Attitude is best summed up by a review of what you have done so far, to reach a certain standard in your driving. Have you taken advice from friends, relatives or acquaintances or have you taken the whole thing much more seriously and picked up the phone and booked lessons with a Professional Driving School?

A Professional School will equip you with the skills needed to survive, stay safe and enjoy trouble-free Motoring. Passing the Driving Test will be achievable providing you learn to drive first. Preparing for a Driving Test should only commence when you have reached a certain level of Driving Skill and will be so much easier than doing it the other way round. A Driving Test Pass is only the beginning of your Driving career not the end!

There are several every day driving skills that are essential for safe motoring but which are not tested on a Driving Test. Would you ignore these because they will not be encountered on your Test? I hope not.

What are they?

(1) Driving on Country Roads.

(2) Driving on the Carriageway at full speed.

(3) Driving at Night.

(4) Driving in adverse Weather conditions.

(5) Emergency Stop.

(6) Reverse around a right hand corner.

(7) Reverse Parking into a tight space.

(8) Driving in log-jammed Rush hour Traffic.

A number of these manoeuvres are currently included on the U.K. Driving Test and will one day form part of the Irish Driving Test when we finally come up to European Standards.

Attitude to the Driving Test.

There are many myths and legends surrounding the Driving Test; lets examine some of them The right attitude for a new beginner Driver should be a non confrontational one and a realisation that you the Driver are responsible for the result, be it positive or negative.

Examiners do not have a quota of passes or fails to be achieved. Yes they are human and subject to outside influences such as first impressions, as we all are. It is just as easy for a candidate to create a poor first impression as it is to achieve a good one so why not do your homework and give yourself a head start over those candidates who don't take the Test seriously enough.

An Examiner is not looking for perfection but a reasonably high degree of competence allied to good action and reaction times in all situations. If you have not taken the trouble to familiarise yourself with all the various hotspots which may be temporary or permanent, scattered throughout the general Test Route area then it is very likely that here is where you will come a cropper. "Oh but I only made that one error because I didn't know the new road layout was about to be implemented, and it wasn't there yesterday ".This type of mistake in an unusual situation leads to numerous grade three faults on Driving Tests and as we know one grade three is a disqualification. Grade three type difficult situations are commonplace in every day driving and if strict marking was not in force then there would be many more first time Test Passes but many more Write-Offs with the attendant misery.

Obviously nerves can play a big part on the day and some candidates are better at controlling these emotions than others. If you can reduce this stress by telling yourself that it will not be the end of the World if you don't pass this time then you will probably be more relaxed and will drive much better. Remember it is you who has to do your homework and be confident that you can do all manoeuvres, not the Examiner. With this confidence will come competence and you will do a much better job on the day.

Not enough homework, not enough practise and not enough lessons all conspire to produce an unsatisfactory result. Taking lessons two weeks before your Test just won't prepare you sufficiently to be successful and to build up that level of confidence that is needed.

Take care and Take lessons. Driving Schools are not there to fleece; you they are there to help you achieve a satisfactory level of Driving Skill and to enable you to arrive alive!