Making Big Choices Series: Learning To Drive

Driving... it's one of those decisions in life either you do and love it, hate it or you just don't want to. If you're the person who doesn't want to drive and prefer public transport then fair enough.

If you're looking for some advice or someone who's been through it with a bit of experience then please read on and I hope I can help you.

For me, I wanted to drive since I was 15 so once my 17th birthday came around, I couldn't wait to get my hands behind the wheel. For my 17th, I was booked in for my first driving lesson in a manual car learning manual driving (This includes the clutch and gears). I did well with it for a month until it started getting more complicated with the driving and my coordination just wasn't working with a manual car. This knocked my confidence and my hopes of passing by my 18th birthday started to disappear.

This was until January of this year when I first sat in an automatic car to learn automatic driving (No clutch and no gears). I moved driving schools and started with my driving instructor who was absolutely brilliant. He was so understanding with my slower processing and anxiety which for me made my lessons more engaging and I felt I was able to achieve with the patience.

Once this got going, I was recommended to go and take the dreaded "Theory test" where you have to get 43 multiple choice questions correct and score 45 or more on the hazard perception test which is where you watch out for hazards basically. This took me 3 attempts to pass. The first time I failed by 5 multiple choice questions and I can tell you now, if you don't revise for the test then you will not achieve those high scores. The second time I was out by 1 question on the multiple choice and on the third attempt I passed just on the border of 43 questions. It was a real achievement when I passed this and I remember waiting in the queue to get the result back being so nervous.

A little hint, if the paper has no writing on the back then you've passed. It meant then that I could focus on the driving ready for the test.

My test day then came around and I ended up doing the hardest test route at Forest Hills in Southampton on my first attempt. I sadly didn't pass first time but on my second attempt, I passed with 3 minors!

I've been driving everyday since I passed (10/10/2018) and the freedom once you've learnt to drive is amazing.

When thinking about driving lessons there are 3 things to remember:

1) Decide whether manual driving lessons or automatic driving lessons are right for you. You might want to weigh up the positives and negatives and think about how and whats easiest for you to learn.

2) Revise for your Theory Test. I can't tell anyone this enough. The questions are the same as the ones you get once you're in the room and it makes answering them so much easier.

3) Practice driving before your test. Learn the routes, get to know roads and the more you practice, the more likely you'll achieve.

It really is a good feeling.