What's the worst that could happen?

It is always nice to be appreciated and, as a Driving Instructor, I feel more appreciated now than I did in any of my previous jobs. I have recently taken on a new pupil in the Elgin area. She took over 50 hours of lessons a few years ago, but failed her driving test and lost confidence in her ability to drive. This summer she decided to try again and found my number on the internet. What she is most happy about is that, as she says, “my previous instructor would tell me what to do, but never explain why, whereas you explain why, so I understand better.”


Whenever I take on a pupil who criticises a previous instructor I always take what they say with a pinch of salt. Last year I took on a pupil who had just failed her test after learning with another instructor. I explained that I wanted her to drive around the area for 5 -10 minutes so that I could have a look at her driving. It was pretty good, so I asked her to drive into a car-park and reverse into a bay. It was slightly alarming to see her carry out the manoeuvre without the slightest glance around the car. We discussed her drive, which I praised her for, then we talked about the parking.
“Where should you be looking whilst parking?”
“In my mirrors, to see when I am in the bay.” She confidently replied.
“But is that the only area we need to look?”
“Oh…Oh yes…. My instructor told me that, IN MY TEST, I would have to look all around.”
I was dumbstruck. Surely an instructor would not imply that all-round observation is only necessary in a driving test?
Later on, we came to a crossroads, where we had to give way, and I wanted her to turn right. Opposite was another car with no indicator (suggesting that he was going straight ahead).
“Who has priority here?”
“I don’t know.”
Further questioning revealed that she had no idea about priorities at junctions.
“My instructor never taught me any of this.” She claimed. “He just told me when to go.”
I was very sceptical. I could not believe that an instructor would let his pupil go for her test without knowing basic knowledge such as this. I suspected that she had been taught this, but had forgotten. So, as I said, if a pupil makes claims about a previous instructor’s failings, I listen with a degree of scepticism.
So why do pupils not remember what they are taught? Because, as I suggested in the first paragraph, it is because they do not fully understand WHY they should/should not do something.

I have a friend who is training to become a driving instructor with BSM. He passed the first two exams (Theory and an extended driving test) and recently had his first attempt at the ‘dreaded’ Part 3, the test of his instructional ability. This is where the examiner plays the role of two different pupils. During the first half hour, the examiner may pretend to be a novice driver wanting to learn about T-junctions, for example, then, in the next half hour, he will pretend to be a partly-trained driver wanting to improve his overtaking and approach to meeting situations. Any good trainer will emphasise the need to develop the instructor’s core competencies - Identifying the fault, Analysing the fault, and finding a remedy. All three are important and should not be overlooked. For example, the examiner (pupil) may not be checking his mirrors before indicating. Ok, an easy enough fault to identify. But it is not good enough to say “You must check your mirrors before indicating.” You may have identified the fault and suggested a remedy, but there has been no analysis.

When I was talking to someone recently about my friend’s Part 3, I was told that he failed, but they thought it was a bit unfair because he identified the faults and suggested remedies, but the examiner kept making the same faults; ‘surely a pupil would not repeat the fault if they have been told not to?’. Yes they will.
Taking mirrors as an example: Anyone can get a training manual out, show the pupil a diagram of a right turn into a side road, and say “We must check our interior and right mirrors, indicate, position our car just to the left of the centre of the road, slow down to an appropriate speed, select the correct gear, look ahead and into the road to assess whether it is safe to cross or whether it is better to wait and consider a lower gear.” If I told a pupil this I can almost guarantee that (assuming they can remember all of that) they will check their mirrors and signal immediately after. What’s wrong with that? Well, Q. Why are you checking your mirrors? A. To decide whether it is SAFE to indicate.
A common Q & A session might be as follows:
“We want to turn right up ahead. When should we check our mirrors?”
“Just before we indicate.”
“Would you indicate if, when checking your mirrors, you saw a motorbike about to overtake you?
(Blank look)……”Ummmm. Maybe.”
“You don’t really have time for ‘Maybe’. What would you do if you were on that motorbike, preparing to overtake a car and, just as you were about to overtake, you saw that car indicating right?”
“I don’t know.”
“Exactly! You, if you imagine you are on the motorbike, don’t know whether that car has seen you, so you don’t know whether it is safe to overtake or not.”
“Ah.. I understand.”

I know this all sounds like I am some sort of Kung Fu or Jedi master, but I have to make my pupils understand WHY they should check their mirrors, and WHEN (“In plenty of time to be able to choose when to indicate”). By doing that, they are less likely to repeat the fault because they are starting to understand the consequences.

Going back to the Part 3. If the examiner doesn’t feel that you have sufficiently explained the consequences (the ‘Why?’) of him making a fault, he will continue to make the fault, regardless of whether you have told him how to correct it. And, no, it is not unrealistic, because pupils (not every pupil) will continue to repeat the same faults, even though you have told them not to, unless they fully understand what could happen as a result of that fault.

So, the next time he attempts his Part 3, and he spots that the examiner is indicating too early to exit a roundabout, he should explain that, as a consequence, a car approaching the next exit might assume that it is safe to emerge into the roundabout, causing the examiner to swerve away, thus forcing the bus on his right to brake suddenly and go into a skid and crash into a fuel lorry, igniting a massive explosion, killing hundreds of people and sending a gigantic fireball up into the sky and a colossal plume of black smoke which causes a Boeing 747 to lose control and plummet into government buildings, triggering the launching of nuclear missiles towards Afghanistan because the government thinks it is a terrorist attack, Iran and North Korea retaliate and we have nuclear Armageddon….. All because you indicated too early at that roundabout.