Questions
The things people ring up to ask us.
Written out properly so you do not have to ring. If yours is not here it will get a straight answer on the phone, including when the answer is that we are not the right school.
The questions we get asked on the phone
- The DVSA average is about forty-five hours with an instructor plus twenty of private practice. Ours runs a little under forty. Anyone quoting a fixed number before they have seen you drive is guessing, and usually guessing low to win the booking.
Theory practice
Try one. They are all like this.
People fail the theory test because nobody told them what it looks like, not because it is hard. Here are three real-format questions — answer one and you will see the shape of the whole thing.
Question 1 of 3Highway Code · Rules 19–25
You are approaching a zebra crossing. A pedestrian is waiting at the kerb but has not stepped on. What should you do?
The real test is 50 questions in 57 minutes, and you need 43. We run through the lot in two evening sessions.
Three things people believe that are not true
“You have to pass the theory first”
You do not. You need a provisional licence to start practical lessons, and nothing else. Most people sit the theory around their tenth hour, when the road signs have started meaning something because they have been looking at them from the driver’s seat.
“Examiners have a quota to fail”
They do not, and it is worth saying plainly because the belief does real damage — a learner who thinks the test is rigged stops preparing for it. The national first-time rate is about forty-eight per cent because about half of the people who sit it are not ready.
“Intensive courses are a shortcut”
They are a compression, not a shortcut. Thirty hours in a fortnight is still thirty hours, and it works for people who already have some experience and a reason to hurry. For an absolute beginner it is usually thirty hours followed by a fail and more hours.
What to do if you have had a bad experience with another school
Ring us and say so, because it changes how we start. About one learner in five who comes to us has already had lessons somewhere else, and most of them arrive convinced they are bad at it. Almost none of them are. What has usually happened is a mismatch — an instructor who talks over the top of them, or too much time on the same estate, or a course of ten hours sold before anybody knew what they needed. Enid takes most of these herself and the first lesson is deliberately easy. We do not need your old record book and we will not say anything about the other school.
How the theory test actually works, start to finish
You book it yourself on the DVSA site for £23 and sit it at the centre on Hills Lane, usually within a fortnight. It is two parts. First, fifty multiple-choice questions in fifty-seven minutes, and you need forty-three; you can flag questions and come back to them, and almost nobody uses the full time. Then a short break, then fourteen hazard-perception clips: you click when you see a developing hazard, and you need forty-four out of seventy-five. The clips are what catch people, because clicking constantly scores zero by design. Both parts must be passed on the same day, the certificate lasts two years, and if you fail you may resit after three working days.
Askanything
The awkward questions are the good ones.
Nobody here has ever made somebody feel stupid for not knowing what the biting point is, or for asking whether forty-two pounds an hour is negotiable. It is not, but it is a fair question and you will get a straight answer.
Book a first lesson01743 240 118
Phone answered by a person in the office between 8am and 6pm