What you need to know before taking driving lessons

So you've decided to learn how to drive a car. Probably the first question you will be asking yourself is whether you should go private or with a driving school.

Private Instructors

Private instructors will usually charge you less than driving schools. It used to be £15 an hour but nowadays they charge £18 or more while driving schools charge about £21. So when you think about it, private instructors are more appealing because of the money you are going to save in the long run as people don't just have 1 lesson and go for their test but have a mininum of 10 lessons.

But many dodgy private instructors will take advantage of the low cost they are offering. They will delay your learning cycle so that they can make more money from you. Some people have had like 50 lessons and but still their instructors say they are not ready to sit the driving test. Other instructors might say you need to master one particular thing (for example, reverse parking) before moving to something new and therefore act as a hindrance to your learning.

Of course, there are some genuine private instructors out there but all we are saying is to be careful. All instructors should have an ADI (Approved Driving Instructor) number which you can use to call the DSA to check whether that person is an approved instructor or not.

Driving Schools

Driving Schools charge more than private instructors and it may not really appeal to you at first. But the facilities they offer far outweigh the costs. Being with a driving school, say BSM, means you can use the resources in their branch to learn your theory test - practice the multiple choice questions and hazard perception clips. Not just that, because they have a structured way of teaching you to drive, you can easily see your progress and spot your weaknesses and strengths. You can report their driving instructors for bad behaviour behaviour in case it happens or change them if you think they are not teaching you very well.