Driving & Driving Test Tips: learning driving, impossible question, rule of thumb

Question
hi

i wanted to know how much time it usually takes for someone to learn how to drive a car.
my mother is currently learning driving and she tends to get nervous when surrounded by traffic. cud u please give some tips that cud help her get rid of this tendency?

thanks

Answer
Hi,
I am very sorry, but this is an impossible question.

Every person is different in their ability to learn to drive and varies from as little as ten hours to as much as ten years or even more in exceptional cases.

As a rule of thumb you could say that a person needs a one hour lesson for each year of their life (e.g. a 25 year old would need (say) 25 one hour lessons), this is not always true but holds most of the time.

Regarding nervousness in traffic, this is quite common in all age groups, but it tends to worsen as one gets older, the only real answer is practice and experience.

Keep at it until the nervousness gets overtaken by the concentration of driving, I remember when I thought I would never be able to cope with the traffic (and it was a lot lighter then) but in time, I got over it, and look where I ended up!

Just be determined to do it. Thats enough.

If nervousness of traffic is a problem now, then the next hurdle will be apprehension of the test and the examiner, start working on preparing for that too.

If you need any more specific help later, feel free to get back to me - but it will be a help to know which country you are in.

Regards,

Phil