Learning is a wonderful thing. Some might say that even the OPPORTUNITY for learning is a wonderful thing – many people across the world are deprived of the opportunity. The benefit to oneself of learning a new skill, gaining a new qualification, creating a new habit is a form of inner growth that will benefit us in mind, body and spirit.

Learning to drive certainly falls into this category: the personal benefits to be gained from obtaining a full driving licence are clear to see. It will open doors that were previously closed. Both professionally and personally, the advantages of being free in our mobility are obvious. Yet despite this clear fact, it does beg the question why some people seem to struggle so much with the process of learning. The reward of achieving their goal is clear in their mind, there is no doubt that they have the motivation, the desire to succeed and yet, when it comes down to the means by which they achieve the goal, there is something that appears to be getting in the way; blocking or obstructing the learning required that will help them to learn.

Why does this occur? Is it a physical inability or a mental (cognitive) inability? This is an interesting question because it forces us to consider what are the ingredients needed for us to see improvement. One might well be able to eventually, with practice, formulate the words and expressions needed to physically express new words in a language that is being learnt, but how does one construct a sensible, meaningful sentence. Learning the vocabulary is one aspect of learning a new language, the physical ability to say the new words is another, being able to listen and decipher the words spoken by another person is another ingredient and having the ability to think of what you WANT to say and then formulate the correct order of words so that you can be understand by another is indeed, another skill.

Similarly, we could know how to operate a vehicle, so that it moves in the direction we want with consistency, accuracy and control – this is undoubtedly good news. But knowing how to operate the vehicle on the roads is another skill entirely. Appreciating the rules of the road, what we should, should not, must, must not do in a wide range of different situations will take some effort to learn. No one is necessarily expecting to see perfection, in much the same way that perfection is not required in speaking a new language, but there is an expectation to be capable of being safe on the road – or with the language analogy, to be understood. People can tolerate an unusual accent, the odd word being mispronounced, even perhaps the words in a sentence being not in the correct order or missing; but if another person can interpret what is being said, then generally, there is a tolerance for lower standards. And so it is with driving. Everyone will expect you to be safe, the driving doesn’t necessarily have to be perfect, but yes you do need to be able to control the vehicle, you do need to be able to drive around safely and complying with the law. There isn’t anything particularly controversial in this statement, it just seems to be the means by which we get to that standard that can be problematic.

It is tempting to think, and many people do, that to formally demonstrate competence, they need to pass the theory test and practical test – THAT is the defining goal, because ultimately, that is what produces the required certificates that leads to the driving licence. Therefore, they become fixated, one might even say obsessed in attempting to understand and achieve the criteria for passing the tests ONLY. They do not recognise any difference in the standard needed to pass a test, as compared to what is needed to be capable and compliant post-test. The testing procedure is in the control of the DVSA, they decide how people are tested, they also decide what people should learn to be safe on the roads. Their guidance is to learn to drive in the dark for example, in poor weather, on country roads, on motorways. They advise that you learn about all the different manoeuvres that you might need to be able to do when driving around – not only what might crop up on a test.  If you search “Summary of skills when learning to drive” you can see a list of these skills that they advise you learn – whether you do it formally with the guidance of a driving instructor or not is not (currently) insisted upon, but learn them is an expectation. Not because they might come up on a driving test, because they don’t offer tests in the dark, or in severe adverse weather or on motorways, but because it will mean you will be more able to be safe and compliant.

So how one perceives the goal is certainly one aspect that can adversely affect outcomes. And putting that one aside for a moment, it is not necessarily a given that even if one has the best of intentions of learning the syllabus as per the DVSA guidance, that it means one can. There can be many reasons why someone might struggle to learn how to get control of a vehicle. Just as, there can be many reasons why someone might find difficulty in learning the theory knowledge. But generally speaking, with deliberate practice, focussed, sustained, controlled practice, generally the majority of people will succeed.

Persevering in adversity is not easy. It can be incredibly effortful. It can require digging very deep, within oneself, to overcome any problems that might arise. This can go well beyond what a driving instructor can help you to overcome. The will of some people can be extremely powerful. It is almost as if there is something inside them that is absolutely determined to prevent them from listening to advice and applying themselves to the degree required to improve. It is very interesting to observe and can be completely debilitating. You sometimes have to be very courageous to learn how to drive. It really can make you learn about yourself. There can be many obstacles that prevent someone from learning, and sometimes it is not necessarily an inability to learn the skills needed, but more an inability to know HOW to learn the skills needed. Some people find it difficult to know how to learn. This can be related to grit and determination, but it can also be related to putting aside one’s ego that then ENABLES one to learn. We can get preoccupied in many distracting thoughts and feelings that prevent the required focus, to learn. Thoughts about how we might be perceived by other road users or how a driving instructor might think of us, or how our friends and family might think of us. Any of these things, have very little to do with the skills of learning to drive, but everything to do with the process of learning – and they can be very negative.

There is a sentence in a lovely poem from Anais Nin, that touches on this subject quite beautifully:

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom“.

It can be painful to just observe a pupil who is battling within themselves, it will undoubtedly be much more painful to the pupil. They know what they need to do, they hear what their instructor is saying to them, but there are other forces at work within them, that are preventing them from improving. It takes much courage to identify what is stopping them from ‘coming out to blossom’. It can need much soul-searching, much deep reflection, and willingness to identify precisely what is happening. There are a few videos on the BIG TOM YouTube channel that refer to this topic; if you find yourself nodding as you read this blog, you may well benefit from taking a look at the videos. Be brave, be courageous and start thinking upon this as attempting to understand what it is that is personally making this difficult FOR YOU.

How high is the mountain

Do I need any specialist equipment or training

How long will it take me to get to the top

Do I need to climb with someone else for safety reasons

Am I physically and mentally capable of climbing up the mountain

You could of course, not ask yourself any of these questions, and so you would be highly likely to fail in your goal. It is not impossible to achieve the goal, but you would imagine it would be not without an element of personal danger and risk.

And when you consider the journey of learning to drive, here is a list of the topics that you will cover:

Don’t be fooled by the short list of 8 topics. Each one of these breaks down into smaller bite size subjects. There is a DVSA book on the subject of what you need to learn, it is called “Driving the Essential Skills” and you can buy it from www.safedrivingforlife.org for £19.99

It is a comprehensive book with hundreds of pages, beautiful graphics, and very handy tips and techniques. The advice is the best advice that you can buy, rest assured that anything you learn from that book is directly aligned to how the driving examiner will be assessing you when you take your driving test.

If you don’t want to go buy that book, but you are interested in knowing what is contained in those 8 items above, then a good place to see the 27 skills that you need to learn is by clicking on this link

So, where have you got to so far on this blog? Well done for taking the trouble to read the blog, but have you gone off and ordered that wonderful DVSA book for £19.99?  Did you instead, click on the link above and see the 27 skills? Did you do neither?

You see, how you get on in this journey of learning how to drive is going to depend on many things, and one of them will be your attitude to learning. Do you know how you like to learn? Do you know if you will struggle with any aspects of driving such as: speed or having a lorry behind your car or perhaps multi-tasking, maybe reversing?

It might prove a good use of your time to think about this. Using the climbing up a mountain example, might it not be worthwhile to understand before you leave if you suffer with heights, whether you struggle to learn knots, whether your fitness levels are adequate for the task?

The temptation will be to assume that everything is going to work out just fine, in fact, many people assume that learning to drive must be easy because they have a brother, sister or friend who passed the driving test, so therefore, they assume, it must be easy. In fact, the ease with which one learns to drive is highly personal and unique, it depends on a multitude of factors. Some of the factors that affect you, may not have affected your brother, or sister or friend. Likewise, they may have had to deal with obstacles to learning that are unique to them.

In a similar way, parents might be of the view that in their experience, learning to drive was easy so therefore it must be easy for their son or daughter too. As such, any conversation on the subject of learning to drive is heavily biased in mockery or veiled insults where the parent openly says how surprised they are if their son or daughter is struggling with anything.

Sometimes, if a parent struggled with a particular aspect of learning to drive, for example parking, they remember this clearly and they transfer that fear over to their son/daughter because they assume that it may well affect them too.

And the other thing to consider when you learn to drive is that ultimately, you are wanting to be able to drive unsupervised. Now this is where the climbing analogy is lacking because you may well be taking a friend with you on the climb who has a lot of experience and talks you through what you need to do – so you simply do what they say.

We do a similar thing to this when learning to drive. It is called, “Level 1 – full talk through”. It is the first of these five levels shown below:

Being at level 1 is actually a very nice place to be – as you would hope it is when you start. You simply listen carefully to your driving instructor and they talk you through everything. No second guessing needed, no risky decisions to make, no compromising on safety, no stress put on you for knowing what to do. And there is an important point to recognise from these five levels. When you are practising a topic like driving on dual-carriageways, initially, you just do as you are told – level 1. Happy days. But as you continue to practise on them, you would be noticing that with no adverse effects on the outcomes, your driving instructor begins to say less and less, until eventually, after some time, you notice they are not needing to say anything to you. So the important point here is that it is not just the 27 skills that you are trying to learn, but it is being able to execute the 27 skills….unaided. That is the ultimate goal. Consider this conversation for a moment:

Driving instructor: Just remind me, have you done dual-carriageways before John?

John (pupil): Yes, they are all done.

Driving instructor: Ok, good. So just talk me through what you have done on them?

John: What do you mean?

Driving instructor: The practice that you have done on them, what did it involve?

John: Oh right. Well, do you remember a few weeks ago, when I drove to [name of town], there was a bit of dual-carriageway that I drove on.

So we can see from this conversation that John has definitely not been made aware of all the sub-topics involved in driving on dual-carriageways. John drove a short distance on a dual-carriageway, on one lesson, and thinks that topic is “done”. Here is what he actually needs to learn:

John’s experience so far, as beneficial as it undoubtedly was, did not involve using a slip road to get on the dual carriageway for example. John got on the dual carriageway via an exit of a roundabout. So John is thinking dual carriageways are “done” and they are far from done. His instructor needs to talk him through using slip roads first, and then with continued practice, John should eventually be able to do that independently.

It is because of this attitude to learning, that pupils like John get disappointed when they fail driving tests. They haven’t taken the trouble to see what they need to learn, or made sure they can consistently do the skills unaided.

Now it is quite common for a pupil to decide to not want to get involved in tracking what they have done on the syllabus, or what level they are at, with the five levels of progress, and that is of course fine. But what that pupil should not then expect is to be able to decide when they should be going to take the test. They aren’t able to do that, because they haven’t been tracking their progress. So, if you pass over the responsibility of tracking progress to your instructor, you also hand over responsibility for knowing when you are safe to take the driving test.

Practising is not the same as doing mock tests. You should first of all spend time, learning about the topics. There are plenty of very good resources available to enable you to do focused, methodical practice. As you learn, you will start to see patterns and themes that emerge. You will learn the importance of reading the question properly before attempting to answer it. When you do sufficient practice, you will naturally start to learn from any errors in your thought processes, and start to gain the knowledge required to help you be a safe, independent driver. Try and remember that the point of the theory knowledge is to help ensure that you can cope without having anyone supervising or accompanying you. Not only does theory knowledge keep things safe, but it keeps things legal; it ensures that there is a level of order on the public roads which is important. Try not to fall into the trap when seeing poor examples of driving and thinking that it is the norm; it is important to aim high in your standards – clearly, if everyone joins in with this goal it will maintain good standards of driving.

If you take this snippet from some practise recently done….

This is not in any way unusual to be achieving this type of pass rate. It is perfectly achievable to perform to this standard with some attention to HOW you are learning. Don’t just take a few attempts at mock tests and then book a theory test – this is not demonstrating a good attitude to learning, and certainly not maximising the chances of you passing the test. Theory tests are able to be passed on the first attempt – it is by no means difficult to pass first time, it just needs some focused study. By taking 2, 3 or 4+ attempts to pass the theory test, you are showing that you are not taking responsibility for achieving goals or minimising wasted money or time. This is hardly the attitude to take into the practical driving practise.

Aim high everyone. Pass first time – it will be good for your self-esteem.

It is perfectly possible to pass your theory test on the first occasion. Add up the amount of time you are taking to STUDY (this is not the time for doing mock tests). As a rough rule of thumb you should be aiming to do 14 hours of study as a minimum BEFORE you start to do mock tests. This amounts to half an hour of study per day for a month….. hardly unrealistic or impossible to do. Perhaps you could show some discipline in achieving your goals by substituting half an hour of time taken scrolling through social media, and replace it with theory study. You might be pleasantly surprised how quickly you will start to sense progress just by doing small snippets of study every single day.

Across the country, many people are failing theory tests (it has only a 40% pass rate) and there is really no reason at all why this should be the case – it has not changed in difficulty in recent times, there is no logical reason why the pass rate is as low as it is. It seems to be the case that people are losing the skill of knowing how to learn efficiently. Remember, as with anything in life worth doing, learning does take effort – it shows good character traits in being able to set high expectations and achieve them.

Review your coming day in the morning and the commitments that you have. Find a half hour slot in your day, write it down somewhere and STICK TO IT. Go into a place that is quiet where you will not be disturbed. Tell everyone around that you do not want to be disturbed, place a post-it note outside the door saying “Do not disturb for half an hour”. And then focus. Focus on the job in hand. No scrolling on phones, no video games, no music, no YouTube, no chatting with a friend online, just pure focus in study, where you can properly concentrate on the job in hand. It is possible to organise this; it just takes discipline. You will benefit from this type of study. You are attempting to learn a life-long skill where you will benefit from this learned knowledge every day of your driving life.

Good luck and take pride in your efforts.

What a driving test swap is

Swapping is different from changing your test. You are not finding a new date or time. You and another learner driver are exchanging your existing bookings with each other.

Who can swap a driving test

You can only swap your own car driving test with another learner driver.

You must both want to swap to each other’s exact test date, time and test centre.

Check if you can swap

You can swap your car driving test with another learner driver if all of the following apply.

How many changes you have left

You both need at least one of your 2 allowed changes available. You cannot swap if either of you has used both changes.

When your tests are booked

You must request the swap at least 10 full working days before the earliest of the 2 tests. Monday to Saturday count as working days. Sundays and public holidays do not count.

Where your tests are booked

Before 9 June 2026, you can swap a test with a learner booked at any driving test centre.

From 9 June 2026, you can only swap with a learner driver whose test is booked at either:

• the same test centre as you
• one of the 3 nearest test centres to you
• the test centre you first booked at

Check that both your test centres meet this location rule before you call DVSA.

What type of test you have booked

You can only swap with a learner who has the same type of test booking as you. This means:

• weekday tests (£62) can only swap with other weekday tests
• evening, weekend and bank holiday tests (£75) can only swap with the same
• tests given extra time due to a disability, health condition or learning difficulty can only swap with the same
• extended driving test for disqualified drivers on weekdays (£124) can only swap with the same – extended driving test for disqualified drivers at evenings, weekends and bank holidays (£150) can only swap with the same

Check your driving instructors are available

Before making the swap, both of you should check with your driving instructors that:

• they agree you will be ready to take the test on the date you’re swapping to
• they will be available to take you to your driving test at the date, time and centre you’re swapping to

How to swap your driving test

You can only swap your driving test by phone.

You cannot do it:

• online
• by email
• by webchat
• by text message
• using the DVSA WhatsApp account
• using DVSA social media accounts

You both need to be available at the same time to speak to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). You do not need to be together, as DVSA will call the other learner.

What you need before you call

Make sure you have:

• your own driving licence number
• your own driving test booking reference number
• the details of the payment card you used to book your test (you do not need this if your driving instructor booked the test for you before the rules changed)
• details about any driving tests you’ve taken before

The person who calls DVSA will also need the other learner driver’s driving test booking reference number.

What to do before you call

Check that your driving test booking has your correct phone number and email address on it.

DVSA will use the contact details on your bookings to complete the swap.

Updating your contact details does not use one of your available changes.

1. Sign in with your driving licence number and booking reference number.
2. On the ‘View booking’ page, select Change next to ‘Candidate details’.
3. Enter your address, email address and telephone number.
4. Save the changes.

How the call works

Do not call unless you are both free to take part in the call.

1. One of you calls DVSA to request the swap.
2. DVSA completes security checks with the person who called. You must confirm you agree to the swap.
3. You give DVSA the other learner driver’s booking reference number. You will not be asked for their name or contact details.
4. DVSA puts you on hold and calls the other learner driver. DVSA will only call them on the phone number that’s recorded for their booking – it will not accept a different number from you.
5. DVSA will complete security checks with the other learner driver. They must confirm they agree to the swap.
6. DVSA returns to you and completes the swap.

DVSA will not complete the swap if either of you:

• fails the security checks
• does not agree to a legal declaration
• does not agree for the swap to go ahead
• has already used both of your 2 allowed changes

DVSA will not be able to complete the swap if:

• the learner driver you’re swapping with does not answer the phone
• the phone number for the learner driver you’re swapping with is wrong on the booking service

Both of your driving tests will stay the same.

After you have swapped

Once the swap is completed:

• you will have the other learner driver’s original driving test date, time and test centre
• they will have yours
• both booking records will be updated

Make sure you note the details of your new test slot after the call.

You will keep:

• your booking reference number
• your payment details
• any special requirements you added to your booking

You will not get an email confirmation, but the next reminder email you get from DVSA about your test will have the new details.

Boston, Peterborough, Melton Mowbray, Grantham, Spalding, Stamford, Sleaford, and Lincoln.

As a result of this experience of providing driving training in a variety of locations, it means that there is complete flexibility for customers as to where they train and go to test. Tom has a bank of knowledge of test routes from personally observed driving tests over the years.

He has helped pupils with a range of differing needs, some might have been previously diagnosed, but often, that is not the case. In general terms, the issue(s) of “learning difficulties” is minor when compared to the issues of “attitudes to learning”. This is probably why the subject of attitude is covered very early on in official DVSA books on the subject of learning to drive – it affects the quality of learning and that can affect road safety.

When a pupil struggles with their attitude to learning, it may not necessarily be a conscious decision that they make; it may be the case that the person has little experience of learning a practical skill in a 1:1 training environment. Overestimating one’s ability is a common obstacle to learning, as is underestimating the effort needed to learn to drive – both are subject to individual perception and differ between individuals.

Tom has a coaching qualification which means he does not necessarily have to rely on “instructor-led” teaching techniques should a pupil favour a more pupil-centred approach. His experience in training means that he is able to adapt to the preferences of the pupil. He also has an open mind as to how practice is done in terms of the order, and locations used. This means that safety and enjoyment levels are maximised at all times.

It is true that some pupils will prefer an instructor of a certain gender, just like some will prefer manual over automatics. And in a similar way, some pupils will like to practice more often/regularly than others, or for longer periods in the training session.

As you can see from the above, there are a mixture of aspects that will affect learning outcomes, and the consequence of this is that the length of time it takes to learn varies and therefore the costs involved in training.

One of the key differences of Tom’s driving school is that he has a bank of genuine, authentic customer reviews going back to 2009 for prospective pupils to view. These can be seen on google, the driving school website and more recently (last few years) on Trustpilot. When considering using a driving instructor, it is strongly recommended that you ask to review previous authentic customer reviews from a credible platform such as Trustpilot. Clearly, when a service provider can not demonstrate a historical bank of real customer reviews, then it raises a question mark over the amount of experience they have, and also, why they choose to not allow customers to place reviews on their business (which similarly to the above point of pupil’s attitudes to learning, raises a question regarding their attitude to teaching).

This blog is aimed at helping prospective learner drivers to become aware of the complexities of learning to drive and explores how some of the factors relate to the pupil and others to the driving instructor.

When you learn to drive, you are introduced to key ideas and themes that all good drivers adopt when they drive on the public roads. If you were to count them up over the course of a training programme there would be several of these key learning points. When a customer makes a booking for one of the BIG TOM intensive courses, they are immediately sent digital resources that help them to start understanding these ideas. At this stage, a pupil is perfectly relaxed at home, far more able to absorb information than when inside the driving school vehicle and all the distractions that come with it. They can ask questions and answer a quiz on the new knowledge and do all of this when calm and relaxed at home.

By engaging in these resources, when these topics crop up in the in-car training phase of the course, it isn’t the first time a pupil has been made aware of them. So already, a pupil is being asked to RETRIEVE previously learnt information, and that process of retrieval helps to reinforce learning. And then it will arise again the next day, and the next day.

Contrast the above approach with what typically happens on ‘pay as you go’ driving lessons. A pupil is introduced to a key theme on a lesson, and it is the first time they have ever heard of that information. They are in the driving school car, there are potentially many distractions around them to interfere with their ability to absorb the information that they are being told about. It will then be 7 days (perhaps even more) before they are asked to recall that information again, by which time, much of it may have been forgotten.

With the intensive courses, these ideas, techniques and tips crop up several times within a four hour training session. Pupils get the opportunity to be reminded of them, many times in quick succession. When a driving lesson is only an hour long, perhaps it might only crop up once or twice, so not only are there longer gaps in time between the learning points, but also less frequency. Generally speaking, pupils like to learn by constant and regular repetition – this is pretty much universal for how most of us like to learn.

This is one reason why customers book up the BIG TOM intensive courses: they appreciate the techniques used in learning to drive efficiently.

Some driving instructors used to do this activity on behalf of pupils because it enabled the instructor to ensure they were never double booked, it also ensured the instructor was controlling the timing of the test (their pupils were not going to test too soon, before they were ready), and also, it enabled the pupils to concentrate on the driving and not get bogged down with test bookings or any test booking changes. But those days have now gone with the new regulatory changes from the DVSA. According to the DVSA, in their national research, 71% of the responses said it was deemed necessary to remove the service that some driving instructors were offering of booking up tests for their pupils, and instead only allow pupils to book and manage tests. So that is going live from 12/5/2026.

So, having voted to only allow pupils to book tests, now pupils are wondering to themselves, when should they book up the test? Do they wait until they are APPROVED to go to test by their instructor, or do they just book up a test for 5 to 6 months in advance, and hope that it turns out to be correct?

Looking at the booking system today [27/04/2026], for Boston, Grantham, Melton Mowbray, Peterborough and Lincoln, the only test centre showing any slots available in the next 6 months is Boston, starting 28/09/2026 and then Grantham has slots available for the first week of October; and that is it, that is all that is available across those five test centres. And this is where the problem is for pupils. If they only interrogate the system in a fleeting moment, the chances of them stumbling across a cancellation slot are minimal – extremely unlikely. But, if they constantly interrogate the system, repeatedly, dozens of times in just one evening for example, they are significantly increasing the chances of finding a cancellation slot (and these cancellation slots are going to be for the next few days). So that level of accessing the booking system is going to take some effort, many people will not be prepared to invest that time and effort to do so (which was one reason why driving instructors used to do it on behalf of their customers). So what this becomes is a test of your willingness to invest in the effort to locate one of these cancellation slots.

The other option, instead of putting the graft in, to locate one of these cancellation slots, is to book up a slot 6 months in advance and then work closely with your instructor, to ensure that you track your learning progress, so that you will in fact be ready in 6 months time. The DVSA did national research, twice in fact, of asking people who pass the test how long it took them, and the answer was about 7 months – having done on average 45 hours of lessons with an instructor plus 22 hours private practice. So it is possible, armed with this knowledge, to calculate how many lessons to do each week, so that you will increase the likelihood of being ready several months in advance. This is a skill needed in planning and organisation. Again, many people will not be willing to put in the effort to plan to that degree.

This is where we are now with the driving test booking system. It is an extremely common question that people are now asking, and as you can see from the above, you basically have two choices: you either delay any test booking until your instructor approves you for taking a test, and then once approved, book a test to then pull that test slot forward with a cancellation slot. Or, you book up a test 6 months in advance (like the slots that are available today in Boston or Grantham), and then plan your training schedule so that you will be ready in that period of time.

If you don’t want to be relying on your driving instructor’s advice of being approved to go to test, and you want to just go to test whenever you want (in your own car), then that option is still available to you at the moment (this option may come with some restrictions attached from the DVSA in the future – time will tell, but currently, there are no such conditions/restrictions).

Some people are still making use of the BIG TOM intensive courses for their driving training, because they are very much attracted to the fact that they can learn in much shorter timescales than the DVSA research of 7 months quoted above. And of course, that is a viable option, and many of those customers already have considered the above, and have made their plans in advance regarding the booking of driving tests. This is of course, entirely their choice to make now that test booking is only available to pupils alone.

Pupils are still asking about the cancellation test finder providers, and if they should still use them. The DVSA are very clear on this point as they feel that these providers are a big contributor to making the overall booking system very unfair to all users. If the DVSA do detect that one of these providers has been used to source a cancellation slot, they will immediately restrict the licence holder to only change bookings via phone only.

We hope that this offers some guidance to people who are currently wondering when should they book their driving test.

As the competence levels of customers differ, it is logical that what is included in any particular course will also differ. At the root of all driving training provided is the DVSA Driving Standard that details all the skills needed to be a safe and competent driver. Any customer can be assured that the scope of the training will be very much aligned to what they NEED to be working on. These courses are extremely efficient, so there is little time for aimlessly driving around with no particular goals being worked on.

Broadly speaking, the training will aim to help a pupil be competent at driving in built-up areas, country roads, faster-moving roads and manoeuvres. The only difference with a BIG TOM intensive compared to a shorter pay as you go driving lesson, is that our pupils get the opportunity to experience a variety of more diverse driving conditions because they can go further afield as the sessions are longer (4+ hours). Although the sessions are longer, comfort and enjoyment are paramount in mind to ensure the training environment is managed. Not only will this maximise the learning potential, but it also keeps the training safe.

So, in conclusion, our courses are not “crash courses”, there are no corners being cut here, because the training programmes are tailored to the needs of the pupil. We do ask for complete transparency of any previous experience when booking up a course, because the accuracy of the information provided from a customer, will determine the length of course, and that will affect outcomes if it turns out to be incorrect for the needs. For example, if an over-confident pupil with little previous experience incorrectly books up a course that is far too short for their actual needs, this will clearly affect the outcomes because all of the skills listed in the Driving Standard will have not been met to the required standard. We do not compromise on driving standards just because a customer has over-assessed their actual driving ability.

The attraction of intensive courses is large. There is an opportunity to significantly reduce the overall length of time (period) that is taken to get to the required standard. But do bear in mind, that this accelerated way of learning is not for everyone. Some people prefer the pay as you go driving lessons which is why we have always provided both options to our customers. It is effortful to learn to drive, it takes a certain type of person to be able to absorb information, and practice driving. As such, if you are uncertain as to whether the intensive option is right for you, start off on the pay as you go lessons. You will fairly quickly start to realise if you are wanting more from your sessions.

When a pupil takes an hour lesson per week, they are limited as to what they can do in that hour. But when a practice session lasts longer, a pupil can drive further from home, and experience more. The advantage of the longer training sessions is that pupils get to do more realistic journeys that all of us do on a daily basis. So they will typically drive between towns and cities as routine on their course. And when they get to the town or city, they then have plenty of time to practice any particular skills that they need to in their learning path.

As such, pupils are able to tap in to their ability levels and adapt the training programme entirely for their needs. This makes the learning curve much more efficient as it is personalised. This is why the delivery of learning on intensive courses is so much better than the traditional, “plod along” method of weekly lessons.

It is true however that some pupils do just prefer to take it nice and steady. For those pupils, the pay as you go driving lessons will work fine for them. But if any readers here are keen to dramatically reduce the length of time it takes to learn to drive, the BIG TOM intensive courses are a superb option available.

“I think the first thing to do is put some context to this topic so that any readers can see that my guidance is not aimed at generating any income for myself but instead, to try and assist pupils to learn. Having done this job now for a while and helping 200+ pupils I have seen how painful the process can be for some, and I believe it is avoidable just by paying attention to how they learn.

You could, in theory, learn how to drive a car simply by repeated practice with virtually no guidance from anyone else. It would be challenging and probably involve many mistakes, but you would imagine, given enough time, a person could independently learn how to operate a car.  I recall from a driving instructors conference that the actual percentage of people who learn in this manner is extremely low, the figure quoted was much less than 1%   I think a couple of reasons why it is not a very popular way to learn is because it could be risky, potentially causing safety critical incidents WHILE in the process of learning, and secondly, it would very likely be unkind to the vehicle e.g. putting strain on parts like the clutch, gear box, brakes and also potential damage to wheels hitting kerbs. But the above is limited to only learning HOW to operate the vehicle. It doesn’t include learning skills such as applying the theory to real-life situations, what you might call, the ‘rules of the road’. It doesn’t include thinking about how a driver assesses risk, judges spatial awareness, or how they make decisions such as whether to emerge from a junction, how to choose where to park or which manoeuvre to do for a given situation. It doesn’t take into account how someone learns what speed is appropriate for different driving conditions. So, with a little thought, you can start to see that a learner can gather a great deal of insight and learning just from listening to how a person thinks about things, WHILE they are driving – so this is less physical skills of eyes, hands and feet actions, and more about cognitive skills about how they THINK while they drive. Clearly, with something as practical as driving a vehicle, if a driver is not thinking at all while driving (or perhaps very limited thoughts) then the consequences can be very serious. So I am now referring to the learning potential for someone who listens to the guidance given from a professional about what to be thinking about while driving – this is markedly different to the scope of how to operate a vehicle.

One of the challenges with modern day learning techniques is that many pupils adopt a very individualised, in fact, quite isolated approach to learning e.g. practising something on video games in a bedroom, or watching youtube videos or insta/tik tok clips on a mobile phone (again, another solitary experience). And so, because this has become the norm of how most young adults are learning new things, the prospect of sitting in a vehicle and learning from the verbals given from an experienced driver sat next to them, is actually quite alien and unknown. It is not uncommon for pupils that I work with to demonstrate almost a disbelief, or loss of trust that they can learn from listening and talking to another person, such is their conditioning of learning information from videos.

We have created a generation of learners who quite literally, are not used to learning from other humans, face to face. In an academic learning environment, this might not represent much of an issue, students in schools and universities may be able to learn remotely using laptops and other devices, still absorbing the essential learning content, but for practical learning environments, where the risks are higher due to it not being theoretical but in fact, very practical and real – this does pose something of a potential problem.

It would be wrong of me to give the impression that this is affecting all young learners, because some learners are pretty efficient learners by either natural ability or being used to learning other practical skills previously, but I would say that those kind of learners are the minority.

And in addition to that point, it is a sad fact that the pass rate of the theory test is also at all time lows nationally, being significantly lower than the practical test pass rate. It always used to be the case, (10+ years ago), that the pass rate of the theory was at the 60% + range and the practical driving test rate at around 45% , but now the theory test pass rate is down at about 40%. So what this tells us is that this alternative way of learning for even academic, theoretical knowledge, is not serving pupils very well either. Which means that we really need to be encouraging our young adults to pay attention to HOW they are learning.

Failing theory and practical tests is demoralising, expensive and time-consuming….. not even to mention, unsafe.

It seems that more trust is now being given to YouTube influencers than to professionals within learning establishments. I would go one step further than that having paid attention to pupils over the last few years in my driving school car, and suggest that they will even trust ordinary people that they engage on social media platforms (friends/family and even strangers) MORE than they would a qualified driving instructor. This natural reliance (and blind trust) on information gained from unqualified, potentially inexperienced people online is a very worrying trend and I think goes some way to explaining why many young adults are struggling to learn effectively these days. “