How good was your driving instructor?

DubTony

Having seen a few posts on here about people blaming their driving instructor for not informing them of things that caused them to fail their tests, I'd like to pose a couple of questions.

Firstly, how do you rate the person who taught you to drive? I'm talking about professional instructors. Was yours any good? Did he/she seem competent? Or were they absolutely crap?

I've got a feeling that the vast majority of driving instructors out there teach people, not how to drive competently, but how to pass the test.

Your answers and opinions please.

Tony

Balfa

Mine was very good!

Norinoco

Mine was a Gem.

Richie Moran in Kilkenny.
I only did 3 lessons and flew the test.

I reckon a good instructor is half the battle of passing that test.
He did the test routes with me, and gave me a list of areas I was to improve on for the next lesson. Then on the final lesson, the did test run with me, which really prepared me for the real thing!

DoctorEdgeWild

Fantastic instructor - Temple School of Motoring for my car test.

ISM for my Truck tests - good but not as good as Temple imo.

leeroybrown

I had lessons from three different instructors:

My first was a competent instructor and a nice guy but he was doing another job part time too, was unreliable and missed lesson appointments ultimately resulting in me taking a break. Six lessons in total.

My second instructor was about a year later. I started doing lessons again due to work requirements. This guy was excellent - a good all round instructor with years of experience giving advanced driving courses. I did three lessons with him and he told me to practice and go back to him prior to my test.

Cue a test deferral due to exams and over a year in the queue.

My third instructor was recommended by my second as he was unable to fit me into his schedule around my test week. Another excellent instructor. I did a set of five pre test lessons with him in one week and used his car on the day. I found him very good at picking up on every little minor flaw in my driving. He communicated what I needed to change very clearly which was exactly what I needed as I hadn't sat in a car for six months and had very little time to sort everything out. Thanks to this guy i sat a perfect test.

Overall, I would say that you should deal with a full time professional instructor who honours their commitments. Don't put up with someone who will cancel at zero minutes notice (the first guy) when theres someone like the second/third who rarely cancel and will do so with notice, an apology and a set of alternate slots to pick from.

With regard to 'teaching someone to drive' as opposed to 'teaching them to pass a test'. I think the two go hand in hand. The five pre test lessons I sat were solely focused on my passing the test but they left me with a good overall standard of driving too. I've had this discussion with lots of people, and while I think that the test not an ideal test of driving competence I also believe that it's hard to pass it if you cannon drive a car almost flawlessly for the duration of the test. The best way to accomplish this is with a good standard of driving.

Canis Lupus

Mine was brill. He used to shout at me when I didn't do something right Used to get really funny.

But I passed the test first time no bother.

Andrew Duffy

First instructor was terrible - I didn't use the last of the lessons I was given as a present. One of the idiotic things he asked me to do was to ride the clutch while waiting at traffic lights that we had seen go red. It was his car, so I did it.
Pre test instructor was extremely good; he managed to point out the minor flaws and one incredibly large one (turning right onto a dual carriageway for an immediate left turn without proper observation) without shattering my confidence, and as a result I passed first time.

fletch

My first instructor robbed the company she was working for and then skipped the country. Lovely girl....woulda never expected it of her.

OMcGovern

It's been about 5 years now, but I agree that the driving schools don't prepare you for the test.
I tried the "Irish school of motoring" (ISM) in Ranelagh.... and wasn't impressed. After I failed the test I went to a place in Churchtown... and they said they could tell I was from the ISM by the way I was driving.

I would recommend the Churchtown place.... right in the middle of the row of shops, actually beside the official Churchtown driving test office I think.

ISM never told me that in the test they specifically stop in the middle of the practical, to test hand signals.
Also, I tended to speed... so I kept the car in 3rd gear during the test to ensure I wouldn't speed, but was failed on improper use of the gears !
( was overreving a bit )

I learnt more from failing the test than from the instructions, and the specific pre-test lessons I took.

One thing that shocked me about the Irish school of motoring was that they
advertise a 90% pass rate.
I found out, that that 90% is the overall success rate.
ie. if someone passes on there 5th attempt, they consider that a success.
So, their success rate for first test attempts must be somewhere like 30% I reckon.

For my 2 cents... avoid the ISM.

regards,
Owen

rymus

my instructor was great. pity my tester didn't have as firm a grasp on the rules of the road as he did.

ando

mine was crap, couldnt hear him cause he had the window down all the time. [SMUG]Good thing I'm a great driver though, passed first time[/SMUG]

css

Mine was an ex senior tester. He knew everything. :rolleyes:

DoctorEdgeWild

When I was doing my truck lessons, ISM instructor told me to register for the test in Raheny as Finglas have their own reversing bays which are not accessible to ISM. In Raheny, there are only 3 places you can do the reverse so at least you get to practise it at least once.

Our man in Havana

My first was ****e, told you nothing just let you drive. f***ing useless. only did one lesson.

Second guy was an ex cie bus driver was very good, he told me what to do and he said you will be fine. Showed me all the sneaky places used to reverse round the corner and gave me the full lowdown on each of the testers that covered the area. Excellent, worth every penny. Passed with no bother.