The Official DVSA Guide to Learning to Drive

by Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency

The official guide which explains the standards required to pass today's practical driving test. Most people fail their driving test because they are not prepared. 'The Official DSA Guide to Learning to Drive' will help the learner and anyone helping someone learn to drive by explaining the standard required for each key skill examined within the driving test. This new edition will help the person sitting in the passenger seat understand what the learner needs to practise and the potential hazards they may encounter. The aim is to make sure that the learner is capable of driving safely and confidently, without prompting from an instructor, before they take their test.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

201 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Umi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Indispensable for anyone who aspires to own the largest collection of hatchbacks in the UK - or simply avoid minor women’s whiplash from continually braking too hard

[Nzu · Rating 1 out of 5]

A third of the book is about how to teach someone to drive. That should be a different book.

[Timothy Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, you’ve taken out insurance for your son or granddaughter to practise for the driving test in your car. They’ve had professional lessons but are now hoping that practice with you will enable them to get through. You’ve been driving safely (mostly) for 30 … 40 years or more. What could be simpler?

Many things, it turns out. For one thing, when you took your test, you didn’t have to do half the things they now have to do in a driving test: reversing into or out of a parking space, parallel/reverse parking, following a satnav or a route by road signs, showing how to check oil, coolant or brake fluid levels, etc., etc. You and I just had Mirror-Signal-Manoeuvre, now there’s Position-Speed-Look as well and side-door mirrors to check and double-check before every turn.

The roads are a lot more complicated now too, with multi-laned roundabouts and speed limits that constantly change, for example. Added to which, you’ve forgotten things and fallen into bad habits (breaking the speed limit, taking one hand off the wheel, checking your mirrors when you signal instead of before, signalling when you turn and not before—yes, that’s probably you). And there are new rules of the road to obey, such as giving way to pedestrians at junctions. You need help!

Well, here it is. Learning to Drive is the key to helping your son or granddaughter embed good habits and be ready to pass the test (and to renovate your driving too). There is a short, three-page chapter for each aspect of driving a car (e.g. Moving Away and Stopping, Roundabouts, The Emergency Stop). Each chapter gives a list of what you need to know or be able to do, what to remember, tips from the experts and what to expect on the test, as well as revision questions and a sobering thought to reflect on.

Each chapter has a footnote referring you to sections in The Highway Code and pages in the much larger volume, The Official DVSA Guide to Driving, where you will find further information. The second half of the book gives extended advice for you, the amateur driving instructor/adviser, on how to help your son or granddaughter, with a chapter of tips for each of the aspects covered in the first half of the book.

This is an invaluable book. It gave me the confidence to be a helpful instructor and advisor, and not just an observer. My one beef would be that it could helpfully include model answers to the recap questions. Oh, and one more thing. If your son or granddaughter is taking the test in your car, do make sure that you turn up with it in a safe, roadworthy condition. I saw one candidate failed before he got into the car because there was a crack in the windscreen.

[Elsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guide has good information on manoeuvres for your test but half of the book is aimed at the accompanying driver for your practises when the space could have been dedicated to explaining what is a serious fault, or giving diagrams of procedures such as the cockpit check.

Definitely a good reference for the questions and it includes a discount for their theory test app, valid until 31st December 2022.

[Max Balch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for learning to drive!