Situations

You will cover all over these situations are part of your tuition with your driving instructor. The aim is to have you experience the many different road conditions and road situations, so you're a more well-rounded driver and confident whenever you go out in the car on your own.

Emergency Stop

An emergency stop is when the driver is able to quickly and safely stop their vehicle to avoid colliding with a hazard in the road. If done as part of the driving test, the car should additionally not stall during the manoeuvre.

How to Practice:

Only practice this in quiet streets when there is no traffic close behind you.

Daytime Driving

Arguably the default, but you will be required to show competence of dealing with situations that are driving during the day may bring. The biggest of these bing a glaring sun.

How to Practice:

Practice your driving during sunny days.

Nighttime Driving

Driving at night poses unique hazards as visibility for the driver is significantly reduced, partly due to the dark, but also due to glare from the front lights of other drivers. So, even when driving a route you're familiar with, you may find that it feels like a completely different place. A turning you are used to taking may feel like it's the first time you're taking it at night.

It is critical that you turn your headlights on before setting out on any journey at night.

How to Practice:

Practice your driving late at night, well after sunset, where it is dark enough to need to use your front headlights. Never drive if you are tired and drowsy. You should feel comfortable with reducing your driving speed as well, to ensure you have the time you need to assess everything.

Wet Roads

Driving in, or after the rain, or even on roads that have had water spillage, introduces a variable in the environment that can cause additional hazards.

A key difference from dry to wet roads is that the braking distance (the distance travelled until stopping after applying the breaks) can double in wet conditions. Roads with snow or ice can increase the braking distance by as much as 10 times!

Another issue during the rain, is that visibility is reduced. Ensure you can activate your windshield wipers and reduce your speed if need be.

How to Practice:

Head out on the roads during or after rain. Travel slower than you normally would to get a feel for the car and test out what happens when applying the breaks.

Country Roads

Country roads are usually narrower and less-well maintained than roads located in towns and cities. Despite this, many country roads still allow for fairly high speed limits, often letting the driver to get up to 60MPH.

How to Practice:

Get out of town and on to some back roads nearby. Take it easy and prepare to have tight bends with poor visibility. Consider only doing short bursts on country roads to begin with, until your confidence behind the wheel has built up.

Sat Nav Driving

Using a sat nav is now included as part of the driving test. Sat navs are extremely popular and allow for drivers to get out and go without much planning for where they're headed, unlike a decade ago where it was common for travellers to pull out a map and learn a route before setting off.

The sat nav can introduce a bit of confusion in to the driving experience, often when the instructions don't seem to match the road ahead. During your driving test, it can be even more confusing as the examiner and sat nav could end up talking to you. If you find yourself in this situation, know that you're perfectly allowed to ask your examiner to repeat their guidance or reiterate it to them so you know you're doing the correct thing.

How to Practice:

Get yourself a sat nav or use the sat nav features of the map on your smartphone (be sure to have a cradle to sit your phone in, as neither you or your passenger are allowed to interact with a mobile whilst in transit), plug in a new destination and follow the instructions. Start with locations fairly close to you to begin and don't worry if you end up taking a turn too early or missing a turn. Let the sat nav adjust.