People keep finding the blog on search terms like “bill plant pass rate” or similar terms with BSM or some other school added.
Pass rate is specific to the ADI, not the school he’s with!
An ADI with a pass rate of 60% (which is good) could be completely independent, or he could work under any franchise. Any franchise.
And the same applies to an ADI with a pass rate of 10% (which isn’t so good).
One thing to consider is that if a typical ADI has an ongoing low pass rate as a result of his tuition (which is the only significant factor if you are searching on this subject), in most cases many of his pupils will smell a rat and probably end up going elsewhere. If he is franchised, his franchiser will quite possibly not be too impressed – there are likely to be issues other than just pass rate being considered. So there is a possibility he will be kicked off the franchise. ADIs who are totally independent don’t have such quality control working against them. (Note all the italics in there: I’m not making absolute statements about anyone.)
Another important point is that at any given moment in time, any ADI could have a pass rate of anywhere between 0% and 100% depending on how they calculate it. Even an honest ADI could have a pass rate of 100% for his last 10 or 20 pupils, but that same ADI may easily find themselves with a 0% pass rate for the next 10 (something they are somewhat less likely to want to advertise, no matter how honest they are).
And a final point on this aspect: a normal ADI will encounter pupils who are great drivers but who – for various reasons – have great difficulty passing the driving test first time. When they know what to expect, many will pass 2nd or 3rd time, but there will still be some who take five, six, seven… well, a number of attempts before they crack it. No matter what the idiots on the web forums say, these pupils ARE ready for test. They can drive, and drive well. They just have problems with the test.
I’m sticking my neck out on this (possibly into a noose), but if you added all franchised ADIs together and put them in Group A, then added all the independent ADIs together and put them into Group B, I wouldn’t be surprised if Group A had a slightly higher average pass rate than Group B. I would be surprised if it were the other way round, though.
That’s not to say that everyone in each group is the same – you can have great independent ADIs just as you can have rubbish franchised ones. It’s just that the business arrangement with franchised ones acts as a sort of filter for a whole range of very complicated reasons.
Something else to consider is the accuracy of an ADI’s claimed pass rate. I know a few ADIs who look for any excuse not to include a test fail in their statistics just to keep it artifically high. Some happily only include the previous 6 or 12 months. I also know some (many of them openly do it on web forums) who claim 100% pass rates because “all my pupils pass eventually”. Obviously, they missed their maths lessons at school.
Be careful.