Welcome Abigael. I really look forward to helping you to not only prepare for your restricted driving test, but to help you to overcome your nerves and become a confident driver.
Lesson 17 – pre-test settle-in, Tues 11.10.22
You passed! Well done. So this is just finishing off your driver record.
You held it together really well Abi, obviously that pretest settle-in was to get everything fine tuned and to get you into a headspace where you could deal with everything that was happening in the live driving environment. You did really well. Now just take on board the testing officer’s comments and the feedback and that should help you, along with your practice, and the challenges you will face moving forward in your driving environment. Well done.
Lesson 16 – Thursday 06.10.22 11am
Abi I really feel that you’re ready to sit your restricted test next week. Now it’s about your mindset, and really taking time to keep an eye on that environment that’s constantly changing, in front of you, to the sides of you, and behind you.
We drove to the VTNZ in Glenn Innes, and what we picked up through the lesson was just the clarification of why we do a head check, and where, with the use of the diagram. I really recommend you visit the drive you tube channel and just have a look at some of the videos there and just refresh about head checks, roundabouts, all of that kind of thing.
What I want you to do is just focus on holding it together. Giving yourself that vibe, that clarity and calm, just to go at everything that you are required to do at the speed you’re required. So giving yourself time to park, parallel parking, 3-point turns, u-turns, definitely need to practice them so you can carry them out technically next week. So focus on your head checks, and I look forward to seeing you next week prior to your test, but get as much practice in as you can and go through those videos and just refresh yourself.
Lesson 15 – Thursday 29.09.22 9:30am
So Abi I thought it was really interesting to do that swap over, and you become a testing officer for that 15-20mins of leaving your place and getting to Glenn Innes. I think it was good for you to feel what it was like to be a passenger looking at the driver and observing what they’re doing or not doing, which maybe gave you a bigger insight into what may be you sometimes miss and what you don’t miss, and what are the positives that you’ve picked up but also maybe where the little touch ups are needed. So well done. Quite unplanned to be able to drive into a carpark and then try and follow that car coming out at Glenn Innes and time did catch us up a little so we didn’t get to do too much, however we did quite a significant drive back.
My feedback is just giving yourself time to look ahead so you can decide what lane you need to be positioned in, so it’s that 12sec look ahead. So when you’re out driving now I want you to think about what’s coming up in the distance that I need to think about. My 2nd bit of feedback is that I want you to think about, when you’re coming up to a junction, clicking that polaroid shot in your mind of where you need to go, just so you avoid that driving into a junction and thinking oh i’m in the wrong lane, and i should’ve been in this lane and all of those little things. So it’s looking into where you’re going, even when you’re stopping, taking that polaroid picture and then recalling that picture once your bigger picture is established. I think that right flush median needs a lot more practice, so I am going to ask that if you’re out driving with friends you need to find some of those, and explain to them why you’re doing it, and you’re waiting for that right hand clear so you can pull out, so long as there’s no left hand traffic coming in to your junction, because you don’t have the right of way, they do – top of the T. So I want you to really get used to that flush median, I want you pulling in and stopping with your left indicator.
That’s about it, everything was good, sometimes a little speedy now and again? just again that giving yourself time to think and react. And your reverse and mirror check combination. Braking? rear view. Braking, rear view. And then think about your marriage of mirrors. Don’t do one without them all. So I want you to practice some mindfulness about just doing that while you’re driving. Great parallel parking today, very impressed. So I think now your practice practice practice is the absolute success to you passing your test first time, ok? So I look forward to seeing you next time. Go well, go safely, and think about the holistic-ness of driving. Thanks Abi
Lesson 14 – 23.09.22 1:30pm
Very detailed lesson – fantastic confidence, I just love the way that you’re now able to set your mind to beginning to drive at the start of every time you jump in your vehicle. The lesson was very successful in terms of remembering past lessons, like pulling into the road but remembering there’s a train crossing so that you needed to slow down before you got there. I think that you’ve now achieved the fact that you’re not driving speedily into things hence losing control, whether it be steering or not able to put a head check in or not able to fit in the correct time of indication so that’s all working really well. I really need to practice parallel parking and u-turns and 3-point turns, just because this can be the most stressful part of a restricted test. So if we can think of the strategy of the parallel park I’ve taught you, just so you can pull up confidently, have your wheel straight and just zip in and do what we’ve needed to do. from there I also want you to every time you’re out on a drive, looking at your non-moving hazards that never change, that’s obviously including parked cars (which do change) but mainly meaning signage. Moving hazards means, on your test date, because it’s a live environment things move constantly. So what I want you to do is allow yourself time – without holding up other users – but allow yourself time so you can think ok when am I coming off the accelerator to assess what I need to do about what’s moving in my environment ahead. What I want you to do is now clearly get your mind into being on your test. This is test conditions, this is how I calm myself, this is how I move forward for a 45min drive. and I’ll see you this week Abi, for a pre-test assessment. Thanks very much.
Lesson 12 15.09.22
Parallel parking!
You were able to take on board instructions around strategy, now you just have to make the maneuver tighter. Just remembering to: as you pull in beside vehicle, stage 1, giving yourself that metre, making sure the wheel is straight as you line up, just slightly forward of the vehicle. You must indicate left with head check, it’s very important, that’s where your parallel parking maneuver can be blown straight away. Step 2 front wheel to back wheel nice and straight, keeping pedal just moving consistently so car is crawling, then as you get to front to back wheel position, go left left left so you get that very steep almost 90° angle. (Kind of 10 past the hour)
Then you straighten up, making sure your car is going back straight towards curb lovely and slowly, so then you can get almost back to the gutter line before you go right right right , bringing the car in. Then looking at the left of the bonnet, when you’re almost in, spin left twice (~1 full turn) and that should make car nice and straight so you can pop it into drive then make sure you line up nicely, with enough space to see the tyres on the car in front of you. Then put it into park and activate handbrake. It’s important to head check at every stage of reversing, getting into or out of the park, even crawling you can still cause injury to someone waiting to cross or something by your boot.
Lesson 7 of batch 3 12-09-22
The fantastic effort today Abi as we covered a great deal in one 90-minute session. Considering the complexity of what you needed to carry out across many different maneuvers, your patience and calmness shone through. Some feedback would be to be careful you are not dropping your left and right-hand head checks as this will be considered a critical error in the actual driving test. You handled the turn into he right-hand flush median well. However, next time we meet, I want to work on how to stop completely and merge into traffic so that a testing officer cannot fault you for this. I love that you can now make an error or indeed handle another road user’s error but can right your mind to handle it and to keep driving.
Lesson 6
A fantastic development in the fact that you drove under your own instruction in the late afternoon without any direction from me. You clearly were able to talk yourself through the stationery and non-stationary hazards and identify the solutions you would apply to make for a smooth drive. You should be very proud!
My only feedback for further thought is the focus on steering whilst you are having to carry out other tasks such as looking at your blind spot or thinking of speed so that you separate the tasks into categories so that steering can happen with little speed.
I look forward to progressing to our next lesson which will now take the shape of this kind of driving but with the added technical emergency braking and parallel park.
Until next time!!!
Sharon
Lesson 5
Motorway driving. You handled the challenges with this lesson very well as we navigated onto the North West motorway from your home location. I would like you to practice in your mind the dance with your hands on the wheel so that you remember that only subtle movements are required to move from lane to lane on a highway. Setting up your lane change required practice and space and time to allow you to mirror check with a flick of the eye whilst your steering remains straight before your indication then a head-check BEFORE you gently and subtly move out into your new lane.
By the way – Awesome reverse hill start and hill start. So proud of your progress.
In our next lesson, I now want to focus on the technique of parallel parking and 3-point turns as well as reversing as well as mastering ALL the aspects of what a testing officer will look for as you drive so road reading tomorrow will be essential.
Lesson 4
Despite having two weeks off from driving due to illness, you really did get back into your rhythm very well. Today, I got you to focus on less speed when you need to steer and the art of subtle driving requires you to gently and subtly move the wheel and separate the steering from the speed of the vehicle which you did master today! Covering a little parking today also allowed you to begin to figure out how slow you need to go into a parking space to enable the correct steering position resulting in a good park position. Towards the end of the lesson, it was good to see what you would look and feel like in a situation where you own your own vehicle and pick up a take-out tea on the way home.
My suggestion is that next week you choose two stops during our lesson to pick something up – for example, a pharmacy and or an item of food so that we can practice getting there in a subtle motion, parking, locking the vehicle, getting the items, returning to the car and then driving home. This replicates normal life and is what you will be doing soon. Please send me the two stops via text so I can plan our route.
Once we master this, we will then tackle some of the other aspects of driving in different environments.
Look forward to seeing you again and well done Abigael!!!
Lesson 3
DRIVE YOURSELF TO YOUR SHOPPING TRIPS YOURSELF
Once again you amaze me with your growing self-belief Abigael. Navigating town driving in Blockhouse Bay before driving to the shops in Grey Lynn. I want you to focus on head checking more confidently whilst steering straight and slowly so you have time to consider should you move out into the traffic flow. We can practice that next time.
Lesson 2
I very much hope you understand how empowering you are to have driven all the way from Blockhouse Bay to your home yesterday in our lesson. We focussed on steering, and you really mastered the art when it came to dancing your way around the wheel in the push and pull movement. Think about the practice in your own mind of the feathering of the accelerator and brake, dancing on the steering wheel delicately into the street just enough out of a corner or into a corner as well as the smooth release of a handbrake as you press gently the accelerator. My only feedback point for next time is to think more about positioning the vehicle not too close to the curb to rub the wheel as you pull into the left. Great three-point turns and parallel parking!!!
100 / 10 for achievement.
See you again soon! I will send a calendar invite now.
Lesson 1
Wow, wow, wow Abigael! After talking with you and finding out how nervous you have felt in the past when on the road, today I thought you did so very well and I am very confident that with time, you will achieve your goal of gaining a restricted licence and then onto your full driving licence. My feedback is that you simply need to focus on your steering initially as this is the foundation to your taking control of your vehicle. The two methods are push and pull as well as overarm and as long as you can look ahead and get the steering going well for you. When you are home dreaming of your newly found independance take a large dinner plate or something round and a similiar size to the sterring wheel and whilst you are watching TV, just practise the push and pull method so you can get used to the feeling of moving it around whilst still retaining one hand on the object at all times.
I am currently looking into the free virtual reality software you can download onto your phone and I am trying to obtain the cardboard case you can put your mobile in so you can sit in your armchair and virtually drive.
I look forward to continuing our lessons. Please note lesson plan 1 has been updated to reflect what we covered today.
Awesome work Abigael – see you next time!
This is a record of your progress and must be kept by us on your behalf for 12 months and when added to your lesson plans forms the overall training plan.
Student Name
Lesson Date
Lesson Plan #
Subjects Covered
Seat adjustment
Instruments & controls
Pre-drive checks
Signals
Moving off (straight) ✅
Stopping ✅
Directional control ✅
Moving of (at angle) ✅
Basic gear changing
Speed control ✅
Moving off (uphill) ✅
Moving off (downhill) ✅
Parking on a hill ✅
Gears on hills
Head checks ✅
Stopping times
2 & 4 second rule
Lane driving
12-6-3 Second scans
Hazard awareness
Decision techniques
Amber lights ✅
Priority rules
Blocking rule
Gap selection
Roundabouts
Decision rechecks
Vehicle dynamics
Cornering techniques
Open road driving
Motorway driving
Low-speed control ✅
Three-point turn
“U” turns
Reversing (straight)
Reversing (left corner)
Reversing (driveway)
Parallel parking
Angle parking
Night driving (optional)
Pre-test practice
Student’s name – Abigael
Licence # ( instructor will view but will not retain number due to privacy reasons)
Classes on license
Expiry
Location of session
Vehicle description
Tutor’s name
Date
Start time
Method
Introduction :
Licence check is complete and today we are going to be covering the following. Please read the lesson templates as they will help you to understand the bigger picture of what we are trying to achieve in our driving standard.
We will conduct todays’ session at…
Please read the following lesson plans. They are a guide for your driving instructor to ensure you learn correctly all the skills required to carry out each of these tasks.
Revision from our last meeting
Performance Objective
Standard
Conditions
Teaching Points
Demonstration by tutor x?
Prompted practice by student x?
Transference of responsibility by student x?
Evaluation method
Written Oral Demonstration
Tutor awareness of any faults that may appear during this lesson
Fault Symptom Fix
Debrief (feedback)
Next lesson Date & time
Lesson plan agreed by student – please click lesson plan # to sign
Contingencies ( Fall back position)
Weather :
Vehicle :
Student :
Student’s name
Licence # ( instructor will view but will not retain number due to privacy reasons)
Classes on license
Expiry
Location of session
Vehicle description
Tutor’s name
Date
Start time
Method
Introduction :
Licence check is complete and today we are going to be covering the following. Please read the lesson templates as they will help you to understand the bigger picture of what we are trying to achieve in our driving standard.
We will conduct todays’ session at…
Please read the following lesson plans. They are a guide for your driving instructor to ensure you learn correctly all the skills required to carry out each of these tasks.
Revision from our last meeting – See feedback tab
Performance Objective
Standard
Conditions
Teaching Points
Demonstration by tutor x?
Prompted practice by student x?
Transference of responsibility by student x?
Evaluation method
Written Oral Demonstration
Tutor awareness of any faults that may appear during this lesson
Fault Symptom Fix
Debrief (feedback)
Next lesson Date & time
Lesson plan agreed by student – please click lesson plan # to sign
Contingencies ( Fall back position)
Weather :
Vehicle :
Student :
Student’s name
Licence #
Classes on license
Expiry
Location of session
Vehicle description
Tutor’s name
Date
Start time
Method
Introduction :
Licence check is complete and today we are going to be covering the following. Please read the lesson templates as they will help you to understand the bigger picture of what we are trying to achieve in our driving standard.
We will conduct todays’ session at…
Please read the following lesson plans. They are a guide for your driving instructor to ensure you learn correctly all the skills required to carry out each of these tasks.
Revision from our last meeting
Performance Objective
Standard
Conditions
Teaching Points
Demonstration by tutor x?
Prompted practice by student x?
Transference of responsibility by student x?
Evaluation method
Written Oral Demonstration
Tutor awareness of any faults that may appear during this lesson
Fault Symptom Fix
Debrief (feedback)
Next lesson Date & time
Lesson plan agreed by student – please click lesson plan # to sign
Contingencies ( Fall back position)
Weather :
Vehicle :
Student :
Developing a training plan with you is where we begin once you have your theory learner test behind you.
Your training plan will be a structured and logical sequence of progressive lesson plans with the provision for the review of your progress as we go.
Each lesson plan will have its own TRAINING OBJECTIVE which will outline what you will achieve as a result of the session along with the STANDARD to which you need to perform the task and the conditions under which the performance will be assessed along with the RESOURCES that will need to be supplied.
How we deliver our knowledge to you is through three main methods
Controlled Practice – This is where your tutor will carry out the manoeuvre with a full verbal description as we go a couple of times so you have a chance to observe and feel comfortable trying it yourself.
Prompted Practice – Once you are comfortable, you can then try the manoeuvre whilst your tutor prompts you with a word here and there as a reminder as you concentrate on carrying out your manoeuvre
Transferred Responsibility – Yay – this is the bit you get to do it yourself and practice.
The following behaviors will not be tolerated by either the tutor or the student or any staff member of ALL TERRAIN DRIVING ACADEMY
Sharon is very experienced when it comes to driver education. An NZTA approved driving instructor, a defensive driving instructor in STREETALK and a member of the New Zealand Institute of Driving Educators and a fully qualified assessor carrying out driver assessments for various NZ government organisations. Sharon is an off road driver trainer too, so you are in experience and patient hands.
You can contact Sharon on 021 029 28023 ( a text is always better) if you have any questions.
Learning To Be A Model Driver
On & Off Road
Off Road Helps Your On Road Knowledge
Modern Day Learning Techniques / Up To Date Tech