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Old 10-03-18, 20:09   #22
moodydog
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Uggh, I need to vent a little bit. I've just discussed this a little with my dad, and my friend, who completely agree with me. I've been having driving lessons, about 14 hours so far, and I've block booked 2 sets of 10 (on the second set, 4 hours in), I've been having very light internal thoughts about a desire to change instructor, but felt guilty for having them, in some way being disrespectful to my driving instruct (whom I get along with) if I do. I have another 2 hour lesson tomorrow, and another next week (2x2 hours) which should conclude this block booking. I feel like after that, I NEED to swap driving instructors.

Here's why:

She's actually good at instructing, she is very good at pointing out my driving flaws from the get go, which in turn makes me feel a bit more cautious about my errors. However, there a some points that are really making me consider leaving.

1) She's occasionally late. Today she was an hour late, which wasn't too much of an issue, but I had commitments afterwards, and I was pressed for time. She didn't notify me until the start time that she will be half an hour late, which turned into nearly an hour late... This isn't really to much of an issue for me as it's the weekend and I have a bit of traffic understanding, but since I was pressed for time, it did annoy me. EDIT (if you read below, the traffic doesn't seem to be the cause of the lateness, something far less credible)

2) She's completely disorganised with her bookings. She teaches both manual and automatic. However the lessons are managed poorly, like she would have a manual student, then an automatic and then a manual etc. And the lessons are head to tail booked, (i.e, the next student is picked up before the previous student is dropped off), thus the beginning of the lesson usually consists either me driving with the previous student in the back of the car, (or the previous student driving me), often in the wrong car type, whilst we all go back to the driving instructors house to swap cars suited for my lesson. Then the lesson begins in the right car, and we have to drop the previous student off before continuing with the lesson plan. Then near the end of the lesson, we have to pick the next student up (either they drive, or I do, depending on how long I've been driving for in the lesson) and I get dropped off. This usually results in me being in the car for way over the time period of the lesson itself (yet I'm sat in the back). I am going to pinpoint this as being the cause of lateness, and there's no cool down period for my driver to get organised for the next lesson. Also, because of this, some of the lessons can feel very vague. An example of this is today:

Because she was almost an hour late to begin this lesson today, I insisted on being dropped off at home exactly after 2 hours (the lesson duration), I said I need to be home no later than 2:20, because I had a commitment at 3. She was perfectly fine with this, however, there was some accommodations to be made to fit this in with her next student. She basically arrived in the Automatic from the previous student (whom was still in the car at the time), so I drove the automatic back to the instructors house to switch. We then changed car, whilst the instructor briefly went into the house, I spoke to the previous student. Found out it was her first lesson, and she jokingly told me that the instructor accidentally arrived with the wrong car for her lesson, so they had to go back and change, hence why she was an hour late (my driving instructor blamed it on the traffic). Once swapping back to a manual car for my lesson, we drove the previous student back to her house, eating into the lesson time. We then had a super condensed lesson in the manual, before having to drive back to the instructors house to change back to the automatic (half way through the 2 hour lesson), in order to accommodate the next student who is learning in an automatic. We then shortly after picked up the next student. The next student was in the car for a total of almost an hour, as I had an hour left before my lesson was due, so we took a really alternative route back to my house, down (relatively fun) windy roads, and my first experience of 60 miles an hour, but in the wrong car type. Then I got dropped off about 10 minutes before my lesson was supposed to finish, because timing!

Most lessons have an element of this, but nowhere near as bad.

3) Because of the head to tail way that the lessons are ran, they sometimes feel jagged (a lot of stop, start, time wasted), quite vague and very poorly planned. I also feel a bit on edge with a student in the back of the car as a learner driver. Should this happen?

4) Because there is a student in the back of the car when I am dropped off, there is never ANY form of debrief. The instructor is fully committed to the next student, I have no idea how she thought the lesson went, what I need to improve on, and what the plan for the next lesson is. (As a learner, this is fundamental)

5) I don't feel good when finishing a lesson. I feel a bit unsure of the events. My teacher is extremely critical, which is good, but whenever I do make a mistake, I get shouted at, and constantly told "I NEED to be this" or "I NEED to be more...". And I get it, it makes it fundamentally clear, however (and I don't mean to be sexist here) I feel some emotional guilt aspect for making mistakes due to the way it comes across, and I don't think I would get that with other instructors. There's not much discrepancy between making a mistake for the first time or the 50th time, I've joking talked about this as we do get on, and I can (to an extend bring these things up) and she does laugh about it, but I still feel kind of guilty and in the wrong for making the mistakes. Because there's no debrief, so there's no evaluation. So I'm left feeling rather unsatisfied.

6) Unusual priorities in the lesson: Four lessons in, she once had a cat in the back of the car. We stopped off half way through the lesson so she could pop her cat into the vet. It only took 10 minutes, but this sounds like sheer disorganisation. This shouldn't happen during a driving lesson, especially not with a new driver I was at the time.

7) She is always on the phone whilst driving. I don't know what she's doing on the phone, if its work related or necessary, however I'm pretty sure this is illegal. She still somehow manages to make some concentration on my driving, but it is concerning. Furthermore, occasionally her husband phones during the lesson (and on loud speaker). The first issue is the ring tone ALWAYS gives me a shock, and secondly I'm left hearing a bit of the friction between them as she talks to him. Because she's talking to her husband, she can't focus on what I'm doing, so she ends up taking the wheel and steering for me and indicating if I need to switch lanes or do a maneuver.

8) She often takes control of the steering wheel. Less frequently now, but I'll admit sometimes this is necessary to steer me out of the way of parked cars and towards the oncoming traffic (with the idea that the oncoming cars will move). I'm not to concerned with this one, but I feel I think there can be some defence from my instructor, it's her car after all.

9) I think she has way too many students. She works 7 days a week, and jam packs her working days. Hence cramping so many students in, MUST have an effect on the lesson quality, as evident in my case. This has been of benefit to me initially, as I could only do weekends, and she seemed the only one willing to work weekends (that I've asked). My circumstances have changed (will do very shortly), and thus can afford to have lessons in the middle of week.

10) Sometime she talks about her other students, not always negative, but mainly shares how they're doing, and if they fail, uses them as examples of people who have not been ready to take their test. I wouldn't want any to do this with me.

Once I finish my block of lessons next week, as guilty as I feel, as I do get along with the instructor, and I have definitely made some progress in competent driving. Though to be fair, there is a lot more to cover, and I'm quite young in my driving experience. I feel I NEED a new instructor, after chatting with my dad and one of my friends, it's abundantly clear that this is not normal. They strongly suggested I change.

Luckily after this block of lessons, I have a gap for a month or so, as I'm off. In this time, I'm going to search for a new instructor. I'm wondering if I should say anything at all to my previous instructor, or what to say if she asked if I'm booking any more lessons?

Upon reading this, what are your thoughts? Right decision?

Last edited by moodydog; 27-05-18 at 08:29.
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