Planning for your Check-Test

Initially, you might think that it's a good thing to be planning well in advance, after all, it must be true that the more planning you do the more likely you are to get a good result. However, this approach to the Check-Test will, more often than not, not provide the result that you hope for.

To understand why planning your Check-test lesson too far in advance is not a good idea, you need to consider your role as a driving instructor and how the supervising examiner views that role. Perhaps an easy way to explain this is by taking one of my e-mails as for example.

Mr X wanted to know whether it will be okay to teach 'meeting vehicles' for the test lesson. "No problem" I said, "When is the test". He answered that his test was in six weeks time. "How do you know your pupil will need and meeting vehicle lesson in six weeks time" I asked, he explained that he was covering meeting vehicles with the pupil on the next lesson - and that most pupils take a couple of months to master it and so she would still be learning it in six weeks.

It's difficult to know where to start with some people, and I think that I completely failed to get the message across on this occasion. Having said this, I'm afraid that anybody who thinks it takes two months to teach meeting vehicles is in need of complete retraining.

It is virtually impossible, even with a well structured syllabus, to know specifically what you will be teaching to an individual pupil in six weeks time; what this instructor was planning to do was to prepare a 'model' lesson and deliberate parrot fashion, regardless of the needs of his pupil. When examiners see a lesson like this it is clear to them that the lesson has been planned for the instructor and not the pupil ...

 

A Grade 4 is perhaps all you can hope for with this approach.

The Check-Test is just another lesson! Every lesson you give should be well planned and delivered enthusiastically. Any lesson is suitable... Stories about examiners not liking certain lessons, for example, the turn-in-the-road, are usually based on the experience of someone who has tried to deliver a 'set piece' lesson rather than delivering a lesson that is appropriate to the needs of a specific pupil on the day. If you deliver a good lesson, any lesson (apart from a mock test) you will get a good grade, simple as that..

So if you want a Grade 6, plan the lesson the week before (or after the pupil's previous lesson) and make sure that it is targeted specifically at that pupils needs.

 

The subject is immaterial!

Reminder about the No Smoking laws

as you are aware From July 1st 2007  the new workplace smoking ban came in to effect. This means that you can no longer smoke in driving school cars and that you MUST display an 'International no smoking' sign at least 70mm in diameter in your vehicle.

Although most school cars are privately registered, they are covered by the act because their primary use is for business. You can face a minimum fixed penalty of £150 for not displaying a sign and £30 for smoking in a a non-smoking place.

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