Is it Better to Have 1 or 2 Hour Driving Lessons?

It’s better to have a 2 hour driving lesson because you’ll make much more efficient use of the time and money. The reasons why a 2 hour driving lesson is better than a 1 hour lesson is because:

  • You’ll receive approximately 3 times more practical driving experience
  • It’s better value for money
  • You’ll cover a greater variety of roads
  • You’ll encounter a greater variety of traffic conditions

More Practical Driving Experience

You’ll receive approximately 3 times more practical driving experience in a 2 hour lesson, compared to a 1 hour lesson. The reason for this is as follows.

For example, let’s take a driving lesson where the instructor is going to introduce roundabouts. The instructor will begin the lesson with a recap on the previous lesson and will run through any questions you may have. You’ll generally start the lesson with a ‘warmup’ and getting ack up to speed with what you were doing on your last lesson.

You’ll then park up in a suitable location where the instructor will introduce roundabouts as being today’s driving lesson, where a lesson briefing will begin. This includes showing diagrams of the different types of roundabouts, how they work, what you, the learner driver should do and safety procedures. The lesson briefing on roundabouts may take around 10 minutes or so. After the warmup and lesson briefing, it could take up to 30 minutes before you begin driving on roundabouts (you’ll need to start off on easy roundabouts, so this will vary on your location).

If you have a 1 hour driving lesson, you’ll only have the remaining 30 minutes for practical driving experience. On a 2 hour lesson, you have 1 and a half hours worth of driving experience and that makes a lot of difference.

Better Value for Money

Based on the fact that you’ll receive more practical driving experience with a 2 hour driving lesson as detailed above, you will need 3 x 1 hour driving lessons to cover the same amount of driving experience that you will receive in a 1 x 2 hour driving lesson. Therefore 2 hour driving lessons are far better value for money.

Greater Variety of Roads

If you start your driving lessons from the same location each time; from home, college or work, it’s likely that you’ll also want to finish at the same location. After the initial lesson briefing, the short time you have for practical driving means you’re limited on distance travelled and that means you may not cover the greater variety of roads that you might in a 2 hour lesson.

The greater the variety of roads that you cover during your driving lessons not only increases your chances of passing the driving test, but the experience will help to make you a safer, more confident driver after you have passed the test.

Greater Variety of Traffic Conditions

For the same reasons as above, you’re far more likely to experience a greater variety of traffic conditions during a 2 hour driving lesson. For the driving test, the test centre manager plans out driving test routes that will challenge the learner driver to as many varied roads and traffic conditions as possible.

On an ideal driving lesson, you’ll need to begin the lesson from your pickup point, have the lesson briefing, then experience the test routes and traffic conditions that you’ll be taken on during your test. This could be some distance away from your pickup location and may only be possible in a 2 hour lesson.

Gaining experience with a variety of traffic conditions, particularly the exact routes that you’ll be taking on your driving test will considerably increase your chances of passing.

2 Hour Driving Lessons are Too Tiring

2 hour driving lessons are tiring and for some learners, they are simply too long. There’s two ways around this; ask your driving instructor for a 1.5 hour lesson instead, or if you are taking 2 hour lessons, ask for a 5 minute break halfway through.

Most instructors offer 1.5 hour lessons and they are ideal because they are not overly long, but offer enough time to get plenty of driving experience. If you are finding driving lessons long and tiring, your instructor will be more than happy to accommodate a short break. Your instructor will guide you to a safe place to park up, where you can exit the car, stretch your legs and get some fresh air.

2 thoughts on “Is it Better to Have 1 or 2 Hour Driving Lessons?”

  1. Sorry, but having got through half of this item I felt no good reason to carry on reading because from what I did read, I quickly decided what an absolute load of rubbish you are talking. At no point during my lessons ( admittedly a long time ago) did I have any more than 5-10 minutes none driving time. I asked my son who passed not so long ago and he confirmed the same.
    Driving/learning and concentrating for 2hours for a learner is bordering on the ridiculous when you consider that DVLA strongly suggest ALL drivers take a break every 2 hours, almost all these drivers having got the experience and driver fitness that learners have not. Also, from where we live, Blackpool is approximately a two hour drive with no break. I know it’s a different type of driving, but are you really suggesting a lesson driving to that equivalent is a sane idea?
    From what I can see the only benefits is less driving between pupils and more guaranteed income for the instructors.
    As for that so called ½ hour preparing the pupil for the lesson ie islands, we had books and the highway code and were told in advance what swat up on.

    1. Learn Automatic

      Haddo,

      Why would you assume a 2 hour lesson will be continuous driving? There will be many times that you will pull over and run through the learner’s progress, areas that need improvement and any questions they may have. Many learners are fine with a 2 hour lesson, but as said, if it’s too much, opt for a 1.5 hour lesson, but it’s best to avoid 1 hour lessons if possible.
      In my experience, learners that opt for a 1 hour lesson, after the recap / warmup, finding a suitable location (for whatever that lesson will be covering) and the lesson briefing, the lesson is over before you barely begin. You also need to factor in getting the learner back to their drop off location. It’s far better value for the learner to have a longer lesson.

      The instructor must conduct a lesson briefing. Sure, the pupil can swat up on the Highway Code and that’s recommended, but the instructor will still need to run through the process, safety and possible hazards in the briefing.

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