My IAM Trainee Observer "blog"

by **jibberjabber25** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:19 am

Here's a quick update for you all.

Recently things have been going quite well. I've been transferred to another "mentor" as the other one's on holiday. I've been in the back for a couple of times with my new mentor and his associate. So basically, so far I've been in the back 4 times, and observing my last mentor once.

I had the 2nd training run with my new mentor today and I felt really positive and happy today (well now yesterday, strictly speaking).

I was passing comments on to the associate and really felt it was a joint effort as both my mentor and I were giving equal amounts of advice to the associate.

Anyway, it appears that my mentor was so happy with how I collaborated today that he has invited me to observe his associate for one hour on the route that I planned last time for my last mentor! I took him up on that offer. So next week I'll be observer a REAL associate for an hour on MY route! :shock:

On another note, there was an article in the papers about me and another young associate who passed. Here's a scan of the article if anyone's interested. I get bad stage fright, so my mouth was trembling on stage, hence the strange looking smile. :roll:

Regards,
Jaabir.

by **James** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:30 am

Well done. I see some of the meetings are held at the Met Chigwell Sports Club... is that where you received your award? Thats where I did my driving course...

by **martine** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:34 am

Well done jj and thanks for the update...I'm sure many forum readers find this interesting especially if they are considering becoming an observer/tutor.

You're right about the strange smile - you should see some of mine - scary!

by **jibberjabber25** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:02 pm

James wrote:Well done. I see some of the meetings are held at the Met Chigwell Sports Club... is that where you received your award? Thats where I did my driving course...

Hi James, thank you. Yes all of the meetings are held there and that is where I received my award.

martine wrote:You're right about the strange smile - you should see some of mine - scary!

LOL. Thank you very much.

by **James** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:07 pm

Let me know if your ever around Camden way jibberjabber, or the Islington borders... you may be the lucky number 2 person on here to meet me, see me in the flesh and confirm that I do exist!

by **jibberjabber25** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:47 pm

OK, will do. It's very nice of you to offer, but I don't go down south often though. Mostly up in Epping, Chingford, Chigwell, Ilford, Woodford, Loughton, Chatham, Walthamstow, Enfield, Wood Green, Tufnell Park and of course Tottenham. Sometimes for training runs I go out to Hertfordshire. This will expand as time goes on, but unfortunately not far down south because of the density of traffic it doesn't make for good IAM runs.

by **jibberjabber25** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 1:18 am

OK. An update. I observed the associate on my route for about an hour. I felt relaxed and enjoyed it.

My mentor was happy with the run. Only comments he had were to be a bit more talkative at times and try to give directions a little bit earlier. Apart from that he was happy, so I can't really ask for more than that.

by **jibberjabber25** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:32 pm

Hello. Here is another update on my progress to becoming a qualified observer (hopefully).

My group held an examiners day which I felt was very helpful and helped me to tweak a few things and learn more.

Recently I was assigned my first "real" associate and I went out on the 1st run with him/her. Boy was I nervous, and boy did I mess things up a little bit...

Anyway, overall I felt that it went well and hopefully he was happy about it. We'll see how it goes next time we meet up. Can't help think that he thought he was being observed by a nincompoop though!

Just thought I'd let you know where things were with my training, then again who actually reads this anyway? :lol:

Bye for now.

by **rlmr** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:17 pm

jibberjabber25 wrote:...then again who actually reads this anyway?

you'd be surprised :!:

by **crr003** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:34 pm

jibberjabber25 wrote: then again who actually reads this anyway?

3100 views :shock:

Keep up the good work!

by **jibberjabber25** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:43 am

crr003 wrote:
jibberjabber25 wrote: then again who actually reads this anyway?

3100 views
Keep up the good work!

What??? I just checked now and it's one of the hottest topics under General. :shock:

Wow! lol

by **Snr Observer** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:37 pm

jibberjabber25 wrote:My group held an examiners day which I felt was very helpful and helped me to tweak a few things and learn more.
, then again who actually reads this anyway?

Glad you enjoyed the examiners day and yes you may be surprised who reads this stuff!! :wink:

by **ScoobyChris** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:20 pm

Keep up the good work JJ

Something I'd love to do in the future and to help give the group something back, but unfortunately I don't have as much free time as I'd like to do it properly.

Chris

by **jibberjabber25** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:27 pm

Snr Observer wrote:Glad you enjoyed the examiners day and yes you may be surprised who reads this stuff!!

I am! Have to be careful what I say on here. :lol:

Just joking.

The training experience has been nothing but positive, only with my own demons/underconfidence hindering me occasionally, but that is an issue with me, not the training at all and I am surprisingly overcoming that more easily than I thought I would!

I really am happy with how it's going.

Never thought I'd be at this stage at this point in time! :shock:

ScoobyChris wrote:Keep up the good work JJ Something I'd love to do in the future and to help give the group something back, but unfortunately I don't have as much free time as I'd like to do it properly.

Thank you Chris. That's completely understandable.

Regards,
jibberjabber25.

by GS » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:01 am

Hello JJ
Congratulations on passing your test and I wish you well in becomming an observer.
Can I just say though, please try to encourage your future associates to enjoy their cars and their driving. In my view, after far too many tests, examiners are left feeling frustrated that the candidate did not use their cars enough. Some people turn up with 200bhp+ cars and never exceed 2500rpm on test! Some of the best drivers I have seen are very obviously enthusiasts who enjoy their cars and use the car's acceleration and gears to good effect rather than driving as slowly as they think they can get away with for an hour. Some of the highest marks obtained during Special Assessments have been by candidates who have 'got on with it', probably HPC members, who have showed that they enjoy driving their cars to a high standard. Driving is about enjoyment as well as skill and it would be very nice if more candidates showed a bit more enjoyment in their driving on test so please try to encourage this as well.
Once again well done, good luck, and I might see you at Chigwell one club night.

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