Well done Eileen, who passed today first time with just 3 driver faults. This is a classic example of why you should never write someone off – and how wrong you can be if you do.
Eileen is very nervous, and following my suggestion some months ago has been using beta-blockers on her lessons (after a visit to her GP). They have had a positive effect, but there is no “magic pill” that can turn someone into a brilliant driver. And certainly not overnight.
I had stopped her from taking a previously booked test because I thought she was dangerous. But I have to be honest in that I also wanted her to cancel this one on her last normal lesson because I was really worried about her nerves and how she would react on the driving test. I insisted that I sit in the back in case the test was abandoned – I honestly thought that it was a possibility – and I had advised her to be prepared for the possibility of things going wrong. She knew this, of course. That’s why she had gone to her GP in the first place, and she told me that the nerves came and went unpredictably in other aspects of her life.
It was one of the best drives I have ever seen anyone produce, on test or off it. When the examiner told her she’d passed – and I knew she had from what I’d seen even before he announced it – I had tears in my eyes. The three faults were all for the same thing, and they came early on, but she got into the swing and didn’t make the same mistake again.
So it just goes to show how wrong you can be. Anyone on the outside looking in would have probably said she wasn’t ready. Indeed, I saw a forum thread recently with precisely that topic, where people were lambasting someone who had taken a candidate to test who he said wasn’t up to standard. To be fair, that instructor hadn’t done himself any favours in how he put the story across, but it did illustrate clearly how the only person who knows the candidate is the instructor who taught them – and the information probably ought not to be passed to others for their opinions. Outsiders can usually only advise based on grudges and sections from the Great Big Handbook Of Finding Fault With Others.
I was completely wrong about Eileen. I’m happy to admit it. And I’ve learnt something: don’t be too hasty consigning pupils to the metaphorical scrapheap.
Hopefully, this tale will help others learn, too, before they start shooting their mouths off.
And Eileen’s pass brings my tally to five out of five for the week.