Before you Start

For professional Driving Tuition in Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Luton, Harpenden, St Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Abbots Langley, local villages and other areas ‘twixt and ‘tween and also Watford (North and Central).

LDC Driving Instructor

Last Modified 16 July 2009

Alan Druce
LDC Driving Instructor

How many hours will it take?
In the UK people usually take somewhere between 20 and 40 hours to learn to drive. DSA suggest that the candidates who have had about 40 plus hours of professional training and about 20 plus hours of additional practice stand the best chance of passing. However, how many lessons you need will depend upon your motivation and aptitude for driving, whether you have had any relevant past experience, and whether or not you can obtain any supplementary practice between lessons with a relative or friend. The courses shown under Courses and Lessons are therefore only a guide to what hours you might need based on the circumstances outlined. It is not a guarantee that you will be ready for the test; this will depend on your individual progress.

The best way to learn to drive
The best way to learn to drive is to take regular lessons spread over a few weeks on a semi-intensive basis. Pupils using the ‘‘one-lesson-a-week’’ approach often take many months to learn to drive. While this helps to spread out the cost you do end up paying more in the long run. This is because you often forget what you have learnt from one week to the next . You end up taking two steps forward and one step back. Consequently, you take many more lessons to pass the test. If you are taking just one lesson a week you would need to increase the hours you need to learn to drive by at least 50%. Therefore if on a semi-intensive basis you need 30 hours to learn to drive, it is likely that you would need 45 hours on a one lesson per week basis. This is the real reason why so many driving instructors encourage their pupils to take just one lesson a week and avoid doing intensive or semi-intensive courses. However, the LD system does help to overcome this problem because you can use the LD materials to remind you of what you did during the last lesson while preparing for the next. The materials are also extremely useful if you are able to get any supplementary practice between lessons as they can be used to guide the relative or friend who supervises you. Again this supplementary practice helps to overcome the problem of taking too long and paying more than you need as a consequence of only taking one lesson per week. Please note that anyone who accompanies a learner driver must be at least 21 years of age, have held a full EC/EEA driving licence for at least three years for the category of vehicle, and that the vehicle must be insured for use by the learner and display L plates to the front and rear of the car.