Your car license experience

[James]

I have always wanted to drive since I was a young toddler; I would sit on my grandfathers lap and pretend to drive in his diamond white Fiesta with hand controls since he had MS.

(Click to see my experiences with driving lessons)

Spoiler (Click to View)

My driving instructor recognised immediately I had experience behind the wheel but did not realise when I had told him that I had countless hours on simulators and a few times behind the wheel when I was younger . I was being taken around the ring roads on the outskirts of Liverpool driving 50mph+ early on and throughout my lessons as my confidence grew despite times of panic (being cut off etc). In Liverpool we are an aggressive folk when it comes to driving unlike other places I have driven not to mention the experiences of my instructor and some friends who now live in Leeds, Leicester and Nottingham respectively.

When it came to my examination, I earned a few deserved points but there were more than a few that I believe I did not deserve. I had been given 7 points in total (12 is a fail and it takes one serious incident to fail immediately).
One point was doing 30mph in a 40 zone, it wasn't sign posted where I had joined the road so I assumed it was a 30mph road (street lights, no obvious speed limit signs) continuation but the examiner felt it warranted a point. I was not previously familiar with the road otherwise I would have known.
Another was for moving back towards the kerb after passing a parked vehicle, in his "professional opinion" I should have remained in the middle of the road.

The points I got that I knew I deserved the examiner didn't actually say anything about those until we returned to the examination centre.

tl;dr In my opinion and its something I have told friends about driving. Confidence is the main ingredient and I can break it down into three things: confidence in your knowledge of the road (rules, speed limits etc), confidence in your ability (car control, reading the road etc) and ultimately confidence in your car (engine, tyres, brakes etc). If you lack one of these three you're destined to make a mistake as you're driving on borrowed time until something happens.