View Full Version : Pass within a week
On my way into work this morning I saw, on the back of a driving instructors car, "pass within a week" intensive training. I happen to think that this shouldn't really be allowed anymore. I'd like to see a minimum amount of hours in a car before being allowed to take a test.
I did a one week intensive course for my motorbike lessons and in no way did it prepare me for riding properly. And that was with 3 or 4 years driving experience under my belt.
So, what do you guys think?
I think it's an awful, awful idea. To let someone sit behind the wheel of a car for only a few hours and then go pass a test is crazy. They'll have next to no real world driving experience. All they need to do is have a bit of good luck on the test and they get a license. Madness.
That isn't to say that everyone who passes the driving test having had a lot more lessons is a great driver. I firmly believe that if I drove now like I did on my test (the BSM shuffle and so on) then I'd crash. A lot.
semi-pro waster
12-02-2007, 11:13
Like Burbleflop says a lot of lessons doesn't automatically make someone a good driver, I know someone who passed after one of intensive week courses and I'd trust being in the car with him more than with another girl I know who took about 2 years. However she will have had a lot more experience in differing traffic conditions at least.
I'm not totally sure but I'd think on average you are right and that it would be a better idea to make it dependent on a certain number of hours in an instructors car, however this may make it prohibitively expensive for some people. The test is somewhat of an unrealistic way to prepare for driving anyway, I think you learn to drive properly after you have passed. I don't drive like I did when I passed, partly through bad habits but mainly because having gained a bit more experience and confidence means I don't always do things the way I was originally taught.
I'm not totally sure but I'd think on average you are right and that it would be a better idea to make it dependent on a certain number of hours in an instructors car, however this may make it prohibitively expensive for some people.
To be fair, probably almost everything to do with driving would then be prohibitively expensive anyway. I know the cost of lessons was the tip of the iceberg imo compared to buying a car, insurance, car tax, random parts to fix on the car etc.
If they couldn't afford to take the lessons, they probably can't afford the rest easily anyhow.
I'd agree that a minimum amount of hours would be a good idea. Although it's not going to be as good as experience on your own, it will still help a lot imo.
I don't think I'd like to pass within a week anyhow, I wouldn't feel very confident in myself at all thinking 'Last week I didn't have a clue'!
Definitely a bad idea. I quite like the system in France whereas you have to log 40hrs of driving before you can even do your test, or 40hrs of driving lessons or something like that. eitherway there is a minimum limit you have to reach. They've recently made the test harder and harsher owing to the high number of road deaths that they had in France. It's getting a lot better now, very very noticeably so.
I've always thought the test teaches you how to pass but does little else for direct experience. (Un)fortunately the only way of getting experience is time and attitude. If you drive with a lack of experience and a poor attitude it won't get you very far.
I believe that you don't start to learn to drive until you've passed your test TBH.
I believe that you don't start to learn to drive until you've passed your test TBH.
I think the same.
Matblack
12-02-2007, 12:57
I'm in agreement with you but I think intensive sessions are somthing which should be open to people who have previously tried weekly driving lessons and it hasn't worked for them or who have tried and failed a test.
Intensive is pretty much the only way Aitch would be able to take her test now due to other commitments, she just couldn't find the time to do an hour lesson a week unless she could find and instructor who would teach after 8pm, she also didn't get on with the whole 1 hour a week thing, it just wasn't regular enough for her to make decent progress.
MB
......Intensive is pretty much the only way Aitch would be able to take her test now due to other commitments, she just couldn't find the time to do an hour lesson a week unless she could find and instructor who would teach after 8pm, she also didn't get on with the whole 1 hour a week thing, it just wasn't regular enough for her to make decent progress.
MB
Without wanting to sound like a Chauvanistic pig.....:)
Anyway, I think that young male drivers certainly need a bare minimum of tuition as they are agressive and without fear. Inexperienced women need a minimum amount too as far too often they are hesitant and nervous and cause accidents to happen.
Only the other day this woman in a saxo nearly went into the back of me in the snow because she clearly paniced and jammed the brakes on. Fortunately, she went skidding off to the left into the distance.
One thing I would like to see introduced is a minimum of hours tuition, a course in skid control and night driving. Once driving becomes natural to you, you relax and don't make nearly as many mistakes.
Personally, I can see the merits of a minimum number of lessons but then you are FORCING people into having commercial lessons. I did have commercial lessons but if my Dad had been able to, I would have been taught by him. I wouldnt have been able to take my test under a rule like that. As it happens, thanks to my previous years of track experience, I only needed a handful of lessons to get used to doing things on a road rather than a track.
I just think that it doesnt address the problem at all, the logic is backwards.
To me the solution seems quite simple - if you only want premium drivers on the road, only allow premium drivers to pass the driving test. Nothing to do with the number or regularity of lessons and everything to do with how hard the test is.
To me the solution seems quite simple - if you only want premium drivers on the road, only allow premium drivers to pass the driving test. Nothing to do with the number or regularity of lessons and everything to do with how hard the test is.
Gotta agree with this.
I reckon anyone could learn to pass the test, but that does absolutely nothing to teach them about all the important stuff like instictively observing other vehicles and situations developing ahead, stuff that only comes through regular driving experience; and does nothing to make you a good safe driver. You just can't get that in a week and actually be a 'safe' driver. I would say that week long intensive courses are great for those needing to brush up on their skills in the run up to a driving test, or the like, and should only ever have been done alongside ordinary lessons, either before or after. I think I'd probably agree with MB about it being okay like in Aitch's situation where she's had lessons before. Though I would say there were a number of driving instructors around Haywards Heath which ran out-of-hours driving lessons. Most of mine were done that way, and given I started in November I basically spent quite a few months learning to drive in the dark. Maybe thats why feel most comfortable driving in the dark, whereas most people seem to be the other way around?
I'm sure its just a marketing ploy anyway. There is no way that they can pass every student that comes their way.
I don't know what intensive lessons include but 8 hours a day concentrating and learning stuff is enough to drive (fnar) you crazy.
Is the test booked for the following week? If not than the intensiveness is broken down :/ surely something like this has to be absorbed knowledge? I dunno, I go on day course about excel and forget it the next week.
I think they are probably better for the other people who have tried a batch of lessons first.
BB x
It's a fair point DRZ. A tougher test would be better, but there's just something about the intensive "pass in a week" thing that I don't like, even though I did it for my bike lessons. Maybe it's that experience that told me they're not enough.
I can't agree with this at all, as BB touched on, there is simply the concentration span. If you aren't used to it, concentrating that long on the road will be a problem.
Now I can drive for about 3.5hrs and then I need to stop. That is after doing motorway driving for a few years. I do try and have a break every 2.5hrs ish if its a long drive.
When I was teaching Becky to drive she announced that I had better be good because the pass rate for the test centre she was going to was 35%. I think the national average is less than 50% pass rate so when she failed, it was for stupid reasons that the examiner couldn't/wouldn't explain. Then when I sat in the car with her on the back seat, I watched the examiner pass her with no minors at all. This was the third test, so I can't comment on how suddenly she "improved" without having any more lessons. :dunno:
Blackstar
13-02-2007, 00:06
Having only passed 6 months ago, i can honestly say that EVERYTHING, including the smallest weirdest things you would never expect change after you pass your test.
I don't think i would be comfortable going off on my own after only a week of learning. Especially because i was only able to learn during lessons, as i couldn't go out in the car with mum or dad.
So i don't think "pass in a week" is a good idea, my older sister wants to do one of these courses and i'm trying to talk her out of it, not because i'd be utterly terrified of her being legally allowed on the road but because i don't think it is the best way to learn. It's just cramming for an exam, which can be passed just by having a good day.
The CBT is another classic. 17 year old, never been on the road before, 4 hours on a CBT and half an hour on the open road and then he's free to jump on a 125cc bike which lets face it feels bloody fast when you first ride it and is faster than many cars on the road.
Yep, a 4-stroke 125 is easily as quick as say, a 2.0 DOHC Sierra to 60.
My CBT was over by lunchtime, but then I could physically control a bike already and it was 1 to 1 - not many people do the CBT in December apparently :D
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