Need advice on pursuing UK driver's license

You're not old, Murasaki. I'm 96.

Too old to drive then mr freak!

The hardest habit for me to break was crossing my hands on the steering wheel -- like doing a maneuver or something that required turning the wheel a lot with both hands.

I don't know what the examiners are like on these little points nowadays, but when I took my British test back in 1983 they were quite picky on this sort of trivial thing.  Feeding the wheel through your hands a few inches at a time the way they want always seemed like making a simple task needlessly complicated to me. 

Another point I could never understand their obsession with was insisting on the parking brake (UK = "hand brake") being applied every time you stop at a light or a stop sign for more than a couple of seconds.   

Still, at least there wasn't the complication of the theory and perception tests back then -- Just the practical drive followed by a half dozen Highway Code questions posed verbally by the examiner while sitting in the car.  I could never understand why they didn't do that part before the drive though.   

Still, at least there wasn't the complication of the theory and perception tests back then -- Just the practical drive followed by a half dozen Highway Code questions posed verbally by the examiner while sitting in the car.  I could never understand why they didn't do that part before the drive though.   

Maybe because more people failed on the practical part of the test than on the highway code questions? If a person failed the driving, then why waste time quizzing them? Just a thought.

They are definitely as picky if not more so since you've taken your test...I was talking to an instructor about it who has been doing it for years!  He said that he expects it will get even tougher...the government wants to 'encourage' people to use public transport...but what's happening is that lots of people end up driving illegally!

They are definitely as picky if not more so since you've taken your test...I was talking to an instructor about it who has been doing it for years!  He said that he expects it will get even tougher...the government wants to 'encourage' people to use public transport...but what's happening is that lots of people end up driving illegally!

My driving instructor was very anti-testing and anti-government. His theory is that the gov't wants you to fail so you have to keep taking the test and paying them each time for the honour of trying again. He said that's also why they separated the theory portion of the test from the practical -- to make more money. Very cynical man, but he has a point.