I'm looking for recommendations - quality of tuition above price.

I passed - ahem, a few years ago - so, my experience of driving
schools is hopelessly out of date, and I've no knowledge of intensive
courses.

Now most people will only have personal experience of only one school
- particularly for intensive courses - but who knows, huge reader base
here - we might have someone that's worked for several of them and can
make comparisons.

Ideally based in Cornwall, but not essential. Residential or not, both
ok.

wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations - quality of tuition above price.

I passed - ahem, a few years ago - so, my experience of driving
schools is hopelessly out of date, and I've no knowledge of intensive
courses.

Now most people will only have personal experience of only one school
- particularly for intensive courses - but who knows, huge reader base
here - we might have someone that's worked for several of them and can
make comparisons.

Ideally based in Cornwall, but not essential. Residential or not, both
ok.

Not quite Cornwall but ... maybe try:
http://www.auto-school.co.uk/home.htm

The lady who owns/runs it is called Jacqui McKelvey and is an excellent
instructor (my wife and I both passed with her) and she doesn't rip
people off. She definitely does intensive courses and I believe she does
residential as well.

Feel free to mention my name if you do get in touch with her,
Al Reynolds

In article ,
Owain writes:
wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations - quality of tuition above price.
I passed - ahem, a few years ago - so, my experience of driving
schools is hopelessly out of date, and I've no knowledge of intensive
courses.

Many instructors will offer Pass Plus which is a 6+ hrs programme
intended for new drivers but might be a starting point for discussing
what sort of refresher course you want.
http://www.passplus.org.uk/about_pp.asp

You could also consider joining your local Institute of Advanced
Motorists. IAM Observers (not instructors) are volunteers.
http://www.iam.org.uk/
"Most people can achieve "Test standard" after 6-8 observed runs
(typically a fortnight apart), so you could be "Test ready" in 12-16 weeks."
http://www.iam.org.uk/eshop/membershipshop/sfl.htm

I've often thought it would be interesting to take a modern-day
test with no tuition, having taken mine several decades ago.
Doubt there's any way to actually do that though.
I did find a sample theory test a couple of years ago, and I
passed that with a good margin, although I had to think about
some of the answers more than I'd expected to before seeing it.

As it says near the beginning of the Roadcraft book, most
drivers think they're above average standard, and of course
almost half of them are wrong by definition.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Sorry - I didn't make myself very clear - I'm looking for a course for
my GF who hasn't yet passed her test.

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:20:20 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

I'm looking for recommendations - quality of tuition above price.

Some years ago I was involved in a study of military driver training
for taking non-drivers to MOT Test standard. The study looked at
various options including accelerated training "test in a week" where
pupils were learning by driving 6 hours a day for 5 - 7 days. Most
students were 17-19 years old.

Broadly what was found was that more than 2-3 hours driving a day was
counter productive as students found it very tiring. "Test in a
week" had a much higher failure rate than 2 hours driving a day mixed
with other training over 4 weeks. "Test in a week" drivers also had
significantly higher accident rates in the 6 months after their course
and return to their units.

wrote:
Sorry - I didn't make myself very clear - I'm looking for a course for
my GF who hasn't yet passed her test.


Dom from Cornwall hmmm - you didn't tell me about any girlfriend?

Seriously assuming you *aren't* the Dom from the next desk - remember to
ask them how long they've been teaching and what their pass rate is. I
sail with a guy whoo is an instructor. He tells me that whenever there
is a recession lots of people take up instructing, paying for the
training (~4k) with their redundancy money.

Of course, most of them aren't any good... and you'll save a lot more by
having less lessons than cheaper ones. Not to mention having a safer GF!

Andy

On Nov 16, 5:20*pm, " wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations - quality of tuition above price.

Can't help you directly, but I learnt to drive a car in a week after
years of motorbikes - I'd advise you not to ask for "crash courses"
as you have to ring them back later when they've finished laughing at
you.

david