Marianne Davies

I can't speak highly enough of Hazel my driving instructor. Before learning with her, driving lessons filled me with terror. I loved being a passenger in a car but when I sat behind the wheel I felt like I was in a metal murder machine! It felt impossible to steer, operate the gears, pedals and watch out for hazards, all at the same time. Especially with sweaty, nervous palms and trembling legs. I used to count the minutes until each lesson was over (who knew an hour could last so long!)

Hazel and I worked to come up with a plan to build confidence by practising each skill until it became second nature, and then putting them together. She let me control the pace and never rushed me if I didn't feel ready to move on. If anything felt like too much during a lesson, we'd park up, talk it through, break it down and try a different approach. This turned out to be the key. Because there was no pressure from Hazel, my confidence skyrocketed and I started to surprise myself by asking to tackle more difficult junctions and unfamiliar routes. Thanks to Hazel's patience and her chilled out teaching style I achieved something I never imagined - I began to actually enjoy driving.

Hazel doesn't focus on memorising test routes or on teaching the minimum skills that you need to pass - she wants you to be safe and prepared for whatever happens on the road, both during your test and afterwards too. I thought I had failed my test after stalling at a busy junction, but because Hazel taught me how to correct mistakes calmly and safely I didn't panic and I only got minors for this. In fact, I passed with only 2 minors overall!

Our lessons were great fun and I really can't thank Hazel enough. If you're nervous about learning to drive, you won't find a better instructor. The LD System/workbook I deliberately looked for an LDC instructor because I liked the idea of having a system and a framework. The workbook was really valuable for answering my questions between lessons. Especially in the early days we used the illustrations in the book a lot during lessons to help me understand different concepts (I'm a visual learner).

The most useful thing was probably the Student Progress feature on the website. It massively helped me to evaluate how confident I felt about each individual element of driving and to figure out precisely what I needed to work on. It's easy to tell your instructor "I need to get better at reversing" but the skills list on student progress page meant I could break it down for Hazel and say "I'm not confident with my observations when reverse parking and I'm not sure how far to turn the wheel" etc. Theory Test resources I had passed my theory before starting lessons with Hazel, but did I find these useful when my theory certificate expired (thanks Covid!) and I had to retake the test.