I am not a professional and in this post I am only talking about my personal experience and what I suggest but I do hope this post helps you in some way and if you have any further questions, feel free to drop me a message!
KNOW YOUR OPTIONS:
One of the first things I would recommend is to do your research and find a driving school that fits you best, whether that is economically, location wise or just their teaching methods. I personally asked a few people what they thought about their experience at certain driving schools and if they thought it worked out well economically, etc and in all honestly, it worked out a few hundred cheaper than expected at the one I went to but still expensive.
One of the benefits of learning to drive in England is that you don't have to pay for as many practical classes seen as you have the privilege of driving around with L plates, although I don't know if that is really one of the safest options as it sounds quite dangerous. Here, in Spain, you are not aloud to drive any other car apart from the driving school one with the teacher in (obviously), meaning that you don't get that much experience before your exam, meaning you have to pay for more practical classes making it more expensive.
GET TO WORK ON YOUR THEORY:
This part is probably the hardest, the most boring and the most pain in the bum but I promise once you get through it, it is when the fun starts! At my driving school they gave us a book, similar to the highway code I guess, but were told to never even look at it and burn it at San Juan because out of ten phrases in the book we were only going to read and understand one and it was true. Instead, we would use a free App that they give you a code to enter and we would do multiple choice tests which contained around 20 rounds of 30 different questions you could access these either from a laptop or mobile phone at home, or at the computers that were available at the driving school were they added another 30 rounds of 30 different questions to the previous, meaning in total there were around 150 questions in the first round and then he would pass you on to a more intense test of about 300 questions. Honestly, this sounds scary but once you sit and do a few tests you get the hang of it, I promise.
Apart from doing as many tests in a day as I could, I would go to the driving school in the morning and sit through the 11:30AM course that lasted until 1:00PM where Yosu, my teacher, would explain to us chapters of the book, using less complex words and giving us examples on his electric board.
THE FIRST EXAM:
On the day of my theory exam, I had to sit the test at 1:00PM and didn't get the results until 18:01PM and yes, 18:01PM, and trust me, not only was it a long day, the one minute after six lasted for at least five!
My top tips for sitting and passing your theory is to: 1.- Don't revise last minute. If you are sitting the test in the first place it is most likely because you are prepared and ready to do so, what you haven't learnt over the time you have been at driving school, you are not going to learn during the last day. 2.- Don't over think the answers. One of things Yosu told me was to not go back and change the answers unless I was 100% sure that what I had put the first time round was wrong. What did I do? I changed it. I finished my exam and before ending it, I gave it a read through and changed the answer to one of the questions because I wasn't sure and as soon as I left, I asked Yosu for the correct answer and of course I had changed it from right to wrong! Don't make my mistake. And 3.- Be positive. Positive mindset, positive outcome.
GET DRIVING:
Like I mentioned, once you have past your theory exam it is time for the fun to start! At the beginning it is scary but once you go for the first time, you will probably really enjoy it and don't worry about killing anybody, to your reassurance, the driving instructors have a break and a clutch of their own so the chances of having an accident are quite low.
THE FINAL STEP:
Once you are ready for your exam, it is your final time to shine. Be confident, be positive and fake it til you make it. When I went for my exam I had to be up at 6AM, I was knackered and all everyone was doing was slagging the examiner off and saying how horrible he was. There were six of us there to do our exam and I was the only one who had never been before, so as you can imagine not only was I terrified, but my expectations were very low.
When I handed my paperwork into the examiner I acted polite, confident and I tried asking him a few questions about what I was aloud to ask him during the exam, such as directions, if he could repeat instructions and so on and I do believe that helped me to chill out a little instead of just stressing over what I am allowed to ask him and what not so I really recommend you to do that too. Once we got in the car I honestly almost forgot I was in an exam, I just did what I had to, kept calm and listened to him ramble on for the whole time about England, Scotland, Gibraltar and his opinions on Brexit.
When I parked the car he told me I had passed and I honestly couldn't believe it. He had gone from being the most annoying, irritating man to probably my favourite examiner ever, I even said "thank you so so much" to him I was that shocked and all my driving instructor did was laugh and then told me that "he knew he could do it".
Since passing my test I have already driven for a couple of hours on a little road trip with mum, round town and driven by myself which to me is quite a milestone! I honestly don't think I could of learnt and passed so quickly at a different driving school and I would love to thank Yosu and Alejandro for being the best teachers and for even helping me once I've finished with other questions I had.
If you are having your exam soon or even going to sign up to driving school I wish you the best of luck, you'll most likely smash it! (Don't take that literally) And if you have any further questions you would like answering be sure to drop me an email or a quick message, I would love to be able to help!
Best of luck,
