Tips for learner drivers

Learning how to drive is one of the most important things you will ever do in your life. Don’t be fooled by the nonchalant behaviour that the instructor might wish to convey, learning to drive is going to change your life.

It might not feel like it, we know! But, remember that most others don’t bat an eyelid at driving to work or to the shops, or even across countries. However, it’s truly a liberation of oneself, to be able to go wherever you would like.

You might feel as if you have no one to guide you through besides your instructor who you only see once a week. So here are some tips to boost your confidence.

It’s all about…

Taking your time! We cannot stress highly enough, how much you need to just take your time to learn how cars work, how the road system works and what kinds of things you need to do as a driver.

Take one lesson at a time. You need to stop thinking you are superhuman and that you’re the next Formula One champion in the wings just waiting to be unleashed. Take it all in as a life experience.

After a lesson

When you have finished a lesson, you should go over it again in your mind and note down the things you did right and wrong. Don’t just get out of the learner car and go back to whatever it was you were doing.

Sit down and try to imagine yourself in the car again. You can try to use things around the house to make a makeshift car. A toilet brush or plunger as the stick shift, or a dinner plate with some cardboard taped to the back of it to simulate a paddle shift.

And just make the moves you would while driving. Hand-eye coordination and basic habits like checking mirrors should be practices like this.

What’s ahead

The theory test is probably the one that many people dread. They have been driving for many weeks and they have slowly built up their confidence behind the wheel. It’s all the technical things like road signs, road behaviour, right of way, pedestrian awareness and those types of things that catch many of us out.

That’s why you should go to https://welcomedriver.co.uk/theory-test/3-quick-tips-to-pass-your-theory-test/ and learn about what is coming up ahead. You need to get 43 marks out of the 50 which are there. You will need to answer questions both in a multiple-choice as well as a click on sight test for hazard perception.

Self-belief

One of the things that we tell ourselves when learning is, everyone else must be really competent to have passed a driving test. Life experience will tell you, that’s not the case. So you have to realise that you are just as good if not more, than the others. Don’t talk yourself down in your own head before getting into the car!

Boost your confidence with these tips and you will give yourself a fighting chance to pass the theory and the practical driving tests, the first attempt!

** This is a collaborative post