How many driving lessons?

[Shaolin]

Aplogies if this has been covered many times before, I have searched but can't anything directly relevant.

Junior S. the younger (he's 17) is having driving lessons. 6 so far of 2 hours each with about the same amount of driving practise with either me or Mrs.S. He seems to be coming on well (only one brown-trouser moment when he was driving me and he pulled it back again after following my falsetto instructions). So he's had about 25 ish hours behind the wheel with half of that formal lessons with an instructor. I've just paid for another 10 hours worth.

Now I reckon he should be almost ready for his test at the end of this as he'll be up to about 50 hours total with half of instructions. He tells me today that his instructor has said that 40 hours of lessons is "average" which I am somewhat suspect about as it seems a lot and once he passes the instructor loses a customer.

I know there are many many variables, but it's a long time since me or the missus did this. What would you think is "average" for time behind the wheel or time being instructed before someone should be ready for their driving test?

[Uhura_Fighter]

40 hrs, a 5 day course.

Have you thought of taking him on the motorway when he passes?

[kambites]

Do you want him to pass his test or to know how to drive?

[EDLT]

I had 40-something hours of lessons, but about 20 of them were with an instructor who turned out to be useless ( I only realised this after changing companies). That was with no driving outside of lessons.

[timlongs]

I passed in 29 hours. Had 1 hour twice a week. No practise in another car either. This was in March.

[clarkey318is]

I think instructors are assessed on how many of their students pass too so I wouldn't write it off as pure money-making. I had 10 hours of formal lessons and about 20 hours driving places with my Dad, this was only about a year and a half ago too. At the end of the day, if he fails his test it's not exactly the end of the world..

[Piglet]

Are you just driving with him or going through manoeuvres? Do you know how to teach him so that he gets through his test?

Have a chat with his instructor, they are not all out for what they can get, most of them care that their pupils don't get the confidence kick of failing a test.

I suspect that whilst he's getting lots of practice with you, you aren't getting him to drive as he should do to pass his test (whether that's right or wrong!).

Edited by Piglet on Sunday 22 November 18:33

[rich0411]

I only had about 20 Hours with an Instructor but I probably had 100 + hours with my Dad, reason I had so many were I only had a part time job and was paying for lessons my self and could only really afford one a week tops, so in between my dad was getting me to do all the driving everywhere which really helped with 'learning to drive' and not 'learning to pass my test'

[spurs-442]

i had a fair few lessons - around 50 hours all with an instructor - passed first time and 18months down the line still have had no accidents (touch wood). i would say that 40-50 hours is a reasonable amount.

it does however mostly depend on the pupil and how well he gets on with the instructor.

[Shaolin]

Looking at other threads I am anticipating the pass-test/learn-to-drive argument. I wonder how many who bring this up carried on having instruction when they thought they were able to pass their own test though.

I want him to pass his test while reaching a reasonable level of competance. He actually probably spends more time practising than having instruction as he usually drives himself to and from school with Mrs.S. and is always keem to drive to the shops or other erands with one of us.

What I want to know is is 40 hours of instruction "average" or does it seem a bit high? The intention is him to take the "pass plus" afterwards and yes - we will be with him when he first goes on a motorway for e.g.

[parakitaMol.]

My son has just passed his test.

35hrs (including two hrs of test time for his 2 tests) over a period of 6 months with no practise car.... (neither the Z4M and Toureg V10 are appropriate or insurable for a learner!).

[kambites]

Shaolin said:

Looking at other threads I am anticipating the pass-test/learn-to-drive argument. I wonder how many who bring this up carried on having instruction when they thought they were able to pass their own test though.

I took my test as soon as I thought I could pass it and then carried on having instruction after I'd passed through pass-plus, the IAM, skid pan/track tuition, etc.

In my experience, one of the hardest bits about learning to drive is unlearning the stuff you were taught to pass your test.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 22 November 18:34

[Buzzkill]

He's right, i believe the current average is 40-45 hours. The AA state 45 as an example. 5 years ago i'm fairly sure it was around 30.

[Wax1234]

I had 30 hours in total, twenty lessons. Starting to learn already understanding clutch and very basic car control really helped

[Piglet]

Hubby is a driving instructor and he says the average is 40 hours taught time from a novice driver to first test.

He says that any extra seat time is always good but he would always prefer that the parent just let the kid drive and didn't try to teach manoeuvres or to teach the kid to drive.

He's had pupils where he's spent entire lessons correcting things that a parent has "taught" their kid at the weekend (use of gears/brakes etc) as much of the modern pass technique is not what many of us were taught 20 years ago.

Edited by Piglet on Sunday 22 November 18:43

[dicktracy]

I had 6 lessons each one hour.... And now I am not 85. Just guess it was a little easier in Denmark 20 years ago.

[jamoor]

I had around 15 hours 5 years ago, and had around 5 hours without an instructor.

Good instructors can figure out how quick you are at learning and figure out how long you need and adjust the lessons accordingly, IMO your instructor should be able to do this.

[TheStig44]

4 Lessons, 5 Hours. But I did quite a bit of driving outside of these...

[Vidal Baboon]

swerni said:

I had 10 lessons, each one an hour

Same here.

My friends- all around 8-15hrs

My cousin, who isn't into cars in the slightest passed in 13. That was around 10 years ago.

2 girls that work for me- 1 just passed, another awaiting her test. Both have said the instructor expects them to pass in around 40-50 lessons.



Maybe due to increase in traffic, who knows. Maybe the instructors are hoping for a nice holiday...

[Shaolin]

Thanks for all the answers

I'm guessing that the 40 hours average includes those people who don't pass first time and so need more lessons. I think we'll assess it when he gets to 30 and maybe plan a test for then, as someone else said it's not the end of the world if he doesn't pass first time.

I like the idea of skid pan and extra tuition for "real driving" after that. It's the idea of keeping on taking instruction to pass a test that could have been done earlier that I didn't like I suppose.