Intensive Courses

What do you understand by the term Intensive Course?

On average people pass between with 30/40 hours professional training, the DSA (Driving Standards Agency) Statistics show that for every year of your life, you require 2 hours of tuition (as a guideline) suggesting the older you are it may take longer to pass. The DSA recommends that the average person will take 45 hours of professional training plus 20 hours of additional practice. This is of course only an average and we have found some pupils able to pass their driving test after 25 hours whilst others take much longer.

Some intensive courses can last for 7 hours per day. Simply ask an experienced driver how they would feel driving for 7 hours per day. Indeed it is recommended that a driver should take a break every 2 hours. Is it realistic to expect anyone to learn to drive in one week? One of the very real dangers of the intensive course is that more emphasis is put on "how to pass the driving test" as opposed to "learning to drive" as such. It takes a few years for someone to build up the experience they need on today's busy roads, mind you some folk take to driving more naturally. I just think that learning to "pass the test" might leave some new drivers with a false sense of confidence. I recommend to make good progress you should have at least one 2hr session per week. If you wish to make quicker progress then why not have two or four lessons each week. You will be surprised how quickly you will be ready to take your test. This will give you greater experience on a variety of roads and in a variety of road conditions. If after 3 weeks we feel together that you are not quite ready then we can postpone the test and avoid the risk of you failing and losing your test fee. With a one intensive course one can not cancel because you need to give 3 clear working days notice to cancel without loosing your test fee.

Having been in education for 32 years I am not a fan of the intensive course, have found that it does not give the same grounding and knowledge that structured learning can give over a number of weeks. A lengthier learning process will give many more different driving conditions, which in turn makes for a better driver.

The statistics with regards to pass rates for these courses ARE really rather shocking.

I'd also be careful of any school offering to take two pupils in the vehicle at once. At the end of the day it can be off putting going through something as daunting as a driving lesson on an unfamiliar road as it is, especially to a relative novice. If you add another learner sat in the back staring into the mix. It can imagine it being very off putting. The whole "two pupils in a car" thing is something avoided by SJM Driver Training,

Please remember that all the Driving Instructor can do is their best in a short space of time, as with everything, everyone learns at different rates, so the intensive may be a waste of lessons and will not be enough driving experience. The pupil will not be properly prepared for the test and fail. This then dents their confidence and costs them £62 in test fees.
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Now then, if you come across anyone offering 1 or 2 week courses - remember this:

Let’s assume you book your theory test for about 2 weeks time, which to be honest makes sense because you can give yourself enough time to revise (Remember it is £32 a shot!) and there’s a pot of just over 1000 questions of which on the day you need you need to score 43 or more out of 50 on the question side - You also need to practice for the hazard perception test also! (you need to score 44 out of 75 or more to pass the Hazard Perception test) during this time you could have had spread out your lessons nicely so you can have time to think about what you did each lesson (you'll be surprised how much you improve just by thinking about what you didn’t do so well on, last lesson) and more importantly you are giving yourself the opportunity to gain experience as no two days on the road are the same - this will make you safer and more experienced by far. Better than doing 7 hours a day for example. Learning to drive whilst preparing for your theory test will also help you understand some of the issues contained in the theory and hazard perception test. If you have experienced the various road signs and traffic situations it is much easier to understand the answers to the questions.

Always remember Safe Driving – an Investment for Life