The most common answer I give to someone who asks me this is ‘allow me to take you out for 2-4 hours of lessons and then I can give a good estimation of how many lessons you may need’. Everybody learns new skills at different speeds and people have different driving experiences, ranging from none to 30 years but their licence has been revoked, but until I can see what I’m working with it’s difficult to give an estimated time frame.
As a guide someone who has no driving experience can average around 40-50 hours to be test standard. If pupils are able to go out with friends or family this can be significantly reduced. If you do have lots of driving experience it can still take 10-15 hours to cover all subjects required for the driving test.
At school if you’re not particularly good or interested in a subject then you would go into a lower set and maybe not achieve the highest grade. With driving we don’t have that option, we all have to be at a particular standard to be able to pass the driving test and to be safe on the road. Therefore it can take someone 20 hours or 120 hours to be at that standard, their is no A,B,C,D,E grade it’s either a Pass or a Fail.
When watching an experienced driver drive they can make it look easy, but it is actually quite a difficult skill to learn. There are not many things we do where we have to coordinate our hands and feet while concentrating on everything around us, plus taking in what your instructor is saying. As time goes on you don’t think about what you’re doing in the car, you will automatically react to what is going on around you but this takes time and practice.
I always say to my pupils we are in this together, we both want the same outcome and that’s to pass your test and to be safe on the road. I will put 100 percent into every lesson and adapt my teaching skills to the individual to help them achieve this. I also need the pupil to put in 100 percent, it is recommended to have regular lessons and do what ever else they can between lessons e.g read the Highway Code, watch videos and pay attention when being a passenger.
Driving is like chess, you can learn the moves in a few hours but it can take many hours to master.
Tim Preece