Category - DSA

They never give up, do they? I saw this post on a forum:

Since when has it been compulsory to give the pupils email address when filling in the booking form. I’ve never done until tonight. When did we recieve notification it was going to be compulsory.

Another money saving excercise no doubt.

A deliberate attempt to start another whinefest about the DSA. But if this “expert” had bothered to read the DSA information about this – circulated back in June – he wouldn’t have needed to try and show how clever he is and have it backfire on him:

Practical test online booking and appointment confirmations

From now, you’ll need to provide a contact email address when you book or change your practical test online to receive your booking confirmation.

Booking confirmations for tests will no longer be posted out to you.

If you’re an approved driving instructor (ADI) and are booking a test on behalf of your customer, you’ll need to consider which email address you’d like the confirmation to go to.

No need to bring appointment confirmation

You’re no longer required to bring your appointment confirmation to the test centre on the day of your practical test.

You must still bring the following items – if you don’t, the test may not go ahead and you may lose your fee:

• an appropriately insured and licensed vehicle, displaying L-plates (except for taxi and Approved Driving Instructor (ADI) part two tests), that is suitable for the purpose of the test
• the appropriate theory test pass certificate (or confirmation) if you are not exempt; for lorry or bus theory tests, you’ll need to bring both your multiple choice and hazard perception pass letters or your overall theory test pass certificate letter
• both parts of your photo card licence – if you don’t take both parts of your licence, your test will not take place and you’ll lose your fee
• if you have an old-style paper licence, you must take your signed driver licence and a valid passport – no other form of photographic identification will be accepted
• for both modules of the motorcycle test you must present your compulsory basic training certificate (CBT)
• for module two of the motorcycle test you must present your motorcycle module one test pass certificate

There’s no change to theory test bookings and theory test requirements.

Pretty clear, isn’t it? But I guess it must be wrong to save money (and trees) by not sending out letters for online bookings when there is a confirmation on screen, and now an email confirmation, sent anyway.

THIS IS AN OLD STORY AND IS NOW OUT OF DATE. TAKE A LOOK AT THE INFORMATION SECTION FOR UP-TO-DATE ADVICE.

Just a bit of advice, based on my own very up-to-date experience of this last week [this article is out of date].

When you need to renew your ADI registration, you’ll also need a new CRB check carrying out. I sent my documents off last week to TMGCRB – but they came back this morning with an error: my birth certificate is a copy and was issued more than 12 months after my date of birth, so it is invalid as a Group 1 document! My bills and invoices were perfectly acceptable as Group 2 documents.

So, the advice is to make sure you read the completion instructions in the tiniest detail when you get your forms. You can supply a variety of documents from three different groups, Group 1 being primary identification – your birth certificate (if issued within 12 months of your birth), your passport, your driver’s licence, etc. Group 2 is bills or other documents which confirm your address. You can supply ONE Group 1 document and TWO Group 2 documents.

This must be a change, because I’m sure that when I used it to get my original CRB check done my birth certificate was acceptable then.

I’m taking my driver’s licence in by hand this afternoon, so it’s not a major problem for me. But those not living in or near Nottingham should be careful.

This will also apply to new applications, and not just renewals.

How do I update my CRB check?

Go to the TMGCRB website and order a pack. Or call them on 0845 251 5000 if you have questions.

Do I need a new CRB check when I renew my ADI badge?

I’m only going on my own experience here, but yes. The DSA will send you a form some time before your renewal becomes due. Make sure you send it off promptly just in case there’s a delay – as I said above, if you have to send more documents it will add a little extra to the application timeline.

Car Image

I mentioned this a few days ago in the post about Despatch – The DSA Magazine. However, the DSA has just sent out an email alert with the information concerning how an ADI should behave on test – they refer to it as ‘Observer on test’ etiquette.

I think it is useful that the DSA puts this sort of thing out into the public domain – but I’m also quite sure that the usual crowd of stirrers and rakers will have the ammunition they need all ready and waiting in order to start calling ‘liar, liar’! We’ll see.

Observer on test etiquette

Get the best performance out of your pupils by brushing up on your observer etiquette.

Your ‘observer on test’ etiquette could help or hinder your pupils.

Following enquiries from approved driving instructors and suggestions made by DSA examiners, some ‘dos and don’ts’ have been drawn up, just so we’re all clear. We hope the following are helpful…

Turn off your phone

Whether it’s Star Wars or Tom Jones, your pupil’s concentration will be thrown when the ring tone shrills out, so turn your phone off. The fewer distractions, the better.

Lend a helping hand

Helping your pupils lift the bonnet if they are struggling is fine, but don’t interfere unnecessarily.

Take a back seat

Supervising examiners usually regard sitting behind the pupil as the least intrusive. But the best position for you is wherever it’s the most comfortable, so long as you can sit upright with the seatbelt correctly fitted.

Mirror, signal, manoeuvre?

Contrary to popular belief, you won’t have your candidate’s test terminate for naturally looking left, right and behind you. But try not to put your pupil off.

And be aware that overzealous nodding coupled with excessive eye contact with your pupil could be construed as some sort of pre-arranged code. In other words – cheating! Don’t be tempted.

Prompting pupils by coughing, or nudging the back of them seat is a slippery road to test termination.

Examiners do know when instruction is being added – even in another language!

Move it

Changing position to improve your pupils’ visibility during the manoeuvre exercises is perfectly acceptable. Constantly moving from side to side to would be very distracting though, so please try to keep movement to a minimum.

Take note

By all means take notes to help your pupil. But bear in mind that if your pupil sees you rigorously note taking it might worry them and fill their head with negative thoughts – when actually they might be doing fine.

No comment

Last tip. At the end of the test listen carefully to the feedback so that you and your pupil can work together. But don’t be tempted to involve the examiner in discussion. If you do have genuine concerns about the test speak to the local manager, or follow the complaints procedure.

Following the relaunch on 6 April initial indications look promising with a significant increase in the take up of ‘observer on test’. We’ll keep you updated in future editions of Despatch.

Watch the video

DSA has published a video on YouTube called ‘Take your instructor on your driving test’. video on YouTube. In the video, Cecilia, a media student who passed her test two years ago, talks to learner drivers and instructors about the benefits of taking someone with you on your driving test.

You can watch it by clicking on the image or the link at the bottom of this email. If you run your own website, please feel free to put the video on it.

Link to the video

I’m not disputing that the number of people who now go out on test has increased compared with what it was like before the change when you look at it on a national scale, but when I spoke with my local centre manager he said that – here, at least – there had not been any significant change. Similarly, whenever I’m there (at either Colwick or Chalfont Drive), I would say that maybe one ADI out of every ten trots off outside. The rest stay in the centre or go for a walk.

As for the DSA’s article, I’m sure someone somwhere will see it in a bad light.

This is an old article. DT1 has been updated several times, but the gist is still the same.

Someone found the site using the above search term – they were asking how a driving instructor gives route instructions to a pupil.

The short answer is: do it how the examiners do it, and refer to the DT1 Internal Guidance Document (this link is to a PDF file on the DSA website). Look under Annex 7; Page 243.

However, real-life is a little different. The pupil you are giving lessons to is not the same as the candidate you are submitting for their driving test for at least 80-90% of the time they spend with you.

For example, DT1 says:

GENERAL DIRECTIONS

Throughout the drive continue ahead, unless traffic signs direct you otherwise, and when I want you to turn left or right I will tell you in plenty of time. Move off when you are ready, please.

Would you pull up on the left at a convenient place, please.

or

Pull up along here, just before………..please.

Drive on when you are ready, please.

Take the next road on the left/right, please.

Will you take the second road on the left/right, please. (If necessary add this is the first.)

At the end of the road turn left/right, please.

At the roundabout.. turn left please (it is the first exit)

follow the road ahead (it is the second exit)

turn right please (it is the third exit).

(Additional information should be given if necessary to assist the driver to plan their route through the hazard. Examples are in brackets above).

Similar explanations are given for the examiner’s wording for all other parts of the test.

Now, this is all well and good, but if you want to build a friendly rapport with your pupil, behaving like an examiner all the time is a good way of failing miserably. This is especially true with new pupils who maybe haven’t driven before, and who are very nervous (even if they don’t show it).

Since I am teaching them – not examining them – I tend to say things like:

Take this next turn on the left (or right).

Take the second turn on the right (or left).

At the end of this road – at the T-junction (or crossroads) – turn left (or right).

At the roundabout we’re going left, 1st exit.

At the roundabout take the second exit.

At the roundabout we’re taking the 4th exit, it’s a right turn.

These are just examples – I mix and match as necessary. You’ve got to remember that early on, particularly at roundabouts, you really are teaching/instructing them and you have to add a lot more information until you can pull it back to the bare minimum. As they get closer to test standard you can give examiner-like instructions and still have a chat or add information as required.

It is important that they are familiar with the terms and approach the examiner is going to adopt, but they should be comfortable overall – not just fine tuned for the test, and only the test.

Note: The DT1 document I have linked to above is not intended to be anything other than educational. It isn’t a tool to help you challenge the result of your test (or for your instructor to do it). Examiners don’t have to use that wording exactly. They can deviate for all kinds of reasons.

If you can drive properly in the first place there should be no need to worry about challenging examiners over their interpretation of your poor performance o the day. If it wasn’t poor in the first place – you only have to be able to drive reasonably well, in any case –  then there’d be no need.

A couple of days ago the Daily Mail apparently did an article on the Independent Driving section of the driving test, due to be introduced later this year. I have mentioned on several occasions – most recently in this lighthearted-but-true story– about why this is an excellent idea.

The driving instruction industry is bogged down with antiquated instructors and antiquated ideas. Some of the forums have been almost in flames with some of these fossils opposing the idea because it comes from the DSA, or because – according to them – the minority-group pupils they specialise in will have particular problems doing it.

The Mail seems to have altered its original story (perhaps as a result of what I’m going to mention below), but  the Independent still has the misinformation [dead link] in its own version. Lest it should also try to change it, this is what it says:

In the DSA’s tests of the new section, the 100 learners tested made five times more mistakes than in the traditional test. The learners said it was “effortful, mentally demanding and frustrating” and just 18 per cent passed, less than one in five.

It isn’t hard to imagine the Daily Mail’s take on the matter – particularly when you consider that it was a Labour-led initiative. But changing the story as needed is just about what you would expect from the Mail, with its childlike political agenda (the coalition government is looking at scrapping the change, it would appear – probably around the same time it makes foxhunting legal again).

Today, the DSA has issued an alert to correct the Mail’s (and other newspapers’)  misinformation and scaremongering. It says:

Independent driving: the facts

Independent driving will become part of the practical driving test in Great Britain in October 2010.

It’s tasking the candidate to drive for about 10 minutes, either following a series of directions, following traffic signs, or a combination of both.

To help the candidate be clear about where they’re going, the examiner can show them a diagram too.

It doesn’t matter if candidates don’t remember every direction, or if they go the wrong way – that can happen to the most experienced drivers.

Newspaper reports

The claim in some newspapers that independent driving would lead to a fall in the driving test pass rate is based on early research where conditions did not reflect the eventual design of the new element of the test.

Subsequent trials with a larger number of participants and more closely reflecting the conditions in the planned new test showed no significant fall in the pass rate.

Video shows independent driving

DSA has published a short video on its YouTube channel explaining more about independent driving.

Watch the video here

It was funny, but even on the forums you were getting threads like this following the Mail’s initial story:

Quote:

“the agency’s own research suggests the changes will cause the pass rate to fall from 42 to 18 per cent – less than one in five.”

If that happens I can’t see many people standing for it for very long. On the bright side it would seem the number of hours per pupil looks like it’ll be on the up…

I think there is going to be a mad rush of pupils wanting to get there test booked before October 5th, thats for sure!!

Those with an inbuilt sense of direction ( usually the men ) will find this easier. I imagine it will lean the test in favour of the boy racer types.

It didn’t occur to any of them to question it, even though it was totally incorrect.

All Independent Driving is is testing people on something they have never been shown how to do in many cases. They will have to do it when they pass their tests – and the fact that many can’t explains why they are such a bloody danger out there on the roads. It’s just that now they will have to have been trained properly in order to pass. If people in small minorities (i.e. with other difficulties) can’t navigate a simple route using road signs (or do the other simple things the test asks of them) then frankly it raises questions about whether they should be on the roads at all.

The same people who are up in arms over this think nothing of making negative comments about non-UK drivers and immigration generally (and I think this is related to their typical age), and yet they will happily boast that one of their special needs pupils managed to pass the test first time after only 10 hours and no previous driving experience. But they will question the road-readiness of anyone without special needs who does it in less than 30 hours.

Their attitudes just don’t add up, I’m afraid. Well, that’s not strictly true… their attitudes stack up perfectly when you latch on to their anti-DSA agenda and the bygone age they were raised in.