Dealing With Driving Test Nerves

The driving test is a pretty stressful situation, and it causes many examinees to be nervous. Colin John Brown wants to help you, so he wrote an article that will help you deal with your nerves.

Driving Test Nerves - What Are You Worried About?

Why Learners Get Nervous

The UK driving test tends to leave even the most confident/positive person feeling nervous and apprehensive. But why should this be? Firstly most of us have taken numerous written tests and exams by the time we reach 17 years old (the earliest that we can take the UK test). However the driving test is quite different, not only is it a practical rather than academic test, but unlike most tests where we can put a line through something we have written if you make a mistake when driving you cannot go back and have another go. So the learner driver has to make the right choices in real time without the opportunity to sit and think about it for a little while first.

As an Approved Driving Instructor I usually ask my learners a few weeks before their driving test if they are nervous, and if they are, why. The most common reason for their nerves is that they are worried that they will make a mistake in a particular area of their drive.

So how can the learner deal with these worries? Well first we need to identify exactly what the areas of concern are.

What Are You Worried About?

If it was as simple as asking the learner this question then this will be a very short article. However we need to make sure we ask the right questions and use the answers correctly. Let me give you a real example from one of my past pupils.

A couple of weeks before my pupil's practical driving test I asked her if there was anything that she was worried about. She said that she couldn't do her maneuvers. Now as her instructor I knew that she could do all the maneuvers to the test standard, but wasn't keen on the turn in the road (3 point turn) in particular judging the front and rear of the car to the curb. So I asked a series of questions in such a way as to eliminate the areas that she wasn't nervous about. I asked:

-Can you complete the reversing around the corner? Yes.

-Can you do both reverse park exercises? Yes.

-What about the turn in the road? No! I can't do that.

We had now moved from being unable to do any of the maneuvers, to just being worried about one of them. Next I asked about this maneuver.

-Do you understand how to do the maneuver? Yes.

-Can you control the speed of the car and still do positive steering? Yes.

-And carry out effective observation? Yes.

I was now left with the actual area that my pupil was concerned with.

-Can you judge the distance to the curb at the front and rear of the car accurately? No.

Again knowing their driving I was able to ask the right questions next.

-When we normally practice this maneuver, do you keep hitting the curb? No.

-Do you occasionally stop a bit short from the curb and need to take 5 turns instead of 3? Yes.

-Will taking 5 turns mean that you fail the test? No, just a minor mark (driving fault).

I was now able to confirm to my pupil that the good news was that the only thing that they had to be nervous about was picking up 1 driving fault on their driving test (you can get 15 of these and still pass the driving test).

A few weeks later and with renewed confidence this pupil went on to pass their driving test 1st time!

By talking through the area that the learner is nervous about we were able to isolate the exact area of concern and deal positively with it.

If the nerves had been well founded, being about an area of their drive that was not as good as it should be then we would still have had time to work on this area and improve it prior to the test.

Dealing with Driving Test Nerves

Talking through our nerves is a great way of bringing them out into the open, where they are always easier to deal with. Hiding our worries away is never a good way of dealing with them, it's a bit like sticking our heads in the sand, and it simply doesn't help.

If you are coming up to your driving test then sit down and think or even better talk through your drive with someone you trust to give you honest answers.

Possibly write down your concerns and if you are learning with an instructor ask them about these worries, so that hopefully, as detailed above you can deal with these worries in a positive, constructive manner.

Prepare properly, with plenty of good quality driving practice. Use some of the excellent resources that are now available, such as Driving Test Revision Cards to help you feel more confident. Confront the reasons for your nerves head on. Then you will be ready to deal with your Driving Test, and achieve the result you want.

By facing up to your nerves you can deal with them rather than letting your nerves beat you.
Good luck.

Your-Online-Driving-School

Online Learning to Drive Help and Advice

I have been an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI) for 13 years, running my own driving school. Recently I have started a new internet based driving school offering information and advice on learning to drive. This has given me a renewed interest in writing.

Source: EzineArticles.com.

Hopefully this long and detailed article helped you.

Good luck!
Nadav

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