Driving Question

[Dice Man]

Agree with Woody, you just have to bite your tongue and do what they tell you. No matter how ridic you think it is. Once you've passed is when you learn to drive - or not given my case and my recent driving related mishaps!...

The thing is I bit my tongue for so long. It wasn't possible for me not to argue with him at some point. A few weeks ago I got in his car and he asked when I'd re-scheduled the test to, so he could put it in his records. And I said 22nd May, 14:40. And he immediately says "What did I tell you about booking the test then?" I'm like "wat" and he says "I told you not to book in the afternoon since the roads are busier then with people coming to pick their children up from school. If you don't want to take my advice then fine. Don't complain to me when you fail." Man I bit my tongue so hard then I might have generated a stomach ulcer, cos what I wanted to say to him was, "Does it not fucking occur to you that my last test was also booked at 14:40 and you didn't say a fucking thing about it and never have. In my 20 lessons I've had so far I've remembered every fucking thing you've said, and in that time you've given 1000 lessons to other students and in your memory probably can't tell the difference between what you told one person and what you told another!"

I think this guy basically has an inverse snobbery complex. A couple of months ago I told him about these literacy and numeracy tests I took for a job which were by far the easiest tests I have ever taken. I got 100% on them both and took about 1/3 of the available time to do them without checking and without bringing a calculator. And then the week after I told him about it he said his friend had failed those tests. Since then there was kind of a bad atmosphere in the car, and every time I asked for the justification behind anything he acted like I was questioning his competence. Plus he never liked my general optimistic attitude about the test because he thinks everybody should be shitting themselves whenever they take any test, because all tests are to be feared and despised.

Goddammit. Stupid people tilt me so much. I think my next step is to find an independent instructor and explain to them my history of lessons and also that if I ever ask them why we ought to do one thing other than another thing it's because I want to know why is the other thing wrong, because I already believe it is, I just want to know why it is. Anybody who is really qualified in anything ought to be able to tell you these things. Instead we have a world of idiots who just bow to any authority and question nothing, and everything they know they only believe it because "that's the way it is". FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

[Dice Man]

Quoting myself rocks. And my advice stills stands and is 100% correct.

Your post does reflect the optimal strategy which I tried to use. But my instructor contradicted himself every week. If I did one thing it was wrong for reason X, and I should have done something else. The next lesson I do exactly what he said to do in the exact same location and it's wrong for some other reason. And then if I say "Last week you told me to do that though!" he's just immediately "No I never! If you don't want to listen to me then do whatever you want then!"

I think I might try and get a female instructor next time as I don't think they'll be quite as authoritative as the last guy and probably more willing to come down to some kind of educational discussion.

[Dice Man]

Took test today and passed. Day started out pretty strangely as some old guys pulled up outside my house, knocked on the door and asked me where the chocolate factory was. I was like "WAT?" and they said they were looking for Cadbury World, which is like 5 miles away. Their Satnav had taken them to the wrong address.

So anyway the test started about as badly as it possibly could. I was asked to locate the coolant under the bonnet and then asked how I would adjust the head rests in the car. I had wrongfully assumed that all head rests were the same and that the new car would be the same as the old car, i.e. have like a button that you press in and then move it up and down. This one didn't have that and I was like "Ah that's strange, I could've sworn I knew how to do this last time I tried." We then had an early scare when I tried to squeeze between a parked bus and a tractor coming the other way. I braked at the last minute and managed to get through. I asked her, "In your opinion do you think that was a major?" and she just said "There is no issue." I thought that meant that she wasn't allowed to say, but she didn't even mark it as a minor so apparently it wasn't that bad. I felt like I was driving quite horribly in general though, making every right turn seem harder than it needed to be, and shifting gears really badly and hitting speed bumps too fast etc. We pulled up to do a left hand reverse and she said "Try to keep as close to the kerb as possible." As I was reserving I got to "the point of turn" where you put a half wheel on left, and I accidentally put it on right instead. Such a n00b mistake. I ended up in the middle of the road and had to full-lock on left to save it. No minor though apparently. We got back to the test centre before everybody else, and I picked up my second minor. I needed to turn left into the test centre on a congested road. There was a big white van parked right between me and the sharp left turn. I indicate left but I have to stop as several cars are coming down the other way, so I pull in. When they've gone past I pull out and into the left. Apparently that was a minor because the person behind me might've seen my left indicator and thought I was actually pulling up behind the white van, and they could've gone round me. Makes sense but what am I supposed to do about it? Since I've already started indicating before I realise I have to pull in. If I take the indicator off doesn't it look more like I've pulled in? Anyway, I go back in and do a bay park which was easy as nobody else was around. 2 minors total and I pass.

I'm now thinking of doing the Pass Plus. Somebody told me that it's not that value-for-money as you get barely any of your insurance. But as I don't have access to my own car (and can't drive my Dad's company car) I think I'll do it just to get some motorway experience and some other stuff. Anybody else done the Pass Plus and recommend for/against it?

[PokerWoody]

Congrats! Clearly situps help with driving.

Pass plus is the biggest waste of money around.

Did they find Cadbury World in the end? Were they fat people? I like choc and i'm a fat person.

[Dice Man]

TY. No they weren't fat. They were all over 70 though, I'd guess.

[Dice Man]

Don't think I can get a car when I don't have much money to pay for it. Depending on whether I'm going back to university or to law school in September I might not get a car for yonks. But there was talk amongst my friends of arranging a European road trip in the Summer, and there aren't that many drivers between us (+1 now). The reason I'd want to do the Pass + is because I don't much fancy the step up from Birmingham suburb roads to German autobahns and insane shit like that, without some kind of further tuition.

Re:Scrote. Are you sure the Pass + is £80ish? My guy wants to charge me £130 for it, he says £20 per hour which ws the same for the normal lessons, plus a tenner because it'll use up more fuel than usual. Considering he's a private guy I thought his £20 a lesson is quite cheap really, plus he almost always ended up going over what I paid him for too, and was definitely a good teacher.

Also, one of the reasons I initially went with the Bill Plant driving school (i.e. the people who kicked me off) was because they say they'll give you free-skid-pan lessons when you pass. Now I think I'm going to phone up my guy and ask for them, because I had about 35 lessons with him, which was like £750 worth. But we didn't end the lessons amicably whatsoever. In fact the whole drive back he was taking the piss out of me because I'd never pass my test, and I was just like "Do I give a fucking shit what you think?" I think there might be a chance of getting those lessons free if I don't phone up primarily with the intention of taking the piss out of him. Obviously if he says no then I will have to resort to that. IMO having about £750 worth of lessons entitles you to that, plus it was really unprofessional of him to refuse to teach me anymore after that many lessons and no tests. Ridiculous actually.

[Dice Man]

Do you mean just have them drive me everywhere telling me what they're doing as they're doing it? I don't have access to a car and am not insured with any car except for when I have driving lessons.

[SaintLucas]

Everyone will agree with me here but the way they teach people to drive is fucked up. Hardly anyone uses the handbrake ever, probably only uphill because people are lazy.

Dice when you pass your test, take it easy. Nobody has a clue to drive when they first pass, I nearly crashed once or twice in the first two weeks of driving because I literally had no clue whatsoever.

Spot on, uze on hillz only, you need to be reving it up at the lights guy so you can beat the dick next to you in the bema. And you aint gonna get off like grease lightning if the HB is on are you.

[SaintLucas]

Do you mean just have them drive me everywhere telling me what they're doing as they're doing it? I don't have access to a car and am not insured with any car except for when I have driving lessons.

You need to get a car, its the only way, drive around in it pre test build your confidence, you will waste hundreds on your driving lessons, when you can buy a cheap car, get out and about with it, even if its just on industrial estates with a friend who drives.

I used to nick my dads car when he was asleep at night and spin it down the motorway, fun when your avoiding the law too.