Newslink January 2022
Motor Schools Association of Great Britain, driving instructors, ADIs, driver training and testing, road safety
Motor Schools Association of Great Britain, driving instructors, ADIs, driver training and testing, road safety
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Area Focus<br />
Too many still relying on guesswork<br />
when it comes to the theory test<br />
Terry Pearce<br />
MSA GB West Midlands<br />
I would like to wish you all a very happy<br />
new year.<br />
For myself this is my last year as a<br />
driving instructor before I retire. My<br />
concern is that with the extremely long<br />
waiting lists I may be unable to get all<br />
my students through before I finish.<br />
I know the DVSA is against the apps<br />
that find you an early test, and I do<br />
understand the reasoning for their<br />
disapproval, but for all that, my students<br />
have made use of them, with one<br />
pre-requisite from me: they must be at<br />
test standard first<br />
This recently proved useful for one<br />
learner who managed to change her test<br />
from April to December, giving her just<br />
five days’ notice of the new date. Happily<br />
she was a very competent driver and<br />
passed.<br />
The theory is...<br />
When I tell my students that the theory<br />
test is not easy, they all believe me in the<br />
end. Unfortunately, a lot of them only<br />
believe me after they have failed. I try<br />
my hardest to get them to read every<br />
question, but they get side-tracked by the<br />
practice tests they can take beforehand<br />
which they tend to get good results on.<br />
When they fail they often say “but I did<br />
well on the practice papers”, at which<br />
point I politely ask them if they<br />
remembered my advice to read all the<br />
questions and not to rely on tests? (But<br />
all the while secretly wishing I could say<br />
“I told you so”!)<br />
I try to explain that they will not see all<br />
the questions by just doing practice<br />
papers. I know there are more than 800<br />
questions the theory test could throw at<br />
a candidate, but assuming it is 800, they<br />
would have to do 16 50-question tests<br />
to have any chance of seeing every<br />
question, and with some questions being<br />
repeated from test to test the chances<br />
are the final figure would be nearer<br />
double that. The average learner gets<br />
bored after passing a few trial tests and<br />
considers themselves invincible.<br />
At £23 a time it is an expense a lot of<br />
them cannot afford.<br />
The other common comment is that<br />
they only failed by one mark so they will<br />
pass it next time. Filled with confidence<br />
they still do not study enough and have<br />
to pay out yet another £23!<br />
What I try to instill into them is that<br />
the actual theory test is well put together<br />
with a portion of factual questions which<br />
Tyre questions<br />
always trip up<br />
the ill-prepared<br />
theory test<br />
candidate<br />
means that if you do not know the<br />
answer, you would be unable to guess it.<br />
One question I have used as an example<br />
for many years is the thickness of tread<br />
depth. I ask then to choose from 1mm,<br />
1.6mm, 2.4mm and 4mm; very few<br />
guess the answer correctly.<br />
CONTACT<br />
To comment on this article, or provide<br />
updates from your area, contact<br />
Terry at terry@terrypearce.co.uk<br />
Saved by an AAngel in the rain<br />
John Lomas<br />
Editor, MSA GB North West<br />
Shortly after penning last month’s item<br />
for <strong>Newslink</strong>, I was being chauffeured<br />
from Darwen to a family friend’s house in<br />
Shropshire.<br />
A wet night and we had only just<br />
passed Leyland on the M6 when the<br />
driver’s windscreen wipers stopped<br />
working.<br />
We managed to get to Charnock<br />
Richard services safely where the driver<br />
tried a fix which had previously been<br />
used. Back on the motorway we nearly<br />
made it to Haydock Park, the East Lancs<br />
Rd junction. I know the junction, so was<br />
30<br />
able to direct the driver to a garage just<br />
of the NW corner of the roundabout.<br />
Having had another go at fixing the<br />
wipers we noticed that an AA van had<br />
come onto the forecourt to refuel.<br />
When the driver returned to his van my<br />
driver had a word with him and he very<br />
kindly came over and gave the wiper arm<br />
a good squeeze onto what appears to be<br />
a tapered spindle.<br />
He did this even though he knew my<br />
driver is an RAC member, and his fix<br />
lasted us for the whole of the remaining<br />
journey down into Shropshire.<br />
We avoided the motorway for the rest<br />
of the trip on the grounds that we didn’t<br />
fancy the possibility of getting stuck on a<br />
‘smart motorway’ if the likely additional<br />
spray should cause the fix to fail again.<br />
Smart work by the AA man. Who<br />
knows, it may well be that his company<br />
might have gained a new member when<br />
the RAC renewal is due.<br />
CONTACT<br />
To comment on this article, or provide<br />
updates, contact John at<br />
johnstardriving@hotmail.com<br />
NEWSLINK n JANUARY <strong>2022</strong>
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