Ugghhhh...so frustrated!

giddybootz

Feeling a bit down so was looking for others who have gone through or are going through something similar to share with me and make me feel less of a loser!!

I have now completed 6 driving lessons and have had no chance to practice outside of my lessons. Lessons 1 - 3 went fine and i was happy and very excited to be behind the wheel!! (in fact i wouldn't shut up about it to family and friends!)

Lesson 4 was awesome....I actually felt like I was really driving and the 'surreal' feeling of the previous few lessons disappeared.

However, lesson 5 & 6 have been disastrous! I thought i was past the major clutch issues but I dunno what is going on with me now.

Is it 'normal' to be having such a rollarcoaster with regards to lessons? I'm starting to think I should just quit...all the fun is going out of it.

Anyone??

Alanstrainor

It's very normal, nothing to worry about, i remember feeling the same myself, making great progress on the first few lessons and then all of a sudden on one lesson everything seemed to go pear shaped.
Dont quit, it's just one small bump in the road, which in the long run will benefit your driving. You learn by your mistakes. Book your next lesson asap and just go into it confident with what you've learned and dont let any mistakes get you down.
Best of luck with your driving, and dont be afraid to post back with any questions you have. :)

Permabear

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John Mason

i loved my first few lesson but then when i hit lesson 5 and 6, i absolutely hated it, i gave up and didnt drive again for another 4 years.


you just need to push on through. tbh honest, i still have days occassional where i just cannot get the gears right, this morning was a point in case. have no idea what i was doing to my poor gears.

just keep taking the lessons, it will get better, i promise

DancingDaisy

I'm the same, I had my first 5 lessons and they alkl went really well and my sixth and final lesson for the summer last week didn't go so well, was covering parking and such and I just lost my confidence. My instructor said to just get loads of practice when I'm home for the weekends and she will take me for another couple of lessons when I'm home for Halloween and Christmas.

It's better to get the bad lessons out of the way and go back in all invigorated and confident again. If I can learn to drive and not have given up yet then I'm sure anybody can. Just look at it as a learning curve and keeping at it. It will return to being fun again I'm sure.

You really aren't alone in the feeling though!

Alanstrainor

donegalfella wrote: »

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Ha. That's going in my sig!:pac::pac::pac:

STREETS AHEAD

Driving is always and should be a "Work in Progress"

Even experienced drivers are always learning.

Keep at it and Chin up

Enda89

Exact same thing happened with myself. It happens to most people.

You just have a bad day and should forget about it.

bonkey

giddybootz wrote: »

Is it 'normal' to be having such a rollarcoaster with regards to lessons? I'm starting to think I should just quit...all the fun is going out of it.

Look at some other skill you have. I dunno...maybe you play golf, or tennis. Maybe you've some mad online-gaming skillz. Maybe you play guitar. I'm sure you can find something.

Ask yourself if you learned that in 5-6 hours.

Ask yourself if you've ever had days where you felt you couldn't put two notes together...get your serve or swing together...whatever.

Ask yourself if you'd give up guitar / golf / tennis / whatever-it-is if you had one or two bad days.

Then go outside and look at the car again.

Caychadh

By lessons 5 and 6 you should be getting better and advancing. Unfortunately that means your instructor will be thinking 'right, no more crawling around housing estates at 20kph, lets do some REAL driving.' As you get better, the lessons will get tougher and seem more of a challenge. Most people seem to have a 'lesson from hell' about half way through a course. It just means you're getting advanced and your instructor is finding new ways to challenge you.
I can empathise with the 'no chance to practice between lessons' scenario. I know nobody that has a full licence and would LOVE to go out in my poor neglected car for an hour or so of practicing turnabouts, reverses etc but there's nobody available.

jodyanne

Same thing happens with language learning. Most people progress happily for a while and then hit a point where they feel they've forgotton everything. They haven't of course, it's just that they've become more proficient and are expecting more of themselves - they are starting to try to communicate natural thoughts and ideas rather than rely on set phrases, for example. It all represents progress.

I know when I'm learning anything I love to have a record of my progress for those "jesus, I've learned nothing!" moments. Maybe that new Steer Clear driving manual and logbook would be good? I've only seen some page extracts but it seems to have checklists of what skills you've acquired as you go along - might be nice to have a flick through something like that when your confidence is down.

Best of luck! I had an awful lesson four last year and thought I'd never go back and now I have the full license - you just need to get back in the saddle

Overature

ive been driving since the start of the year and have had some lessons, and yes ive had some times when i feel like im unlearning everything but they were usually when im really tired and am having a bad day. you need to get out and practise so that you can bust your confidance.

sunnyside

jodyanne wrote: »

. Maybe that new Steer Clear driving manual and logbook would be good? I've only seen some page extracts but it seems to have checklists of what skills you've acquired as you go along - might be nice to have a flick through something like that when your confidence is down.

What's that and where can you get it? Easons or similar shop I guesse.

I had a horrible lesson too, came home and cried because I was so disappointed in myself. Went back for the next lesson and it was all ok again as if the bad lesson hadn't happened. You just can't give up too easily. No matter what your doing you'll have the odd bad day.

jodyanne

This is a link to the press release stuff about the Steer Clear manual 9also tells you where to get it):

http://www.steerclear.ie/booklaunch.html

I don't know much about it now so can't vouch for it - just thought it looked interesting.

sunnyside

jodyanne wrote: »

This is a link to the press release stuff about the Steer Clear manual 9also tells you where to get it):

http://www.steerclear.ie/booklaunch.html

I don't know much about it now so can't vouch for it - just thought it looked interesting.

Thanks for that. Looked at the website and will have a look in Easons later.

It might be something the moderators should highlight as a sticky.

Was just looking at the "How to change a tyre" sample and it looks like I'd be able to follow it easily enough and I have no idea how to change a tyre. For reasons like that it looks like it would be useful for any driver not just learners.

My only criticism is that it seems to have so many steps to do everything it would be a bit overwhelming for an absolute beginner. I know I would have thought "I'll never remember ALL of that" but now that I've mastered a lot of the skills it should help.

daveharnett

giddybootz wrote: »

I thought i was past the major clutch issues but I dunno what is going on with me now.

Is it 'normal' to be having such a rollarcoaster with regards to lessons? I'm starting to think I should just quit...all the fun is going out of it.

I've been driving for over a year, and I still have bad days. Particularly when you are new to driving, and everything takes a lot of concentration, if you sit into the car with a negative attutide, stressed etc then you will start to fixate on your mistakes, causing you to make more.

I think the key with this is to get your head right before you start, and then keep it right. Don't allow yourself to be distracted. If something unexpected or undesirable happens (whether your fault or not), handle it, file it away for analysis later, then look ahead to what needs to be done next.

cuckoo

daveharnett wrote: »

Don't allow yourself to be distracted. If something unexpected or undesirable happens (whether your fault or not), handle it, file it away for analysis later, then look ahead to what needs to be done next.

As my very patient driving instructor put it - drive in the now.

I'm also teetering on the edge of frustration, I'll have 25 or 30 minutes of smooth driving during a lesson, then i'll stall 6 times in a row. That's 6 times in a row at the same set of lights, with the cars piling up behind me.

The only way i can talk myself out of giving up on driving altogether is to keep telling myself that it's ok to take perhaps more lessons than the average to get the hang of it - the reason 10 (or whatever the magic number is) is the average is because some people need less and some people need more. I'm just at the side of the distribution that's over the hump.

*sigh*