Driving Classes

Before you start taking driving classes, you must research well and choose the right driving school. Hyderabad is a big city and many people here rely on their cars as a regular mode of commute. Moreover, driving is a highly essential skill set that many wish to acquire. Therefore, to meet the heavy demand, driving schools have also flourished plentifully in this city.

Different driving schools offer different types of courses - some offer 10 classes of an hour each whereas a few others offer 20 classes of half an hour each. Learning a new skill within 10 days is extremely convenient for busy city-dwellers and thus the 10-days courses are immensely popular. Here is how most of these courses are planned.

You will receive your driving lessons in a car especially customized for beginners. These cars have pedals on the passenger side as well. The instructor will sit next to you and control the car from the passenger's seat using those pedals. He will begin with some basic information about the car and traffic guidelines. You will learn about the operations and functions of the accelerator, brakes, clutch, steering, gears, and indicators. The instructor will teach you to set the rear view mirrors as per your convenience and best view, and convenience. You will be familiarised with the pedals, but your instructor will control the pedals and ask you to focus on the steering initially.

You first start practicing on empty roads and as you get comfortable with steering the car, the instructor might introduce you to slightly busier roads. This is the time for you to understand how the steering wheel controls the front wheels of the car. You will slowly develop a sense of turning and you will learn how much you need to steer for a particular turn. Next, you must master the art of steering the car for U-turns. As you focus on the steering wheel, the instructor will slowly introduce you to accelerator and brake. Although there are control pedals on the instructor's side of the car, he will nonetheless encourage you to use yours. Therefore, you'll learn accelerating, steering, and braking in the first few classes.

Once the instructor decides that you have learned the basics of steering, he will proceed to clutch. Clutch is the leftmost pedal in the car and it is directly linked to the gear. Whenever you need to change the gear, you must press the clutch too. However, the most difficult part of driving is learning to start the car by slowly releasing the clutch and simultaneously accelerating. In order to master this technique (often called 'half-clutch'), you will be asked to stop the car, start it and move it forward several times.

After you master the half-clutch mechanism, you will proceed to gears. Your instructor will tell you which gear is to be used for what speed range. You need to be fast and vigilant at controlling the gears. At this point in time, you are operating the steering, all the three pedals as well as shifting gears. Simultaneously, you have to learn to keep an eye on the traffic, remember to honk whenever needed, negotiate speed-breakers and use the indicators while taking turns. Synchronizing all of these might take a while but practice will make you perfect.

As you will slowly begin to feel confident, your instructor will introduce you to slightly difficult situations - sloping roads, more traffic, narrower lanes, bumpy streets, etc. As you fairly grasp the skill of basic forward driving, you will proceed to reverse driving. Reverse driving is crucial for parking a car. Moreover, the practical driving license examines your reverse driving skills. For this, you will have to learn to carefully look in the rear view mirrors and drive the car backward.

Your last lessons will be focussed on preparing for the driving test. During these classes, you will learn to drive on a track in the shape of '8' in first gear and then you will learn to make the letter 'H' using the reverse gear. With this, your driving training will be complete and you will be ready to take the test at the RTO.

Assuming that you had already obtained your learner's license before starting your driving classes, you can apply for a permanent license after a month from the date of issue of the LLR. Remember that you are not allowed to drive all by yourself till you receive your permanent license. Make sure that a license holder is supervising you if and when you wish to practice driving. Moreover, the basic driving training aims to train you enough to pass the driving test. You might not be able to start driving like a pro by the time your driving course is complete. It takes patience, dedication and practice to learn serious driving on busy streets amidst traffic.