Lessons are about £20 per hour. You can get discounts if you book (and pay for!) 10, 15 or 20 lessons in advance. There are national companies (eg BSM, AA) or local providers that you may wish to contact. Either way they must be licensed if they charge you money.

If you want to practise your driving with an accompanying driver, the accompanying driver must be over the age of 21 and must have held (and still hold) a full licence for three years.

You will have to insure yourself in this case (if you have ‘official lessons’ you are insured automatically) and that can cost anything from £20 a week upwards.

The cost will vary, depending on whether you are in your parents (small) car or if you are in a friends (large) car.

hold a valid, provisional driving licence for Great Britain or Northern Ireland (cost £50). There are some conditions such as sight requirements (eg you need to be able to read a number plate from 20 metres) and you need a UK passport.

make sure that any vehicle you drive is roadworthy and properly taxed and insured.

Normally, for car drivers, the earliest date your provisional licence can become valid is your 17th birthday, however you can apply for the licence up to three months before your 17th birthday.

You can take your theory test once your provisional licence becomes valid.

So, if you apply for your provisional licence before you are 17 you will still have to wait until your birthday before you can take your theory test.

If you are a learner driver you must take and pass your theory test before you book your practical test. The theory test costs £31. The theory test is a touchscreen based test, and consists of two parts. The first part is a series of multiple choice questions and the second part is a test of your hazard perception. You have to go to a theory test centre to take the test.

There are 50 questions and you have 57 minutes to complete the test. You can navigate between questions and 'flag' questions that you want to come back to later in the test.

The pass mark for the multiple choice part of the theory test is 43 out of 50.

You can practice on two ‘mock’ tests for free at the following

http://www.theory-tests.co.uk/home/and then ‘register’.

If you want more on line practice you can pay £6.99 for 30 days and you do an unlimited number of ‘mock’ tests.

The hazard perception element was introduced into the driving test in November 2002 . There are CDs and other internet sites that you can buy/use which have useful practice for the Hazard Perception part of the test. This is an example of what can be used:

http://www.2pass.co.uk/hazardvideo.htm

It costs £62 (£75 if you want a slot in the evening – after 3:30pm - or at the weekend/on Bank Holidays!!)

You book it on line only when you have passed your theory test. You will need your driving licence number and a theory test Pass Date and Certificate number.

Your driving test will start with an eyesight check and some vehicle safety questions.

You will then start your practical driving test which will include some specific manoeuvres such as reversing around a corner, turning in the road (three point turn) and reverse parking.

The driving part of your test will last about 40 minutes. Throughout the test your examiner will be looking for an overall safe standard of driving, including when you are carrying out the set exercises. You can make up to 15 (minor) driving faults and still pass the test (16 or more results in failure). However, if you commit one serious or dangerous fault you will fail the test.

Those who pass their driving test have had, on average, about 45 hours of professional training combined with 22 hours of private practice. Learners who prepare this way, with a combination of plenty of professional training and plenty of practice, do better in the test. You will probably need less training than this!!

If you want to drive a car you will have to make sure you are insured and that it is taxed and has a current MOT. If you use your parents’ car it may be cheaper to insure it ( and they will probably pay for the MOT and the tax!!). Generally it will be no cheaper than £50 a month (ie £600 a year) to add your name to their insurance but it may well be nearer to £200 a month (£2500 a year).

To buy a car could be expensive. Many 17/18 year olds go for a 4/5 year old Clio or Corsa or Fiesta or Micra or….

These cost around £4000 to buy, but will be cheaper if it older and more expensive if it is newer.

The insurance will be around about the same amount of money PER YEAR.

Insurance can be reduced by insuring your car ‘Third party, fire and theft’ which means you are covered if you hit/injure a third party, it is involved in a fire or it is stolen. You do not get any money to repair your car and so it is generally used for very old cars.

Pass plus – see the next slide for more info

Pass Plus is a training course specifically aimed at new drivers. Pass Plus is made up of six practical modules which include:

driving in town driving in all weathers driving on rural roads driving at night driving on dual carriageways driving on motorways. More…

You will not have to take a test at the end of the course but you will be continually assessed by the instructor.

You must successfully complete all the modules in the course to an achieved or exceeded standard.

It will cost between £100 and £150 to complete but can save you £200+ on your own insurance.