We really look forward to helping you prepare for your restricted driving test and go ahead on the roads as a safe, well-prepared, and a confident driver.
Lesson #17 Pre-Test Settle In Session 08.11.22 8am until 12.30pm
Emma, you worked very hard today and of course it would have felt disappointing to have missed a couple of things in your driving test resulting in a fail. However, take heart, as the positive from this experience is that you nearly did it and I have no doubt you can pass successfully on your next appointment. Here is some feedback that would help you to prepare for your next time.
The session we conducted prior to your test was excellent. You really settled down and pulled back enough so that you could assess a real driving environment with good assessment of roundabouts, intersections, right merge lanes and speed judgement as well as a good parallel park etc. It would be good for you to really focus on reading the road ahead now prior to your resitting the restricted test as this is where you can establish where the speed warning signs are, how to prepare to be at or under that speed when you reach the sign by gently braking and only increasing speed if safe and ONLY at the posted speed sign. This means that road works with a 30KM zone really need to be adhered to. You also, in your test, allowed your speed to creep up to 55kms per hour and again try practising having your speed all the time at slightly under 50, say 47kms per hour. Take encouragement in if this is the only slight thing you need to really work on, then you are very nearly there. Do also practice your parallel parking so you can also ensure yo carry out a smooth parallel park in your driving test.
I wish you the very best of luck.
Sharon
Lesson #16 26.10.22 12pm
Emma I’m so delighted at the standard that you’ve now reached, as we conduct our pre-test prep lesson today. you have a really good grasp now of managing your speed, either downhill, or indeed that consistent uphill. Everything was really good.
Now what I need to give you feedback on is that you must now start to plan ahead in the road in front of you to best manage that situation. For example, when the ambulance was on our left and we were on a 2-lane highway you could see that the ambulance would need to pull out to the right. What I wanted you to do was to pull back a little, start braking gently, and let them flow out in front of you with their indication. Rather than remaining at the side of them in your driving to then create a situation when they can’t get out, or they have to brake heavily to then come in behind you. So it’s all about the pre-planning of what’s going ahead in front of you. and I think that this will really help you with your test because as there’s a live environment things will constantly change.
My other part of the feedback is to remember if you think of a clock face, anything that is on a roundabout that is past 12 o’clock is a right hand turn, therefore you need to be in the right lane with your right indicator. So as you’re coming up to the roundabout again that pre-planning, looking at what does that roundabout look like for you.
What I also want you to consider is not coming into something too fast. ie, when you’re approaching a junction, giving yourself more time with gentler braking further back, rather than that harsh braking and having to react. If you think about the motorway scenario when we were driving, you’ve got to be watching and focusing on the brake lights of the vehicles in front so that you don’t end up running into the back of someone and having a collision . So what I want you to do is start looking forward at the behavior of the vehicles in front with brake lights, and keep that distance so you can produce a smoother braking effect.
Absolutely delighted however with your progress – remembering your head checks, remembering the timing of your head checks, and I know that this might sound like a lot of critique at the moment but I genuinely believe you are in with a fantastic chance of passing your test next week. I look forward to meeting you beforehand, and helping you when we’re down in Glenn Innes. Take care Emma, speak soon
[@Sharon, please note: next lesson is the last lesson for Emma, and will be the pre-test settle in, so we’ll be going over cabin drills and pre-drive checks etc]
Lesson 15 – Tues 11.10.22 2:30pm
Emma, completing the test route that you’ll be carrying out the following week, you did very very well. What we need to do now is just make sure that your headspace is ready to complete a 45 min drive, not allowing anything to be missed within that, so taking it very very slowly. My only feedback now is that you must practice your 3-point turns. Being able to do them in a consistent but slow manner should mean that the rest of the test goes really well.
Lesson 14 – Monday 10.10.22 2pm
Emma, considering your test is just in a week’s time you did really well today. I still feel that on occasion you miss things, for example some left head checks, but on the latter part of today’s drive you had all of them completely nailed, so well done. I would like you to think about going through the drive YouTube channel, and just having a look at some of the videos, in areas you have where a little bit of polishing up is needed. Great steering today, just sometimes I think you were coming into some of the intersections a little too fast, which required a heavier breaking, so if you can think about just holding back and give yourself time – so you’re speeding up to the speed limit and matching it when you can, but then you’re giving yourself plenty of time to just ease off. And the only other thing for feedback is when you join a motorway and you go on an onramp, you have to match up the speed of the motorway and the traffic that’s travelling. So you can’t join an onramp at 40 or 50, you have to really be heading up gradually to from 50 to 80 at least, so you can join the motorway without causing any traffic to have to take evasive action, or even slow down or speed up. You should just be able to merge like a zip. But very good today, I’ll see you again tomorrow! Thanks Emma
Lesson 13 – Wednesday 28.09.22 9am
Today Emma, you did really well. Now that we’re preparing for your restricted test on the 17th October at VTNZ Massey, I’ve taught you everything I can teach you in order to be test-ready – now the secret is being able to carry everything out perfectly within that hour’s test period. Today I loved the way you were able to handle the smaller maneuvers in the back suburban streets, bringing your speed right down, using assessment triangles so that you can easily navigate and don’t have to stop, unless there’s a stop sign – where I would just ask you to be mindful to create a 3 second stop before you then get ready to go.
The feedback that I have is that your rearview checking needs to increase. What tends to happen is that when you’re on a longer road or a motorway you tend not to check, you’re very much focused forward. So I need rear view checking, and mirror checking every 8 secs. What I’d also give you some feedback on is to try and link your rear view looking with your braking. So as soon as you go to brake, check your rear view. Because effectively what you’re doing when you’re braking is you’re creating a situation where somebody could run into you. So you always check, so that if there’s something to close behind you you can release the brake, or indeed not brake at all.
Some feedback today that might sound a little tough, but I hope you take it in the spirit it’s meant, which is that I only want you to pass your test, and to pass it first time. There’s too much harsh braking when you’re coming into different speed zones. So for example a 30km speed zone you have to be at 30 by the time you reach the sign, so that means you have to prepare for them. So you’ve got to be looking at the signs coming up, and making your adjustments slightly before you get to them with gradual speed reduction so that it’s easier to get to 30. What tended to happen today was you were at 30, 5 secs after the sign, which is not good enough for the testing officers. Some head checks were missing today but most were in so that was fantastic, but you need to practice that, making sure that if you’re going right you’re doing head checks as well as left head checks.
We also did some parallel parking today and I want to practice the steps of the strategy I’ve given you and also practice putting them into one fluid movement. And also being careful about which way you’re steering, because a little mis-steer in the wrong direction is enough to throw off the whole maneuver.
Try and avoid harsh braking and try and decrease speed when you’re coming up to cars sooner rather than that harsh braking at the end. So just check your speed, do some practice on being able to maintain 50, 60 and 80km/hr speed zones, and also that gentler braking coming into them so you can be ready at them and only speed up when you get to the next sign saying you’re moving into a different speed zone and increasing. Thanks Emma, very well done and I’ll see you next week.
Lesson 12 – 14.09.2022 9:15am
Today we travelled from your home, through Kumeu, and did some small maneuvering around some housing estates in a suburban setting. We did a fair amount with parallel parking, which was excellent.
Emma you have a great ability to be able to bring the car in and park perfectly. Now however I need you practice so you can carry all the stages out in consistent but steady flow, without stopping. So, pulling in on the left with your head check and left indicator remaining on at all times, checking all around you before you slip into reverse and gently go front wheel to back wheel with a very straight wheel, and then keep going as you turn the wheel all the way to the left as you gently pull back on an angle. If you remember today there were times when you got confused with your steering, so I need you to be able to practice so the next time when we meet in 2 weeks this is able to be carried out consistently.
From there we travelled over to Massey in Westgate and went to VTNZ – with excellent parking, so thank you for that – you did really well being able to navigate the town, my feedback now is I need you to practice some different routes apart from in/out work with your mum. I really think if you’re going to Massey for your test you must practice those kinds of routes around VTNZ Westgate, going around all the streets, going onto the motorway and back, and being able to do that confidently.
Another thing is not only reading the road and the moving hazards but being proactive in response to other driver’s actions. Can you remember the car that pulled over just before you were supposed to merge and made a really silly move pulling all the way to turn right, right in front of you? What I need you to do is be able to assess what’s happening with that, and ease off the accelerator and go to brake and start bringing your speed right down. If you had kept going you might’ve clipped his back bumper and this is totally normal with young early learning drivers because it’s easy to forget that although you were in the right and were perfectly correct in where you were positioned it is our responsibility to avoid an accident. So even though he was completely in the wrong, you still need to brake, pull back, and not forget to complete your merge.
We carried out a bit of right hand turn into flush median, remembering that as you pull out when it’s safe and you’ve got no traffic coming in on your left into your box that you can pull out into the median and then you must stop with your left indicator, checking your mirrors, before you move across safely into traffic
My feedback is: confidence to drive carefully, road positioning – one of the things today I really need you to focus on is staying on the left when there’s oncoming traffic. Being able to identify when oncoming traffic needs to overtake something, it is even more vital to stay in on the left. I need you to practice rural driving, being able to go closer to the white solid line on the left but not go onto it at all times. The other thing I’m genuinely looking for you to think about is that it was a long drive today, you were tired and yawning at the end, and just how easy it is to miss things and lose focus on your drive. So I want you to train yourself that your test is going to be a 45-50min drive, and that you have to retain focus all the way through. The only other thing is not to forget head checks, think of critical errors that can be marked on your sheet on your test.
And so with that, everything is fantastic, I’m so proud of where you’ve got at this moment in time and if you’re looking to book test for 17th Oct we really now need to ramp up that level of skill of being able to carry out everything, not just being told what to do, but being able to function and react to what’s happening around you in your driving environment. So on that note, the next lesson I send through, I’d like to do a pretest assessment, where I’ll not say anything, but you’ll carry out a full 45 min drive and I will mark you against anything you may have missed so you can go confidently to your test and not do those things. Great job Emma, speak to you soon
Lesson 8 – What a fantastic lesson Emma. I can really see the practice you are carrying out with mum is really showing up when we have our lesson. Now we can move forward and ensure that you are test-ready as well as confident in your driving!
What I would like you to begin practicing now is to remember to carry out your head check before you change your lane position and work out if that is a left-hand head check or a right-hand head check.
If you can also practice your parallel parking before we next meet. I would really like to see you confidently pulling up alongside the car you wish to parallel park and make the manoeuvre smoothly and successfully.
Lesson 4 – A visit to roundabout world!!! I felt you had a very confident lesson today Emma. You navigated the town driving par tof Swanson, you showed patience at the Ranui rail crossing intersection and managed to get the hang of some complicated roundabouts. My feedback is you must think about your head check being a smooth movement after your mirror check before you gently steer out and change road position. Try thinking through how you can select a gap at the roundabout using the technique of slowing down at a walking pace as you come into the line and checking into the right with your eyes as you steer knowing you may not have to stop but to gently pull away. I am so proud of what you are achieving and look forward to seeing you in our next lesson.
Lesson 3
Lesson 2
Great improvement in confidence Emma from our first lesson so well done. Completing town driving navigating a number of roundabouts, intersections, etc. Focus on getting your head checks timed correctly and also look at where you need to look for a head check. We began to figure out the gap selection at roundabouts, meaning you don’t need to stop but instead can you giveway and creep to the line until you can go safely. Focus on staying in the center of your lane and not slide towards the left-hand curb, Next lesson, I think we should carry out a journey to your work focussing also on emergency stopping and how to navigate out and around something.
Lesson 1
Very proud of you Emma for what you achieved today after a shaky start. You began to master the steering aspect of driving with a little more confidence and your turns were getting smoother. With more practice, you will begin to relax in your lane position. This was only our first lesson, so I look forward to moving forward with more confidence in your own ability. Check your lesson plan #1 below for more detail on what we covered together and I look forward to meeting you again soon.
Student’s name – Emma Smith
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)
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 :
Student’s name – Emma Smith
Licence # ( instructor will view but will not retain number due to privacy reasons)
Classes on license 1L
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 :
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 – Emma Smith
Lesson Date See calendar
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
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
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