Intensive driving courses

[cmackay81]

Hi All

The Mrs is learning to drive at the moment, and I'm quickly realising it's going to A cost a boat load, and B take bloody ages before she can be the designated driver :/

Has anyone any experience with Intensive driving courses such as the below type of thing...

http://www.learning2drive.co.uk/

The idea of it looks good, probably works out cheaper than loads of lessons and would be a damn site cheaper, though only if she passes through it I guess

[gazchap]

Good for some, not so for others.

I did an intensive course back in 2002 (with BSM) - 30 hours in one week, with the test at the end.

I learnt to drive bloody quickly, but ultimately I didn't have enough experience really and I failed the test. 30 hours is a lot to take in in one week (I did 10 hours just on the Wednesday) and you can't really process it all.

Well, I couldn't anyway.

[cmackay81]

cheers for that.

I guess I had assumed most people pass this sort of thing, but thinking about it maybe not.

did you get a chance to retry on the course, or would that be just another course afterwards?

[gazchap]

I didn't have any more money unfortunately, so I had to shelve my plans until early 2004, when I started learning again but at a regular rate (i.e. 1 lesson a week). I booked a second test at the same time I started, and the gap between then and the test meant I got about another 6 or 7 lessons in as a refresher, coupled with a lot more private practice in my missus' (at the time) car.

[twazzock]

Do it alongside practice with you. That way the instructor teaches her the technique, then you fine-tune her ability to do it at a much lower cost than it would be with an instructor. May test your patience if she's a slow learner though

I only had 12 formal lessons, but probably did 30ish hours driving around with my mum over the course of a month and passed first time, within 7 weeks of my first lesson.

Try collingwood learners for provisional insurance (about £100 a month).

Good luck

[aizvara]

I did an intensive course in Norwich (with a company called 5day) earlier this year. It was pretty good - somewhere between 20-30 hours driving and the rest of the time spent on theory/practical road craft advice. I'd done some lessons and failed a test years ago, and needed to pass quickly. That's exactly how it worked out for me.

Some of those on the course who hadn't taken any lessons before had a tough time, but its a very quick way to progress at least near to test standard. Many of the intensive courses will also offer free tuition if you fail, and will get retests booked for you very quickly.

I have heard of intensive "courses" which turn out to just be block bookings with an instructor, which is probably of less use to a real beginner, and might not have the associated day plan or facilities of a real course.

There has been some talk of having a minimum learning time, like much of the rest of Europe, so intensive courses may not be allowed in isolation. I don't think this will be introduced for the new test in October, though.

[Orillion]

I used to be an examiner for DSA. On the whole, intensive course candidates
did not do well.

It's a lot of information for a new driver to absorb in a short time. It did
sometimes work for someone who could already get about fairly well and who
need to be tidied up.

I'd recommend that you find a trusted local ADI, and see if he or she could
fit in several lessons a week. There's not a great deal of work available
at the moment for instructors, so making this kind of arrangement shouldn't
be too difficult.

Bear in mind that your wife won't be able to apply for a practical test until
she has passed the theory test.

[toast boy]

I don't know anyone who has been on one of the intensive courses but remembering when I was learning to begin with, anything more than 2 hours in the car in one go was pretty hard going. For a beginner there is a massive amount of information and learning to take in so not sure how effective it is to condense the learning process.

Just my 2p

[Zad]

I found the best way was to do 2-hour sessions 2 or 3 times a week. 1 hour sessions are useless, you spend a large percentage of the time getting up to speed and getting your brain in gear, whereas 3 hours is just too long to be learning all the time. Doing 6 hours a week plus extra practise time should get her up to speed in less than a month.

[cmackay81]

cheers for that people.

exactl;y the stuff I was wanting to find out. Think I won't be bothering with an intersive course then, will just try and get her out with myself and instructors as much as possible though