Don’t worry there’s still nothing to taxing to them, but you will need to know where some of the less obvious controls are. For instance do you know where the control is for the fog lights ?, and do you know when you should use them ?.

I will still be giving all pupils a handy print out of all the questions so that you can study them, and I can also using bluetooth on you mobile send you a diagram of everything under the bonnet. Remember we will cover everything during your lessons anyway.

You can find all the new questions here if you want to get one step ahead ?http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Documents/practical_test/dt1/safety%20questions%20post%201st%20July%202008/Safety%20Questions%2007-08%20Cat%20B%20combinations%20Q%20and%20A.pdf

Over the coming months and years CPD will be playing a major roll in every Driving Instructors career and commitment to being professional.

A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) ‘first’ was achieved with DSA certificates being handed out at the DSA Business Customer Conference (BCC) in Chorley. The certificate recognises the role that conferences such as the BCC can play in CPD. There is growing interest in what CPD means for individuals. After all, it is about formal and informal development, based on an individual’s understanding of the benefits to them. In a nutshell, it is a commitment to being professional, keeping up to date and continually seeking to improve.

So be quick if you want to save yourself some money and get those test’s booked.

With the old car having covered 35000 miles it was time to start exploring new alternatives as we enter the year 2008 so that our pupils are only ever driving the best possible car.

We believe our new Honda Civic is a fantastic car for you to learn all the essential driving skills needed to pass your driving test 1st time. After looking at several cars we decided on the Honda as it offers a great blend of power, economy and low emissions, easy to use controls from the fantastic and futuristic dashboard, and you can even talk to the car and it will respond

In the coming weeks we will be making some changes to the site to reflect the new car and we will be adding some new pictures into the gallery so that you can see the new car for yourselves.

We hope you are as excited as we are at ABMW Driving School about our new and exciting new car. And as we enter 2008 we are committed to providing the very best in driving tuition, and we can all contribute to A Better Motoring World.

If you would like any more information then please feel free to contact me at andy@abmw.co.uk and finally we wish all our exsisting and future pupils a very merry christmas.

Remember to check back to www.abmw.co.uk on the 22nd December for the big story.

Do you have loved one who has been planning on arranging Driving Lessons for ages but has never gotten around to it?, well this Christmas could be the ideal time to spur them into action with a Gift Voucher from ABMW driving school.

Please contact me via telephone or e-mail andy@abmw.co.ukand i’ll be more than happy to arrange it for you.

I bet though that the plastic card is in your wallet as it’s so handy for id purposes and the paper counterpart is somewhere else completely, maybe in that box of old receipt’s and other stuff that you’ve been meaning to sort out for ages.

When you find the paper bit have a look at what it say’s, For those of you who still can’t find it this is what it say’s : The photocard and paper counterpart together make up the complete driving licence and should be kept together. Both must be produced when required.

You will be required to produce both parts of your licence on your 1st driving lesson as I am by law required to check it, You will also need to produce both parts when you attend for your Theory Test and most importantly your Driving Test. I see quite often pupils turning up at the test centre all raring to go and then have to go home dejected as they have forgotten or usually lost the paper part.

The cost of this mistake can be expensive, £48.50 for the test, 2hrs of tuition on day of test £40.00 (depending on the school) and another £48.50 to rebook your test and another 2hrs tuition on the new test date. That’s £177.00 all in.

So please keep those documents all together or filed away so you know exactly where they are.

Now you may be thinking?, what would be the chances of seeing a horse and rider whilst your driving round somewhere like Whalley Range for example, but not a lot people realise is that the Greater Manchester Police’s stables are based on Mauldeth road, only about a 4 minute drive from the Test Centre. The officers will on a daily basis take the horses out onto the road on routine patrol and exercise the horses. Now if you were to come across this situation on a lesson, then problem solved. You will have been shown how to deal and overtake the horse and rider safely and correctly as stated in the Highway Code. But if this situation was to arise during your actual test then would you know how to deal with it?. In theory you should as you would have studied for it whilst revising for your Theory Test.

Anyway the DSA have put together a top 10 list on the common reasons why people would fail there driving test, Here is a link to the list http://www.dsa.gov.uk/General.asp?id=197

As you can see horses don’t feature in the top ten

http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Documents/FOI/Other/IA00969P.pdf

The examiner will ask you two questions. listen to what the Examiner is asking, do they want you to tell them how to check something?, in which case you just need to explain how to check it, or are they asking you to show them how to check something? in this case you will need to physically check it. Remember if you are not sure want they would like you to do just ask them.

Here is a picture of the engine bay of a BMW 1 Series :

Remember they are not expecting you to be Mechanics, and so long as you are giving them a good explanation of how to check something you’ll do fine.