A tip for getting your P's

Does getting your P's seem a long way off?  Maybe it still is but there’s a lot you can do right now to help you pass your  driving assessment.

Imagine what it will take to drive well under pressure

Think ahead. Practical driving assessments can be stressful. It's very easy to make simple mistakes when you are stressed. What you will need is an unshakeable basis to your driving.

Imagine this...
 

You’ve just finished your P plate driving assessment. You’re waiting to hear how you went. Now imagine that it goes this way:

It’s not good news! You did not pass. You know you made a couple of mistakes but none of them seemed serious. But you were nervous - it's hard to remember what might have happened. Perhaps you were late looking over your shoulder when you changed lanes, or drove a little over the speed limit once. You wonder what it was: did you not come to a complete stop at a stop sign, or did you forget to indicate off a roundabout? What may seem to you like a couple of little errors can mean the difference between staying on L's and getting your P's.

You can learn to prevent those kinds of mistakes, right now.

Prevent mistakes by perfecting good driving habits

Good habits make error-free driving natural and automatic. For example, if you’ve perfected the habit for always signalling at least five seconds before moving off, then that’s what you will always do.

Habits that have been perfected work well, with little or no effort. They work even if your mind is on other things (like being worried about an assessor watching you). 

A perfected habit can also be the one ‘small thing’ that prevents a crash. Crashes happen when a chain of events unfold in a bad direction. Change one event - such as looking in the mirror well before braking - and a crash could be prevented.