Thank you! I felt my test was very easy. I had about 15 lessons and 2 were the week of the test. I also kept lessons going while waiting for my test date. Some locations have long waiting lists. I paid to use the instructors car for my test which was £55 and included an hours lesson before. He went over all the manoeuvres and I kept messing up on my emergency stop and reversing around a corner. I got it in the end but I was freaking out when the examiner gave me those 2 to complete! I paid to use the instructors car because it was a manual transmission and our personal cars are both automatic. If you take your test in an automatic, you would have to take the test again in a manual if you want to drive a manual.
The best advice to help calm nerves was to pretend I was just chauffeuring him around and to take my time. We got caught in quite a bit of traffic so I only had 5 minutes of independent driving. I saw him moving his pencil quite a bit so figured I had at least 7 minors. I was surprised I only had one! So keep in mind that the examiner may be the type to move his hands around but not actually marking you, don't let that distract you.
My minor was for road positioning, he had asked me to pull over at the end of the road. I pulled over just before the end. I didn't realise he meant all the way to the very end so I should have asked him to repeat. I'll take it though!
Location will play a role as well. Some locations are in busy towns and others in the countryside. I drove for about 15 years in the states but feel the lessons were well worth it. Tests here are about 40 mins long and you have to pass your theory test before you can book your practical.
I believe you can drive for one year here on your American license. I was able to get insured under my husbands policy. I've been insured having my provisional for 7 years (hubby had control issues behind the wheel,lol) and then when I passed, our insurance went up. I couldn't stay on our current policy so we had to cancel and start a new policy on our van but I was able to be added to our car policy. So silly. It will go down in a year and then we will switch carriers.
Hope all that helps....all the best!
