also refers to the fact that Bradford saw two people take 30 1nd 31 tests, and Leeds saw someone take 32 attempts. And it also points out that as far as the theory test is concerned, two men in Leeds took 55 and 56 attempts to pass (apparently, someone in Southwark, London took 110 tries). So it might come as a bit of a surprise to the Birmingham Mail to learn that their fame only extends a few miles after all.

Both stories draw on the “expertise” of third parties to add comment. In the Birmingham story, they quote Nigel Humphries of The Alliance of British Drivers (ABD). He says:

It would be slightly worrying to be on the road with someone who has failed their driving test 20 times and only passed on the 21st.

Of course tests can be a lottery and people can get unlucky a number of times. But it is also true that some people are definitely not suited to driving but keep on taking their test.

Well, if it were that simple then I’d agree. But no mention is made of the ethnic diversity in Birmingham, a city which is traditionally seen as having a high immigrant population. As I’ve pointed out in several previous articles, non-UK drivers tend to have a desire to go to test before they are ready. As unpalatable as this may be to some people, it is just a fact of life – and one I have witnessed myself many times.

However, once you get into the realms of whether or not people are suited to driving you’re on very dangerous ground. To begin with, who is going to tell them? I don’t mean who wants to – there are plenty of very seedy people who would fit that bill. I mean who has the right or the expertise to condemn them outright? After all, on what basis do you draw an absolute conclusion about someone’s mental abilities over something that is likely to affect the entire course of their life? And you surely wouldn’t do it based solely on their country of origin? If you did, where would it stop? The last guy who tried it died in a German bunker in 1945.

Over the years I have had quite a number of pupils who privately I had hoped would just give up. A couple did – with me, at least – but others were determined to pass, and pass they did. The “worst” one I ever had who kept at it (160 hours of lessons, and the most mechanical driver you could ever wish to meet as the result of an accident when he was younger) passed on only his third attempt. I’d tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to switch to an automatic somewhere in the middle of his lessons, and I despaired of ever getting him through his test. But I was totally wrong, and I know he’s happily driving around just like any other normal person. On the other hand, I’ve had superb drivers who have had as many as nine attempts at the test before passing. One recent one I’ve mentioned previously was eventually diagnosed with adult ADHD, and he passed first time with me, though he’d failed a handful of times before I took him on. Then there was a girl several years ago who was so badly affected by nerves on test days that she was physically sick – we actually had to stop on one pre-test warm-up for her to go and be sick, and other times she was sick before she came out. She passed on her 4th attempt with me, but had previously failed five times. And then there was a Polish lad who was a great driver, but who found something different to fail on each test until he passed on something like his 7th attempt. None of those were any less deserving of their licences.

I’ve only had two who were so bad I was surprised they could even walk, let alone expect to be able to drive, and I suspect that both of them went with other instructors after they stopped lessons with me (no doubt with a bucket full of stories about how it was all my fault).

But back to the topic here, the Spenborough article quotes a local instructor.who I have to say inadvertently shows another area where the problems might be coming from. He rightly points out that the places in question have high populations of people whose first language isn’t English. But he then goes on to blame the routes and independent driving – apparently, following signs or directions is hard for non-English speakers. He finishes by saying:

It is a difficult test centre but it’s not impossible. If you do everything right on the day you should pass.

You can’t help but get the impression that he believes passing is down to chance. However, returning to the main point of the articles, the most obvious fact which everyone seems to be missing is that if people are genuinely ready for their tests then most will pass within a handful of tries. Those who are genuinely not suited to driving are in a very small minority.

Test Pass: 6/8/2013

09/08/2013

DOAADI

Driving Tests

Well done Matthew, who passed first time today with just two driver faults. Much of the credit must go to his dad, who trained him initially, and he came to me to round things off.

An interesting bit of information out of this was that his insurance has gone up by about £450 just by moving from “learner” to “passed” status – and that’s with a policy which involves a black box.

I always warn my learners who pass to inform their insurer before they drive their car – if they don’t, they probably wouldn’t be covered if they were pulled over for any reason. Everyone else should bear that in mind – your insurance may well rise, but that’s the only option unless you want to drive illegally! When you look at it on a monthly basis, £450 is less than £40, so it isn’t that bad. And it beats getting points, possibly a ban, and a subsequent huge insurance increase as a result of that.

In Matthew’s case, the black box policy premium will probably come down again in three months times once he starts accruing good driving data.

Quality Private Practice Counts

04/08/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, General

This thought has occurred to me on and off for quite a while now. I often mention it to pupils when they say they’ve been out driving with their mum or dad, or whoever. But one pupil in particular has hammered it into my brain recently.

Her husband is called… well, let’s call him Ray. She drives me mad (in a harmless way) – especially at the start of lessons – when almost every sentence will start with “Ray said…”

Not long after she’d started with me, she got in the car one lesson and immediately said:

Ray said you shouldn’t park next to a lamp post.

I’d parked near one (it was level with the back door) so I could open the passenger door. I explained that this was nonsense and the only thing you had to make sure of is that passengers could open the doors if necessary. But that set the stage for all lessons since.

I should point out that Ray is – or was, until recently – a taxi driver.

A few weeks ago, we were driving away from her house. The speed limit goes from 30mph, up to 40mph, then up to 60mph over about half a mile or so. Even before we’d driven off and gone round the first roundabout, I’d had at least four “Ray said…” answers to my advice and questions.

The next thing I know, we’re accelerating rapidly in the 30mph zone with the 40mph several hundred metres away – we’re over 35mph when this conversation took place:

Me: Hey, hey, hey! What’s the speed limit here?

She: Ray said it’s OK to speed up

Me: [I hadn’t yet realised she was accelerating for the 40mph zone] The speed limit is 30mph, so slow down!

She: But Ray said it’s OK to get ready for the 40mph speed limit.

Me: [using the duals controls to slow us down] What? The speed limit is 30mph here…

She: But Ray said…

Me: That’s it! Take the next left and pull over [we pull over]
Me: What do you mean “Ray said it’s all right”? The speed limit is 30mph and you were aiming for 40. The 40mph sign is miles away. What do you think would happen if a speed camera saw you doing 40mph in a 30mph zone? Would you get a fine?

She: Well… but Ray said…

Me: Look. I’ve had enough of what Ray said. Who are you paying to teach you to drive? Me or him? He’s a taxi driver, and they’re not especially renowned for their driving abilities.

As an aside, that reminds me of another conversation with this pupil via text (I’d asked her to book her test for early August):

She: Can I book my test for July [date]?

Me: Well, it’s a bit earlier than we said. Do YOU think you’ll be ready?

She: You’re the driving instructor, that’s why I’m asking YOU.

Me: OK, book it – but this is on the strict understanding that if you’re not ready then we will move it. Are we agreed on that?

She: Yes. But Ray said he will help.

Me: How? Is he going away?

She thought that was really funny (and we DID have to move the test). But back to the first conversation, later in the lesson – and I can’t remember what prompted it – we had this exchange:

Me: Has Ray got any points on his licence?

She: [pauses] Well, he will have.

Me: What for? [I then had a thought] Hey, they’re not for speeding are they?

She: I wasn’t going to mention it. But yes – but it’s not like what happened back there.

Me: I’ll bet.

She: No, it wasn’t…

I won’t go into full details, but it still demonstrated a lack of road skill on Ray’s part – and he’d obviously told her to break the speed limit, so he must have been prepared to do it himself.

Then there was the Nuthall Roundabout Situation (cue: soundtrack from Pulp Fiction). A few weeks ago we were heading towards this along Woodhouse Way (A6002), and I’d prompted her through it for the A611.

Earlier this week, again approaching the roundabout from the same direction, the conversation went like this:

Me: We’re coming up to the Nuthall roundabout. Now, we’re going straight ahead down the A610 this time – not the A611 like last time. Can you remember how to do it [she apparently does this a lot with Ray, and has “no problems”]
She: Erm… well…

Me: [we’re closing in] Look for A610 on the road. You need to keep to the right, remember… Can you remember how to do it? [She heads straight for the left hand lane marked ‘M1’]
Me: OK. So that would be a “no” then… [I twitch the car over to the right hand lane]… now, look at where it says A610… [we stop at the lights]… Plan ahead. Look for where it says “A610” on the road lanes… [we move off and head straight for the A611 lane, which means cutting other traffic up. I grab the wheel and get us back in the correct lane]
She: Oh, I normally go that way with Ray. I didn’t know you meant this way.

Me: That’s why I said we weren’t going down the A611 like last time, and why I repeatedly said A610 and to look for “A610” on the road.

And just for the icing on the cake, right at the start of the lesson I had asked her to go straight ahead, 2nd exit at a small roundabout. The lanes are clearly marked with white arrows. She makes straight for the right-turn only one. Her justification for this?

That’s the lane I normally use with Ray when I go to see people up here.

This time, I pulled her over and just explained that Ray obviously wasn’t picking up her faults.

So, as usual I have come to my point in a very roundabout (no pun intended) way. And it is this:

Whenever you do private practice, make sure it isn’t just to “go to the shops” or for mum or dad to have a drink so that they don’t have to drive (which is just as illegal as drinking and driving, anyway).
Go out for practice, and only practice.
Practice the things you aren’t good at, not the things you are.
If it becomes apparent mum or dad (or whoever takes you out) is missing faults, get them to sit in with you on a lesson and let your instructor point out what they should be looking for.

Common missed faults include:

MSM
mirrors on overtaking or slowing down
not looking properly at junctions and roundabouts (emerging)
steering
braking (too late/too harsh)
roundabouts
lanes
speed and speed limits

This is by no means all of them. They are often missed because mum or dad (or whoever) isn’t as good a driver as they might like to think.

Being taught the wrong things – or being allowed to do the wrong things without being picked up for them – leads to bad habits, and bad habits are far harder to break than they are to form.

They also lead to failed driving tests.

Bay Parking (Another Update)

27/07/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, Training

I’ve written a couple of articles in the past to do with bay parking. One thing that keeps cropping up is how people refer to “the DSA way” and starting from a 90° angle to your final parked position. You do not have to start from 90°! You can park however the hell you want as long as you’re safe, in control, and end up in the bay (including on the line) and reasonably straight.

When I am teaching my pupils to bay park I recommend that they use the 90° method on test unless they already know how to do it using their own judgement (and sometimes, they do). However, I make it absolutely clear that when they start driving on their own there will be times when the 90° method doesn’t work. The two main examples of this are:

when there is no third line along from the target bay
when the bays are not of regulation size

I always explain how to park using other methods, but for most the easiest way is the 90° way and this definitely works in the Colwick MPTC car park. However, I’ve had a couple of tests at the new Beeston test centre in Nottingham recently and I’ve noticed that the bays do not appear to be the regulation size and the 90° method doesn’t work unless pupils have been taught specifically for those bays – or unless they know how to correct their position as they move into the bay. In fact, a pupil who passed his test today was asked to do this manoeuvre and it was only because I’d covered with him how to monitor and adjust his position accordingly that he was able to do it perfectly. But he was an exceptional driver – and some of my other learners struggle doing that.

It’s an interesting one. ADIs love to rattle on about not only “teaching people to pass the test”, but in situations like this there is a large grey area. For many learners the manoeuvres have to be taught in such a way that they can get them right on the one attempt they get on their driving test. The driver who naturally has all the spatial awareness necessary to steer effortlessly into any space in reverse is not the norm, and the majority need a structured method that will see them through the test.

Fortunately, Language Is No Barrier To Passing The Driving Test

26/07/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, Funny, Training

You have to laugh. Someone found the blog on the following search term:

is stallibf a najor or mibor

For those who don’t speak gobbledegook, this should read: is stalling a major or a minor? Fortunately, language skills are not a barrier to getting your licence. Of course, whether they should be a barrier or not is open to debate.

I’ve written about stalling on your test before. Stalling isn’t automatically a serious fault – but it could be. And it could easily turn into one if you don’t deal with it correctly and panic.

Test Pass: 26/7/2013

26/07/2013

DOAADI

Driving Tests

Well done James, who passed today first time with just 4 driver faults. James has only been with me for about four weeks as the result of booking an intensive course. I don’t actually advertise these because I don’t agree with intensives, but James had done an initial lesson and in spite of never having driven before he turned out to be an absolute natural.

So when his dad phoned me to ask about doing an “intensive” I agreed – this was also partly due to the fact that since my diary was quite full the lessons were actually spaced out and although we had a few of consecutive days, some lessons were several days apart. I guess this is what I’ve always referred to as “semi-intensive”, and I’m a bit more comfortable with those.

I wish all learners learnt this quickly. But everyone is different (another reason I won’t do intensives too often) and so just have to learn in their own time. Indeed, James passed his theory test within days of his 17th birthday, began lessons the same week, and has passed his practical – all within a month!

James has been one of the nicest people I’ve ever taught (mainly because he thought my jokes were funny).

Northern Ireland To Crack Down On Scam Sites

24/07/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, News

I mentioned in an article in January about how certain websites are purposely making themselves look like the official DSA site in order to snare learners when they book their tests. The same company was also pulled up again in May for other claims deliberately designed to mislead candidates. More recently, another company was also telling carefully crafted tall tales and was prosecuted and heavily fined (in that one, a “pass protection guarantee” was only valid if you scored 42/50 (the pass mark is 43 – anything else and you fell foul of the small print).

It seems that Northern Ireland is encountering similar problems – and not just where driving tests are concerned. A European Health Insurance Card is free from the NHS, yet people are inadvertently paying for them from these scam sites. Trading standards acknowledges that these sites aren’t strictly illegal, but that they do deliberately mislead and deceive.

Damien Doherty of Trading Standards in Northern Ireland said: “While the majority of these sites are legal, they are highly cynical.”

Too right they are. He adds:

It is important that companies are clear about the service they are offering, and do not trick people into paying for something that they can get for free or much cheaper on government websites.

Personally, I don’t think they should be offering any sort of service under these circumstances. It should be illegal, and driving test scam sites are a prime example. The top-dog, highest level company which actually carries out the tests (DSA, or DVA in NI) offers them at a fixed price and anyone charging more than that is a lying scammer, no matter how “clear” they make it in the small print that they’re charging a premium.

Category - Driving Tests