Preparing For Your First Driving Lesson
Preparing For Your First Driving LessonCredit – CC0 Licence
Learning to drive is an exciting thing, something of a right of passage. Learning to drive gives us freedom and independence. It gives us options when it comes to where we work or go to school and what we do with our free time. Driving can completely change your life, whether you learn to do it when you are still in school, or after you have retired, it makes the world smaller and gives you options.
But, whether you’ve wanted to drive for a long time, and have already started shopping for used cars, or it’s completely new, it can be quite scary. Getting behind the wheel for the first time is frightening, and most of us feel nervous beforehand.
These nerves are entirely normal, but if you let them get the better of you, you won’t enjoy your first lesson, you will struggle to relax, and you might find it harder to remember the things that you are about to learn. In the interest of easing these nerves, and preparing for those first lessons, here are some tips.
List the Reasons You Want to Drive
Learning to drive is a different experience for all of us. Like most things, some people take to it naturally; they just get it. Some are helped by plenty of experience in the passenger seat. Others struggle. They may not have spent much time in a car, or they just have more trouble getting it.
When things get tough with any kind of learning, it can help to have a motivator. Write a list of all of the reasons that you want to drive before your first lesson, and come back to it every time you need a reminder.
Pay More Attention as the Passenger
As a passenger, you might not have ever paid any attention to road signs, when the driver changes gear, directions or any of the other fundamentals of driving.
Once you’ve decided to start taking lessons, start paying more attention, and ask the driver questions if they don’t mind.
Start Learning the Rules of the Road
It’s never too early to start learning the rules of the road. Buy a book, use an app, and start paying more attention to road signs that you see around you. This will make driving easier, and give you a head start on revising for your theory test.
Book an Early Lesson
If you know that you are likely to be nervous, book a lesson for early in the morning, so that you’ve got less time to worry. Your instructor will take you to a quiet area for your first go, so don’t worry about rush hour traffic interfering, get a good night’s sleep, and have a decent breakfast.
Get Comfy
For all of your driving lessons, it’s a good idea to wear loose comfy clothes and flat shoes.
Take a Two-Hour Lesson
Driving lessons can be expensive, and you may be tempted to take hour lessons to try and save money. But, this can be a mistake. It can easily take an hour to start to feel more comfortable in the car and with your instructor, and you might not learn much. People who take two-hour lessons generally learn faster and spend less.
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