I bought my girlfriend 10 hours of driving lessons at £250 from BSM for her birthday. So far she has had two lots of 2 hour lessons.

I was a bit surprised tonight when she said that out of those 4 hours she has actually driven for 1 hours and theother 3 have been spent while he drives her round talking about what he is doing as he drives, or sat there discussing what she would do if she was driving. So far she ha slearnt how to pull away and stop the car. She has not driven anywhere near other traffic.

Is this normal? I'm pretty sure when I learned (years ago) I was driving pretty much continually driving and amongst light traffic.

And before anyone suggests it – the instructor is gay and male.

I'm just worried he is dragging this out to get more money – he has told her that the average is 50 hours to get to the point of taking the test.

i learnt 2.5 years ago, of the first one hour lesson half was spent having a chat then the second half was a short drive to get the basics sorted, after that most lessons were driving. There was talking but it was always me in the driving seat and it was "this is what i want you to, now do it" type conversations, followed by this is what you did right/wrong.

I seem to remember i did just shy of 40hrs including one failed test just before christmas which did mean i had more lessons to keep fresh.

I taught motorcycling rather than car driving but the basic premise is the same; you learn by doing. I wouldn't be impressed with that at all. Not all, but a lot of driving instructors spend way too much time worrying about their milage or the state of the clutch or other similar things. they really don't seem to like having students actually drive their car.

My driving instructor used to say that BSM stood for "Bring Some Money".

Bloody hell,£250 for 10 hours !! I paid £10 a lesson and had 6 about 13 years ago.They do seem to take the pi$$ a bit.You should be capable of passing an advanced test after 50 lessons.

On her first lesson my daughter's instructor let her drive to the in-laws in the Yorkshire Dales (round trip of 70 miles). He's rather critical of the extended 'chat' sessions some instructors use.

One of our managers was telling me his daughter hadn't been out of an industrial estate after 4 lessons.

IIRC, the current DSA guidlines are for 40 hrs of lessons to pass a test. It's not as easy as it used to be. And you don't learn much from watching someone else drive for three hours.

When I learnt to drive with my uncle (he's an instructor) we always used to comment on how many BSM & AA driving school cars you would see sat at the side of the road with the instructor talking away.
We'd drive past 30mins later & they'd still be there.

We only used to pull up & stop for any length of time when performing manouevres.

Holy crap!

I am not looking forward to when my 3 kids learn to drive! Back in my day I paid £100 for 12 lessons.

That sounds a bit shit to be honest. Email me if you have any specific questions. me at georgelupton dot com.

I'm not going to slag off an instructor on here.

my first lesson spent 10 mins chating then off into town and drove most of the time after that, i had 13 lessons and a bit of driving with my parents, lessons were £20 a hour 3 years ago

Change instructor! And complain, try and get a couple of lessons added on! Whats the point of tuition if the instructor isn't letting the learner put his words into practise.

I did my first lesson on an industrial estate, from then on it was out on the roads, a mix of town and country driving each time. I was my instructors first paying pupil, think he realised asking me to do a (slight) hill start the first time I'd driven a car was a bit optimistic!

i've got my test at the end of this month. i pay £20 per hour, which i don't think is unreasonable. have never been driven by my instructor. have had 7 lessons so far – 5 1 hour and 2 2 hour lessons and he says i'd have passed my test in either of the last 2 lessons. imo the most important thing is getting practice inbetween lessons – i'm insured on my gf's car, and drive it a couple of times per week usually.
the OP gf's amount of driving sounds incredibly bad. each person is going to be different, but even if they are the most ditzy person in the world (not suggesting the OPs gf is) then they're gonna need some driving experience as it is…

I took a lot of lessons to pass my test (over 40 hours) – but I didn't really get any practice in between, and it was drawn out for over a year. Not the cheapest way to do it but I found driving with my parents incredibly difficult.

My first lesson I was driving around a quiet neighbourhood in the first 10-15 minutes. My first instructor was of the 'you learn best by doing' camp. I had two other instructors who would show me umpteen diagrams and talk at length about the 6 different mental stages whilst approaching a roundabout whilst sat in the car.

My last (and best for me) instructor again felt it was best to just learn by doing/practice.
I paid between £18-£20 per hour (after introductory rates) depending on instructor

One of the advantages of BSM is that it's easier to change instructors than if you bought a course with a small school/individual… I had lessons with BSM last year, and the first instructor I had was the opposite of the one your girlfriend had – I was doing most of the driving, but he nearly bounced me off the windscreen a couple of times when he used his footbrake. I still have no idea what I was doing wrong, because he never told me! After the second or third time this happened, I spoke to the woman who dealt with bookings, and explained the problem; she gave me a different instructor straight away, and added that it wasn't the first time they'd had comments like that about my first instructor. The second guy hardly ever stopped talking, but was a lot more focused on getting me through the test as quickly as possible. The first instructor seemed to be out to get as much money from me as possible; the second one took the attitude that if I passed quickly and well, I'd probably recommend him to other people, which would get him more work in the long term…

It may take a couple of attempts to find the right instructor, but it's definitely worth making the effort – it can save a lot of money!

I am with BSM and its all me in the driving seat, only time instructor drove was when i had a bit of a nightmare lesson and he took 10 minutes making me watch how he does NOT straight-line over roundabouts

Oh and I pay £15 a lesson….but then the instructor is a mate.

I don't think I was ever driven anywhere by my instructor (BSM, but over 12 year ago..). First lesson was a quick verification that I knew what each pedal did and that I could pull away OK – stuck to quiet residential roads away from other traffic with the odd stop to discuss how to approach something, but generally lots of driving.

Then again, I can understand if the lessons start on busy streets at rush hour, and the student isn't confident in basic car control, that he'd drive to somewhere quiet to practice. Would still expect way more than 1/4 of the time spent with her driving though.

From what I remember, I was put behind the wheel immediately. The only time my instructor drove was when he took me home after passing. I guess I wasn't covered on his insurance then.
I went with private tuition. Had 13 lessons and submitted test application after 2nd lesson. Although a few years ago now, my instructor didn't speak highly of BSM.

When I did mine (long time ago). I did 10 lessons (drove in all of them), took my test. Job done. Probably twice as many lessons as I needed.

When my lad did his a few years ago he did 20 lesson and still he hadn't been put in for a test. The instructor said he wasn't ready. I told him that was it, I wasn't paying any more. He took his test and passed.

Now, my lad had been racing motorbikes for 4 years at this point and had spent a year on a road bike. The transition from 2 wheels to four takes about 2 hours. I know, I have the same background.

Driving instructors are the biggest group of thieving bar stewards around (plumbers excluded obviously). Don't trust them.

i always thought bsm were renowned for drawing the process out.

my first lesson (not with bsm) i was taken straight to some country roads and made to bomb around at 60. i think the feeling was that once you had driven a bit quicker then 30 didnt seem like warpspeed. the only time i was driven by my instructer was on the way home from my test. 12 hours of lessons + practice with parents. that was in 2000.

My first lesson, the instructor drove me to quieter area, traffic wise, then I was in the driving seat. Every other lesson, I drove from beginning to end IIRC

Then I didn't actually end up getting my license as I packed it all in; half a year in london, half in the US meant that tax and insurance and MOT were prohibitively expensive and working in central London meant public transport mon-friday anyway!

However, if my Dad had actually taken me driving, I think I would of progressed much quicker and passed, but having a lesson and then not driving for a week until the next one wasn't overly helpful; it's definitely practise, practise, practise; even as a learner, you can listen to the instructor talk theory whilst driving…

One of our managers was telling me his daughter hadn't been out of an industrial estate after 4 lessons.

Our daughter started learning with someone recommended by one of her friends at school. Her experience was similar to the above. She changed and is now with an AA instructor. I've always been cynical about the AA/BSM type schools for the reasons outlined by others above, but to be fair he's cheaper per lesson, is working to an outline structure that's published in an AA booklet, and was openly critical of the previous instructor for wasting time (rather than sitting on the fence about it).

I think that, as with everything, there are good and bad examples whether they're individuals or part of bigger schools.

Doesn't it generally depend on the pupil though?

My instructor (AA) just asked me on my first lesson if I'd done any driving in the past. I said yes, he asked a couple more questions (probably about half-an-hours worth), then we started off on the road.

Not sure what the OPs position is, but I imagine if the instructor asked about experience and the pupil was clearly very nervous and said they'd never driven before, then they'd probably get a much slower introduction.

My instructor gave me a chat as we drove the 2 miles to an industrial estate. Then I drove the rest of the lesson, and passed after 13. And it was £13 a lesson, but that was 12 years ago. But I suppose it depends on the pupil, though he taught my mother, my other half and a few others I know of (varying from nutters to uber-nervous) and all were driving in their first lesson, just took more or less time to pass.

Thanks for all the replies. I can understand it a little bit of the learner is extremely nervous etc, but I let her drive around an empty carpark a few times before taking lessons and she was really, really quick on the uptake and fairly confident.

We decided to change instructors. To be honest, I was supposed to phone them today and forgot 😳 Looks like he has one extra chance to make amends otherwise he's canned on Monday.