ADUK Archive

Hello everyone,

New here, my name is Dave, I'm 30, from Herts! I drive a Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi zetec S and Currently training to take my Rospa Advanced test! I've had two pre test checks and although my driving is good, my commentary lacks a little. Anyone have any tips on how to improve? Techniques etc? I'm practising every drive I take but still keep rambling on when I should be mentioning other things!

Cheers All, I look forward to absorbing info from here!

Dave

Concentrate on the things in the distance that might be hazards and what you are going to do about them. Don't burble about things that are close: it's too late. Omit stuff that is mundane and obvious.

Try practicing an internal monologue when you're driving, even if it's not a RoSPA training session. Or, if you prefer (and your passengers don't mind), an external monologue.

What can I see that might cause me grief? What am I going to do about it?

Thanks all,

I have another pre test check tomorrow, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos, and also a lot of practice yesterday and today, hopefully I have improved enough to go for the test!!

Welcome Tdc...tell us how you get on with your test and if you get a chance sign up for one of the ADUK driving days - first one in Cheddar - with others to follow.
http://www.advanced-driving.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

Tdcist wrote:Hello everyone,

New here, my name is Dave, I'm 30, from Herts! I drive a Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi zetec S and Currently training to take my Rospa Advanced test! I've had two pre test checks and although my driving is good, my commentary lacks a little. Anyone have any tips on how to improve? Techniques etc? I'm practising every drive I take but still keep rambling on when I should be mentioning other things!

Cheers All, I look forward to absorbing info from here!

Dave

Hiya Dave, and welcome to ADUK.

Is commentary mandatory in a RoSPA advanced test, or is it just something that you wish to do?

I know that a commentary can have merit, but for my money I wouldn't bother with it if it's not necessary; I'd rather devote time and effort to improving other aspects of driving.

Anyhow, good luck in your endeavours.

Best wishes all,
A more troublesome Dave.

Thanks all,

I'll definitely look into the driving days!

As for the commentary, I've been told I'll be asked to do one for 10 minutes or so, so I can only assume I need to do one! Was told yesterday by another tutor to book my test, and while I'm waiting just to keep polishing up on the little bits. So test application in the post today!

Hello Dave, and welcome to the forum.

I found the Chris Gilbert DVDs useful for improving my commentary, but like everything else it needs practice.

Thanks fungus,

I have been watching his YouTube clips avidly for the past few days! I'll probably look at getting the dvds though to keep the skills up!

Test is booked!! 1200 on the 19th Feb.

I wrote a piece on commentary yonks ago which may or may not help. I've copied it below:

A Commentary on Commentary

Commentary is one aspect of advanced driving that students seem to dread, mainly because there are some unnecessary pre-conceived ideas about what commentary is and how it should be applied.

Let's look at it from the perspective of a Police driving course - I'll use an advanced course as an example, but in most forces, some commentary is also required on standard courses too.

Back when I did my advanced car course [Uncle Albert] during the war [/Uncle Albert], students were expected to commentate for 10 to 15 minutes during both of their final drives (which are both generally 40 - 45 minutes long). Back then, you'd be expected to point out upcoming hazards, both actual and potential, talk through the five phases of the system as you applied them to those hazards, point out road signs, describe the actions of other drivers, etc, etc. On top of that, at relevant points, you were expected to introduce various definitions from Roadcraft, which required us to literally learn them parrot-fashion, from the book every evening. Many of them have stayed with me today.

Acceleration sense is an easy one "the ability of a driver to adjust the speed of the vehicle to meet changing road and traffic conditions by accurate use of the accelerator".

Braking sense took me a couple of nights to get spot-on "the ability of a driver to appreciate a situation correctly and apply the brakes in a gradual and timely manner, to stop, or reduce the speed of the vehicle, where this cannot be achieved by deceleration alone."

For some reason I've never understood, we learned the old and new definitions of the system of car control (it used to be a system or drill, and then it became a method of approaching and negotiating hazards), the definition of concentration, the full description of the tyre-grip trade off, the rules for gearchanging, the four principles of safe cornering and a shed-load of other minor definitions.

Our instructor, Dicko (bless him) also insisted that we learned, verbatim, several rules from the highway code, including the rule number. I can recall to this day that rule 172 of the highway code used to be that in built-up areas, you should give priority to buses which are signalling to pull away from stops - it's rule 198 now, before you correct me, and yes - I know the wording has changed.

Did learning all this stuff parrot-fashion make us better drivers?

I don't think so, no.

In fact, part of me thinks that it detracted from the most important aspect of the course - learning to drive at an advanced level.

Does this mean that I don't approve of commentary?

No - it just means I think it should be different from when I did my advanced course, and fortunately, the majority of Police driving schools these days agree with me and have relaxed the requirement for a definition-centred driving commentary in exchange for a slightly more relaxed, but more relevant commentary.

These days, certainly in my force, and in many others, a student on test will still be asked to commentate for 10 to 15 minutes during a final drive. The difference nowadays is that an examiner just wants to know what problems the driver has seen or anticipated, and what they are going to do about it.

Crucially, the students need to remember this - if their driving is up to standard, they won't fail if they give a poor commentary. In addition, having tested at advanced level myself, a good commentary can lift an average drive.

So then, Reg, how should an advanced-level commentary go?

It's traditional, and appropriate, for the driver to start with a description of what they can see in the far distance, and then work back through the middle distance, the foreground, then the sides and finally to the rear.

As they describe what they can see, they should also be talking about what their plans are - this is very important as it shows the examiner what their mental processes are, and allows them to see the thinking behind the drivers actions.

"Looking into the distance, I can see that the road bends to the left, out of sight, so I'm looking to the left of the road, along the hedge-line, to see if there are any hazards. I can see a couple of triangle warning signs for double bends, the first to the left, which we've already seen, and for a junction to the right, for which I might need to adjust my position for safety."
"In the middle distance I can see that we're approaching a slow-moving HGV, for which I'll have to slow to get into a following position. I'll be looking to overtake it when appropriate, and as the left-hander is followed by a right-hander, I'm planning to look for an opportunity to overtake off the right-hander."
"In the foreground is a cyclist, for whom I've already moved towards the offside to pass safely."
"To the sides are fields and hedges, it's a rural area, so I'm anticipating there might be tractors pulling onto the road at some point."
"To the rear is a fast-approaching motorcycle, which is something I'll have to consider when I'm looking to overtake the truck."

So, no definitions - just a straightforward description of what you can see and what you're going to do about it.

It's not easy at first - any instructor will tell you that if they've got a student who's getting ahead of themselves, the easiest way to slow them down is to ask them to commentate. Because they're concentrating on what they're saying, their speed drops almost instantly.

With practise though, commentary can come quite naturally, and even with all the bumph I had to learn on my advanced course, I was disappointed when the examiner told me to stop commentating.

In a nutshell then, keep your commentary simple, [catchphrase]say what you see, [/catchphrase] and say what you're going to do about it.

Cheers for that Reg, certainly helped! and nice to see a bit of history of what it was like to what is expected now!!


Dave

Well my test was today! And I obtained a Gold! Very pleased with my drive, all seemed to come together for the hour and a half I was out for!

Now for the hard bit, keeping the grade!!

Well done! If you'd like to do a write-up of your test I'm sure others would find it interesting.

What next?