Independent driving

Lily-Anne wrote:
Have you asked your national association rep to investigate?

I've no idea who that is

Oh and there are no notices allowed at the test centre either

Alan Hamilton is the DIA rep for Scotland, maybe you should contact him. Sounds like it's not much fun at your tc..

LA

Last Friday we had a surgery at our test centre, they were going to discuss ID but I had a pupil on test so needed to be present for the debrief. While the meeting was going on I spoke to one of the other DEs and he said the a large number of DEs are very, very cynical of ID, they don't believe it will raise the pass rate, it may lower it. They don't really know (according to him) what is going to happen on 4th October. They are expecting tests to over run, lots of complaints, lots of walkbacks and pass rates to plummit.

He did say that the ID "routes" are going to be based on current test routes, so the DEs will know where they are meant to go, but on the downside for us is our new SE/TCM has been told to reduce the current test routes from 20 to 15 and we don't know which he's going to cut (not that I teach test routes).

We don't have an association as such in MK, we did try to resurrect it but most of the ADIs around here can't be bothered. So most of the info I've gathered is from the DSA (crap) and from forums.

The trouble with a new phenomonen is the lack of clarity for everyone. The DSA paper says that the original problems have been ironed out - hmmm, and that the decision to let pupils choose their mano and how to do it has been suspended for now - double hmmm.

Ian is your national DIA Rep.

LA

One of my pupils was on test a couple of weeks ago and asked the DE what his thoughts were on the ID that was coming in shortly.

His reply was "It is a load of Bollox !!"

Somehow I don't think that is towing the company line !!

evondoll wrote:If Tom gets a chance to speak to Bill this eve, can you ask him to make sure the ADI's working from Shieldhall get some kind of meeting organised??

Sorry Evon.......only just read this or else I'd have asked Bill tonight on your behalf

The presentation on ID was quite interesting.

One of the ADI's was concerned about the diagrams and how they would be used as some of his pupils (in his opinion) would react like a bunny in the headlights - they would look but they wouldn't see the big picture as such. We were told that the diagrams are to be used in a "small number of tests" only and more often than not if the candidate is dyslexic. The ID will last for approx 10 mins and in that time they may use a sequence of 2-3 diagrams - this will be time dependant. One diagram may incorporate a journey of a couple of miles - so it's not just a case of a couple of a couple of local left and right turns. For those candidates that are not dyslexic, they will be asked to follow the road signs for a specific place. Depending on the specific test route - they may well use "follow the signs for...." and a diagram to negotiate a tricky part of the route. If at any time that the candidate is unsure or forgets - they can ask for clarification, BUT they have heard rumours that some unscrupulous Instructors are going to be telling their learners just to ask about every turn - if a pattern appears with any instructors learners presented for test - they will deal with this accordingly.

Another ADI was concerned that as they are dropping one of the manoeuvres, that they would become "stricter" on the marking of the remaining manoeuvre. He was told that the DSA's way of assessing a manoeuvre would not change and that in general an ADI generally commands a higher level of competency from a pupil than an examiner does - so no change there.

Test routes have been amended to suit ID - would neither confirm nor deny that these new routes will be published or not.

His overall take on it was if we teach a client to think for themselves, then ID should pose no problem whatsoever........I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

If I remember anything else that was said I'll edit this post later.

Regards,

Tom

We must be spoilt up here but our TCM is brill, never has a closed door and will pop into the waiting room for a chat when the tests are out, has official surgery days on a Friday.

From what i understand, DSA are not going to release any details of the ID test routes. So, a back door way of getting us to sit in on tests if you ask me. Also, if a test candidate makes a wrong turn, gets off route, asks the DE to repeat the instructions, they pupil won't fail the test.

All this taken into account, what is ID in aid of then ? If they can't fail for getting it wrong, what is the point of it ?

I think that examiner got it right, it's a load of bo**ox

kevin

OK just spoke to our ex-SE, existing test routes are going to be or have been modified for ID, he used one of them on my candidate just now (without doing ID but following the route) and timed what would be the ID bit.

4 minutes.

He said they haven't had any of the maps yet, most of the routes are still untested by examiners and they'll be reading them off sheets as the test is done. He said to be honest he wouldn't be surprised if it didn't go ahead and if it does DEs are going to be ill prepared come the 4th. Oh joy.

Our local Assoc just been given these maps.

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Many thanks Dale nice hot off the press news.

1st one does not look easy for some pupils.

The Boss

This link takes you to a detailed description of how "Independent driving" will be administered.

Click here

This was read out at the Kettering meeting last night and I found it understandable and answered most of my questions.

The Boss

I have acquired a very useful scrip from a DSA presentation about how the Independent driving will be administered, so you could say from the horses mouth. Hope to be able to post it later on.

The Boss

As promised

Briefing notes that the DSA used were forwarded to us and are posted on our website

Click here