Diary Of An ADI - A Driving Instructor's Blog

Wheel Clamping At Colwick: Update

15/07/2010

Clamped Learner Car

I posted a few weeks ago about the wheel clamping problem which has started near the Colwick Test Centre. The situation is quite confusing as far as motives and honesty go.

You see, City Estates wrote to the DSA to advise them that the “landlord” of the industrial park had introduced wheel clamping for “health & safety reasons”. When you then look up City Estates’ website, you realise that the “landlord” is… City Estates. They glibly refer to “parking laws” – which is gobbledegook, since this is a private estate with private and misleading rules of its own.

Anyway, the owner of the clamped car in the picture has contacted me. He says:

…The car you have the picture of was mine. It cost me £140.00 to get the F****** thing off…

…I was showing a client the test centre when I got clamped. I had even made sure that we arrived 10 mins after test time to give anyone doing bay park on test the time to leave the area. The van that was carrying the clamps was a builders van he even had ladders on the roof. When I first saw the van my first impression was he was fly-tipping. He told me that the owners of the industrial estate were employing the company. And that the clamping stopped at the target cafe. BUT I have noticed in the last few days that the clamping signs now extend further down the road.

The signs are black and white that I could produce on my computer.

Most are also above eye level or missing.

It’s worth pointing out that in the last couple of weeks I have seen overseas lorries parking overnight in many of the usual places (curtains drawn, etc.). Not a sign of a clamper.

And the “landlords” don’t seem too eager to do anything about the idiots who work down the far end near the gravel pit and go flying up and down that road at 70mph plus (two weeks ago, some dickheads in a grey uber-pratmobile – a Subaru or Mitsubishi – were using it as a drag strip and they were easily doing 90mph).

Is it double standards? Are they just targeting driving school cars? It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Can I Fail For Rolling Back?

13/07/2010

DOAADI

ADI, Training

I’ve had several people find the blog on the search term “can I fail my driving test for rolling back?”

The short answer is yes, you can fail for rolling back – but not automatically. It all depends on how far you roll, the circumstances, and who else is around. For example:

if you roll back a few centimetres you’re unlikely to fail
if you roll back a few centimetres and there is a pedestrian walking behind you, you’re more likely to fail
if you roll back significantly – and by that I am thinking of ¼ metre or more – you could very easily fail
if you do it every time you try to move away you could very easily fail

It all comes down to the examiner’s interpretation of the actual situation, so it’s impossible to state what will and will not result in a fail.

Take a look at the post Your Driving Test Report Explained. Under the section on Moving Off, it says:

Do not allow the vehicle to roll back.

It’s as simple as that, so don’t do it and you won’t have anything to worry about! Any roll back is wrong, but examiners are usually reasonable and don’t always fail people for a single minor fault. In most cases a small backward roll of a few centimetres is not even recorded, and is usually a minor issue at most on your test. However, at some point a “small” roll becomes a “moderate” one, and the precise point at which that change occurs is easily influenced by pedestrians walking behind you. You could hurt them if you rolled into them, and the examiner will note that.

You need to learn to look around, assess situations, and use the handbrake when it is necessary. As I said above, the ideal scenario is that you move off without rolling back at all.

There is no reason why you should be worried about it on your test. It isn’t rocket science to be able to move off properly on a hill or gradient rather than worrying about being allowed to get away with doing it badly.

One final thing: although some examiners might (usually) accept a small roll, what is acceptable to one might not be acceptable to another. And the flip-side to that is that what you see as “small” roll might be seen as a bigger one by the examiner – and the examiner’s decision is final.

Can I fail if I roll back on my driving test?

Yes. It isn’t a guaranteed fail, but if you roll back too much – or if someone is behind you when you do it – it can be. Don’t do it and you won’t have anything to worry about. Make sure you can find the bite reliably and it is much less likely to happen.

How much do I have to roll back to fail my test?

You shouldn’t roll back at all. However, examiners are usually very reasonable over small amounts of roll back, so stay calm and deal with it properly. If you begin to roll back, apply the foot brake and, if necessary, the handbrake. Then try again to move off properly. There is no set distance that the examiner is working to, and it all depends on the situation at the time, and how you deal with it. It also depends on how much you do it, who or what is behind you, and how often it happens – rolling back every time you move off is asking for trouble. For example, one of my pupils forgot to put the car in gear when asked to drive off right at the start of his test in the test centre car park. The car park is on an incline, and he rolled back almost a metre. The examiner marked it as a driver fault because she knew he was nervous. If he’d have done that out on the road with cars behind, though, it would almost certainly have been a serious fault.

Why did I roll back?

You didn’t have enough bite. That can occur if you don’t lift the clutch pedal far enough, or if you aren’t in gear in the first place. Make sure you check that you have the correct gear selected before trying to move off again.

What should I do if I roll back?

Stop the car rolling immediately by finding the bite or by applying the foot brake and – if necessary – the handbrake. Restart the engine if you stalled, check that you have the correct gear selected, then set the gas and find the biting point. Make sure you know how to find the bite.

Why is rolling back wrong?

If you roll back, then you’re not in control of the car. Not being in control is enough to get you a serious fault on your driving test. In reality, a very small roll back is likely to go unmarked on the test, though if it happens repeatedly or at the wrong time, it may get picked up.

The problem is that the car could weigh in the region of 2 tonnes, and if that sort of weight pushes against the knee of, say, a pedestrian walking behind you, it could cripple them. If it were a child, it might easily kill them. Of course, many people do roll back a little quite frequently by a few centimetres. Some people roll back a long way, though, and since I started driving many moons ago I’ve had people roll back into me more than once – do that on your test, and it is a deserved fail. These days, if someone is rolling towards me – and I keep my distance – I sound my horn to let them know I’m there.

If you start to roll back, use the brake – don’t sit there with the stunned rabbit-in-the-headlights glaze. Do something to stop it, then figure out quickly why it happened before trying to move off again.

What if I hit someone when I roll back?

I’ve noticed a small blip in traffic to this article from a cycling website, where a driver rolled back into a cyclist (no harm done to either party). The cycling fraternity viewpoint is that the motorist was absolutely in the wrong. The motorist appears to have been of the opinion that the cyclist was in the wrong.

Actually, they both were to some extent. Fortunately, no one was hurt, so it might best serve as a lesson to be learned. Motorists shouldn’t roll back – but in the real world, some do. Cyclists shouldn’t put themselves in a position where they are more likely to get hurt if it happens – but in the real world, some do. Sure, the motorist will most probably be the one who is prosecuted if someone is hurt – and in this case, the motorist appears to have been a complete prat anyway – but you need your head looking at if you think that that would somehow compensate for having both your legs crushed along with your bike.

Can You Wheel Clamp A Lorry?

13/07/2010

DOAADI

ADI

Someone found the blog on that search term – presumably they found my recent post on wheel clamping near the Colwick MPTC.

I was told that some lorries had been clamped at the Colwick test centre when I suggested that it was only driving instructors being targeted.

I also did a quick search and found the photo (above) showing a lorry that had been clamped – obviously not using a proper clamp – when the driver had nipped to the loo (according to the forum the story is on).

Although the thread on that forum seems to have become an excuse for people to talk about urinating (those guys should become ADIs – they’d fit right in), one of the other posters gave a photo that shows he has also been clamped with what appears to be a chain attached to a steel rope (I haven’t a clue what the rope is anchored to, though). These are not on the Colwick Industrial Estate (to the best of my knowledge).

It seems that all they really need to do is put a big chain through the lorry’s wheel holes and padlock it. The first photo is just the front plate of a car clamp padlocked to the wheel. Let’s face it, most lorries could probably rip a wheel clamp to pieces if the driver tried to drive off with one on – but it would also damage the lorry and if he then got stopped by the police he’d quite possibly lose his job. So I can’t imagine many lorry drivers trying that with their livelihoods.

Also by searching, some companies supply ‘MEGA’ or ‘HGV’ clamps (they cost around £100 each), so it is obviously something that can be done.

So yes, you can clamp a lorry.

EDIT 10/11/2010: I was down near the Colwick Test Centre today and I saw a lorry which had a standard wheel clamp fitted to its front offside wheel. It looked almost identical to the one in the first picture, above.

CRB Check

13/07/2010

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

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.

Leave Graphic Design To The Experts

11/07/2010

DOAADI

General

When I was in the rat race, one of the many things that was really getting on my nerves towards the end was how my department thought it could do away with professional services and do things itself. All to save money, of course.

'Balls' Advertising Campaign

As far as not using design services goes, using Microsoft Office clip art is as transparent as water when it comes to saying “I think I know what I’m doing, and I really believe that I’m good at it, but obviously I really don’t have a clue”.

My manager (well, my manager’s manager’s manager) was putting together a group-wide presentation to explain the importance of Teamworking® to the future of the department and the rest of the known Universe. He had come up with the idea – I don’t think I could ever work out, even then, what this was about (that’s another thing about design: you have to have a logical motif that everyone else understands) – that the whole concept of Teamworking® was like juggling a lot of different balls in the air.

It’s important to understand that this guy was one of those people who had just ‘discovered’ computers, partly by virtue of having to use one every day for email and other stuff. He was a technophobe who had decided he was a technophile. It’s also important to bear in mind that in the late 1990s/early 2000s Microsoft’s Office clipart was both limited per se, and limited to American themes. The presence of a soccer ball in the library was as British as it got.

Anyway, this manager came up with a logo almost exactly like the one above (again, bearing in mind that clipart then was not to as high a standard as it is today) using an American football, a baseball, and a soccer ball (i.e. in ‘English’: a rugby ball, a tennis ball, and a football). The whole thing – clipart and presentation – took him months, and he was incredibly proud of it. That aside, I warned him that when he did the presentation to the already-cynical shopfloor, they would say it was “all a load of balls”. He didn’t listen, and the shopfloor responded exactly as I’d said.

So, the point I am making is that the kind of advertising you would expect to see nailed to a tree or tied to lamp post requesting information about a missing cat or advertising a church jumble sale can easily be misused by cost-cutting bureaucrats, and become elevated to the level formerly dominated by Saatchi & Saatchi. It happens when you give an important design task to someone who isn’t skilled in the art.

Nolls Bus?

So, when I saw the new design for Le Cirque du Nottinghamshire County Council’s bus services, I can honestly say it took a while for it to sink in.Without a word of a lie, I had to see the thing over several weeks for it to click that there wasn’t a new company called ‘Nolls’ who had taken over many bus routes. It was, in fact, an extremely poor logo advertising ‘Notts Bus’ – obviously created in-house using the most basic of resources.

It appears to be mandatory if you work for a Nottingham-centered council to have an arrow in your name somewhere (maintains the link with Robin Hood, of course). In this case, the arrow is about 50% too high to make any sense – it looks like something a 4 year old would write when they are learning how to do ‘t’s!

I should imagine the council saved tens of thousands of pounds by not having it done properly. Of course, they also wasted thousands of pounds by doing it badly instead. They’ll change it soon, I predict.

‘Observer On Test’ Etiquette

05/07/2010

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

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.

World Cup 2010: Goal Line Technology

04/07/2010

DOAADI

General

They’re still going on about that bloody goal-that-wasn’t-allowed in the England match against Germany. No one seems able to accept we lost because we were crap! Oh, and that the Germans were brilliant.

What makes me laugh is that the system they are proposing is not exactly simple. I mean, let’s face it. All you need is a camera at the side of the goal and some bloke up in the stands with video playback and wireless connection to the referee to say “yes, it was in” or “no, it wasn’t”.

From The Stone Age To This

But no. The solution to years of insisting that the referee guessing is better than using any form of technology is about to be replaced with something at the other end of the spectrum – one which it would appear is likely to need several dedicated satellites, and which will be required to bounce signals off Jupiter and Saturn to give an answer. One possible system even has a microchip in the ball – what a pointlessly stupid complication that would be!

I also love the suggestion that the FA has been pushing for this for years. I stand to be corrected, and I am probably getting so-called “football experts” mixed up with the FA, but the clowns who pass as commentators on the British media have always seemed to be opposed – as have many of the managers being touted as prospective England managers. If the FA was heavily in favour, these comedians would have been, too.

Personally, I have always thought that whether the ball actually crossed the line or not is far more important than whether people think it did. I have been in favour of goal line technology for at least 20 years – a camera at the side of the posts, if nothing else. I also believe the same technology should be used for deciding throw-ins and goal kicks/corners (and the cheats who falsely claim them or who dive penalised accordingly).

But then again, I was always in favour of Sky and its dramatic transformation of the game through live broadcasting and massive injections of cash. The dinosaurs who deride this would have us back to muddy pitches, flat caps, and wellington boots if they had their way.

iPhone 4 Reception

03/07/2010

DOAADI

Computers & Tech

iPhone (NOT the 4)

This story in the Daily Mirror today made me smile.

It started a few days ago with this report on the BBC, where anoraks who had queued to get the new iPhone the day before were finding that the signal strength dropped when they held it. The BBC story points out that the iPhone’s case is made of stainless steel, which also acts as the antenna, so you can immediately see a possible connection between physical contact with it and signal strength. The same story also mentions that Steve Jobs referred to this antenna as “really cool engineering ” when he announced the iPhone 4.

Better still, in a follow-up story the next day, Jobs’ official response to the fact that if you hold it in the lower left corner where the antenna is centered you lose signal was:

Just avoid holding it in that way.

This is classic – it reminds me of when I was a kid and my mum went to the doctors with a bad back. She raised her arms and said to the doctor “it hurts when I do this”. He replied: “Well, don’t do it then”.

The official Apple stance (i.e. minus Jobs’ expert people skills) is:

…to “avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band”.

Alternatively, said Apple, customers could buy a case to shield the antenna.

So! The Mighty Apple has screwed up, eh? But now look at that latest story in The Mirror. Apple is trying to claim that the problem is merely down to a faulty algorithm for calculating how many bars to show.

Apple says the problem relates to an error on how the signal bars are displayed, rather than the signal.

This is in spite of the fact that the physical act of holding it in the lower left corner appears to affect the algorithm as well! Apple rambles some more:

“We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising,” the statement read.

“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.

“Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays two more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display four bars when we should be displaying as few as two bars.

“Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying four or five bars.

“Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”

And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything – and you also probably bought an iPhone. However, many experts believe there is a deeper problem.

I would not use anything by Apple – even if you paid me. Macs are for people who can’t use a real computer, just like AOL is for people who don’t know what proper internet access is. And the iPad is like a catwalk model: great to look at, but pretty dim inside.

My Orange contract is up for renewal in August and I want a new phone to replace my HTC Touch HD. The HTC Desire is the one for me.

Incidentally, while I was looking for an iPhone photo to use in this post, ~~I found this blog post~~ (look, I wanted an iPhone pic quickly and this was the first one that came up – I don’t actually read stuff like this). Seems like Apple screws up more than it’s followers like to admit.

EDIT 20/07/2010: Jobs admitted this week that the iPhone is flawed, after all. Just goes to show how pointless it is fabricating a complex web of lies when the facts are staring everyone in the face. Apple if offering a free cover/reception booster to try and make amends.

General Election: Aftermath V

02/07/2010

DOAADI

General

I saw this article in today’s Daily Mail.

A few weeks ago, this new Mickey Mouse coalition government was all excited about its brilliant new idea of asking the public which laws it thinks need changing. Anyone with half a brain – and as you will see, this precludes about 90% of the British public – would realise immediately that this is going to lead to some of the most idiotic suggestions imaginable. Not so the LibCons – it is clear that they thought they were going to get some brilliant ideas from it.

As a brief aside, when I was stuck in the rat race – and when Teamworking® was insidiously damaging British industry without anyone having the brains to realise it – the company I was working for had a Suggestion Scheme. As the manager of one of the departments the suggestions came from and related to, I was on the committee which evaluated them.

The company I worked for was in pharmaceuticals, and one of the products it made consisted of small beads of drug substance in hard gelatin capsules. The beads were made separately, and were notorious for becoming statically charged once dry. The charge was so severe that you could easily get 50-100kg of the things stuck in a hopper and refusing to fall vertically downwards under the force of gravity (as a further aside, it had to be one of the most idiotic formulations ever devised. But that’s another story).

Anyway, back to the static charging. Some clown suggested that we should put a sheet of Bounce in with the beads to reduce the charge! The fact that this adds ingredients – which in the pharmaceutical industry is a definite non-starter – was something he was genuinely incapable of understanding.

And so it is with The Law. According to the Mail, the suggestions people have come up with include:

Make prostitution and drugs legal

End the ban on marrying a horse

Repeal Murder and its Related Laws

Repeal ‘extreme pornography’ law

Reduce child benefits for the third and subsequent children

Abolish the law which enables you to shoot and kill a Welshman within the city walls of Chester

Abolish the Dangerous Cartoons Act

Repeal the Smoking Ban

Bring back the death penalty

Repeal all immigration laws

Decriminalise magic mushrooms

Scrap the Human Rights Act

Castrate paedophiles

Bring back hanging [there’s a surprise]

Repeal the Official Secrets Act

Removal all speed limits on motorways

Repeal the 20 per cent VAT rate

Remove IVF from the NHS

Remove religion as a criterion for selection to state schools

Repeal the Hunting Ban [Tory voters, eh?]

Democratically elect a head of state

Stop Road Tax

Loosen regulations on hand baggage at UK Airports

Abolish the House of Lords

Scrap motorcycle helmet law

And you can bet your life that these are the more sensible ones.

There was even a call for murder to be allowed with the justification that there were ‘only’ 500 homicides a year and the cash savings on crime fighting could be used to keep jobs in the public sector…

See what I mean? Mind you, Minnie Mouse (aka Nick Clegg) is still upbeat:

The ‘best suggestions’ will form part of the Freedom Bill to be published in the autumn.

Inviting people to nominate laws they wanted repealed, Mr Clegg said: ‘What I find especially exciting about this project is that, now we have got the ball rolling, the debate is totally out of government’s control.

Real democracy is unspun – it is the raucous, unscripted debates that always throw up the best ideas.

‘So be demanding about your liberty, be insistent about your rights. This is about your freedom and this is your chance to have your say.’

The man is on a different planet. Here we have a society where dumbing down has become one of the biggest obstacles to future development and growth, and he tries to turn Government and Law into a primary school competition for “the best suggestion”.

How An ADI Gives Route Instructions

30/06/2010

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

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.