How our skills and knowledge helps you learn to drive

When you’re learning to drive, you’re placing all your trust in a driving instructor to not only get you through your test, but to make sure you become a safe and confident driver for life.

That’s why having the right driving instructor is key to your learning to drive experience.

Part of this is making sure you are fully prepared for your driving test and that means knowing the various questions, manoeuvres and routes that could come up.

As well as completing ongoing professional development training, our driving instructors also keep abreast of any forthcoming changes to the driving test which could affect your learning process.

Driving test to change from December

For example, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has recently announced changes to the driving test from Monday, December 4. Don’t worry though! We are already planning for this and will be building the new requirements into our driving lessons to ensure anyone currently learning to drive is fully prepared for the changes.

Changes to the driving test

A number of changes are being implemented to the test to ensure new drivers have the skills they will need to help them through a lifetime of safe driving.

The forthcoming changes are:

1. Longer independent driving section – The independent driving element of the test will increase to 20 minutes, from the current 10-minutes. During this part of the test, students will be required to drive without ‘turn by turn’ directions from the driving instructor. The increase means the independent driving section will make up around half the test.
2. Following a sat nav – Most test candidates will be asked to follow directions from a sat nav during the independent driving part of the test. The examiner will provide the sat nav and set the route so you can practise using any make or model of sat nav. You will be able to ask for confirmation as to where you are going and it doesn’t matter if you go the wrong way, as long as you don’t acquire any faults in the process. One in five tests will not feature the new sat nav element.
3. Changed reversing manoeuvres – The ‘reverse around a corner’ and ‘turn-in-the-road’ manoeuvres will no longer be tested, but your driving instructor should still teach them. Instead, you will be asked to perform one of three possible reversing manoeuvres: parallel park at the side of the road, parking in a bay, or pulling up on the right-hand side of the road, reversing for two car lengths and rejoining the traffic.
4. Answering a vehicle safety question while driving – You will be asked two vehicle safety questions, known as the ‘show me, tell me’

Learning to drive with Homers Driving School

From the day you start learning to drive, we will make sure you are taught everything you need to know to pass your test. You can supplement that learning and help speed up the process using our online syllabus.

Our methods lead to great success, evidenced by a first-time pass rate of 83%, compared with a national average of just 47%.

If you’re learning to drive, contact Homers to get started on the road to success.