Thought I’d share this with some of you folks on here to see what you make of it!
I started my Cat C training with J Coates at the back end of december. Chose them as a quick google returned some good feedback on them and they’re also a recommended school on this 'ere forum. Did my assessment and the instructor (nice chap) told me I’d need 5 days. So I eventually started my course on the wednesday and my test was booked for the following wednesday. I’d got to the friday and J coates had decided that they were going to change my instructor, so I would have someone completely different on monday. To be honest I thought this was pretty bad of them since I’d built up a rapport with the instructor I had… Ah well I thought, I’m not a particularly shy person and I can usually get on with anybody so I didn’t let it become an issue.
Set off again on the following monday morning and the new instructor seems like a pretty cool guy so all is good. The problems start however, when the new instructor starts telling you things that the previous instructor never did… For example; I got to a busy roundabout, handbrake on. I took one hand off of the steering wheel to wipe it on my knee as I tend to get a bit of the old clammy hands when I’m concentrating. The instructor then proceeds to ask my why I’ve not got both hands on the wheel? “I was never told I had to” - I said. “Ah no, you should always have both hands on the wheel when you’re stopped, they’ll have you on that!”. Fair enough I thought. Of course though, I kept forgetting, so everytime we got to a set of lights he’d remind me. So with that drilled into my head, he then dropped another bomb on me the day before the test. Heading down a dual carriageway (40 limit) and the instructor says I might as well stick the cruise control on. Problem was; I didn’t know how to use the cruise as the previous instructor had told me: “This is the cruise control stick - but you wont be using that as the examiner wants to see how YOU control the speed of the vehicle”. My new instructor then said that the examiner WILL want to see me use it as it’s part of the vehicles controls (which you have to know how to operate).
Breathe …
Anyway, by this point I’ve got a few new things floating around in my head and it’s the day of my test. Apart from it wasn’t the day of my test because it snowed like hell and they cancelled it. 
I rebooked it and that one was cancelled as well. £260 odd down the drain with no one to answer for it but the big man himself, nevermind!
Once all the snow and ice had gone I managed to get another test booked. Bearing in mind this wasn’t until ferbuary due to the backlog. I thought it’d be a good idea to book a couple of hours training the day before, just to freshen up on everything. Turned up the day before my test to another different instructor (I’ll let them off for that one though since I’d just booked a lesson on the off). Had a good old drive round some tight pedestrianised places, lots of parked cars etc. and the instructor says “You know, you don’t have to keep swinging it in and swinging it out around all of the parked cars, just keep a nice straight line and stay back when you need to”. Ok, fair point - that would be easier! (But why had no other instructor picked up on this?) He then went on to tell me that I didn’t need to ‘split it’ as much as I was. (He was referring to the gearbox - 12speed Splitter) “I can see that you’re confident using the splitter, and that’s good, but don’t bother going up half a gear when you can get away with a whole one.” Again, good point I thought, but yet again, no other instructor had pointed this out to me. I’d already gotten in to the habit of using every gear since that’s what I’d been doing from the very beginning.
So by this point I was pretty confused as I’d been told a bunch of conflicting ideas. Next day, it’s the hours warmup drive before the test, with a different instructor again. As per usual - nice guy and all the rest of it. We pulled up to a set of lights on a slight hill and I had both my hands firmly on the steering wheel - my old instructors voice in my head: “Both hands on the wheel!”. My old instructors voice was then rudely interrupted by the new instructor sitting next to me: “You know, you can have one hand on the handbrake, then you’re ready to get it off when the lights change.” WHAT!? I seriously thought that someone was playing a cruel joke on me. I’d spent 2 valuable days with the other instructor, trying desperately to remember to keep both hands on the wheel! GRR!! 
The Test
Now, this is the good bit… So with the dsa’s test criteria changing every 5 minutes, I think I’ve got everything sorted.
Jump in the truck with the examiner, do the reverse perfectly, do the controlled stop and off we go. Feeling nice and calm now that we’d set off. Took me on some dual carriageways and nice easy roads to start off with, then later on took me through some housing estates and stuff like that. Felt like I was doing really well, the guy didn’t even pick up his book for the first 45 minutes! Remembering all my mirrors and blindspots, no dodgy gear changes, no kerbs, nice and smooth! We were coming up a narrow ish road and I could see parked cars on the left hand side, with an artic coming the other way. I slowed down nice and early, before the cars. The artic driver gave me a flash, so I knocked it down a gear and off I went. The examiner waved at him to say thanks. “Sweet!” I thought to myself, this was going really well and I knew I’d aced it. He started directing me back to the test centre and we were back on to the nice wide roads again 
. We were heading down a 30 road which is a dual carriageway with average speed cameras. He picked up his book and scribbled something (Itried not to think about what he was marking!). Pulled back into the test centre and I was feeling pretty confident. “I’m just going to mark these a moment…”
I [zb]ing FAILED! I couldn’t believe it!! I literally had NO idea what I could have possibly done wrong. “Would you like me to go through it with you?” Too right I do!
The examiner went on to say that I was very reluctant to give way to people and I just wanted to ‘keep going’? I didn’t know what the hell he meant by that since none of the 27 instructors had mentioned it. He gave me 3 serious faults:
One for braking - He said I was a little harsh with the foot brake (surely I’d remember if I was…). He’d put it down as 4 minors which counted as a serious.
One for meeting traffic - Referring to the narrow ish road with the artic coming the other way: “In this particular scenario, the driver of the articulated unit saw that you want to ‘keep going’ and so he had to let you pass.” 
I don’t know how in the world he came to that conclusion, but they are the law of the land after all.
Finally - Undertaking. Referring back to the 30 limit dual where he picked up his book for the first time. Apparently a black tigra (woman then) was approaching in the right lane trying to overtake (as I was building up to 30). They apparently saw that I was speeding up! Oh no! So they had to put their foot down to get in front of me. This one is obviously completely my fault, but what was this person messing about at to get undertook by a bloody lorry on a 30 road!!
To summarise, I’m in bits about the whole thing. Everything he’d mentioned - I didn’t even know I did. These things had never been pointed out to me before so I wasn’t thinking about not doing them.
Anyway, I have another test tomorrow (10th), with a 2 hour lesson before hand (brand new instructor again). So I’m going to take the marking sheet with me and see if he can sort me out. I’ll definitely be letting J coates know at some point that they need to get all of their instructors in a room to decide what it actually is that the DSA are looking for to pass the test…
If anyone actually bothers to read this, I apologise 
- Chris
