I mentioned that I would post an update on an assessment drive that I did a few weeks ago, So here it is
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Here are both parts of the assessment report:
http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu21 ... esult1.pnghttp://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu21 ... esult2.pngMy general review:
I mostly enjoyed it and it was useful to do, although there were some niggles. I was using my odd hand over hand/pull-push method in the car park at the start in an attempt to not sugarcoat my driving, although I use pull-push 99% of the time elsewhere and I think that he assumed that I use hand over hand everywhere and had a mini rant about laziness, which was a bit off-putting. Simply saying "always use pull-push" would have sufficed. I also think that using HoH in car parks is OK considering that this is a young drivers assessment and would be a minor issue compared to some bad habits that a lot of young drivers have.
Soon after we left the car park I mentioned that I was interested in the advanced test and he talked me through the system when going through junctions, and for corners when we went onto rural roads later on, which was a bit demanding on my part, but very useful as I wasn't really sure how to apply the system at junctions and roundabouts.
The only comments that I weren't expecting to recieve were that I rush gear changes. It seems very slow but I'm doing them slower now. The other comment is when I turned the wheel for slight corners and got told off for having my hands like in this picture -
http://www.iam-exeter.org.uk/ . I thought a fixed grip was OK for corners that don't require much steering input?
He did also go over the allotted time which was very appreciated, especially since I was waiting for him in the wrong section of a car park
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So in summary, it was very useful for me, but for any other younger drivers wanting to have their driving assessed and aren't interested in advanced driving, to be honest I'd probably recommend going for a drive with an ADI, mainly because they are used to dealing with younger people and won't be too picky (I didn't realise that the assessment would be graded like an actual IAM test - or is it?). As I mentioned earlier, considering the bad habits that a lot of young drivers have, such as driving one handed like this guy who actually passed an American test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L66qlZD9Hr4 , using phones, speeding etc, commenting on relatively minor things feels over-critical and would just put young drivers off advanced drivng, or just driving well in general. It's possible that he only mentioned it because I mentioned doing the test, but who knows
. If you are interested in advanced driving though, the Momentum or the other driving assessment is probably the way to go, especially since you get the price of Momentum discounted from the Skill For Life package if you sign up within 12 months.
My following comments are regarding organisation and the format of the assessment, so not so relevant to most ADUK readers, but I thought I'd include it if someone from the IAM is reading (very likely). I think that the Momentum course (?) would probably be better if done by observers since they may be less driving test examiner-ish. The momentum course isn't advertised well, I only found out about it because I already knew about the IAM, which isn't good for getting the attention of other young drivers. the format for the online assessment was OK, but the answer boxes only allowed non-numerical digits and no spaces so I ended up having to re-write my answers several times and ended up writing single word answers, which was very frustrating. And finally, the course itself has an identity crisis in my opinion. It is listed under 'assessment' which makes sense, but it is then referred to as a drive, an assessment, a test and then "not a test" (in the emails I received)... Why not simply call it an observed drive?
So that's my review
. Sorry if it seems overly critical, but the bad parts of an experience are what everyone usually remembers the most, and I wanted to give honest feedback.