Key Things You Should Know Before Enrolling in a Driving School

What You Should Know Before Enrolling in a Driving School

Attending behind the wheel driving school is required in the state of California. Getting these driver’s lessons before obtaining a license is also a great idea if you’re over the age of 18 when driver’s ed isn’t required for new drivers. However, it’s important to understand that not all driving schools are created equal.

No matter when you’re looking to learn how to drive, there are a few things to consider before enrolling in a driving school.

Key Things You Should Know Before Enrolling in Driver’s Ed

How Much of the Instruction is Behind the Wheel?

You may come across some driving school programs that offer 100% classroom instruction, while others offer a split between classroom instruction and hands-on driving lessons. The state of California requires 6 hours of behind the wheel instruction from an accredited driving school, so it’s important to take into consideration the type of learning you’ll be doing.

If you’re taking lessons only to learn the basics, you may choose only classroom instruction. However, if you’re taking the class with the end goal of getting your license, it’s important that you choose one with at least 6 hours of behind the wheel instruction. 

Road Test Pass Rate

Reputable driving schools should be able to tell you the pass rate of their students immediately. Make sure that they can confirm the number they give you so that you can determine whether or not they are honest with you. The percentage of students who complete their program and successfully pass their road tests is important because it lets you know how successful they are at teaching new drivers the ins and outs of driving. The higher their success rate, the more confidence you’ll have in choosing the school. 

Online Instruction

It’s the modern age, which is why many driving schools are using an online curriculum to help drivers learn. Similar to traditional classroom instruction, you will want to make sure the course you choose offers at least 6 hours of behind the wheel training if you are under the age of 18.

Even if you are above 18 years of age, you should consider learning with hands-on experience. Some schools also offer a hybrid of online/classroom instruction so that students can do the coursework online, but come to class for one-on-one instruction.

It’s important that you choose the environment that will work best for you. Online driving school is great for those who like to do their work in the comfort of their own home. However, some students may benefit from classroom instruction that makes them side aside a certain amount of time every week to get work done.

Read More: Choosing the Right Driving School for Your Teenager

When Classes Are Held

If you choose to go with traditional classroom instruction along with behind the wheel driving, it’s important to know the days and times that classes will be held to make sure they fit in your schedule. You will have to attend all of your sessions unless otherwise discussed with your teacher. To pass many of the programs, you can’t have an excess of absences.

When it comes to online classes, you’ll need to understand the schedule. While you won’t have to go anywhere physically, there will be assignments due at particular dates. It’s important to make sure that you can get those done by their due dates and continue to learn. Getting behind is never fun, and you’ll need to teach yourself how to manage time while learning from home.

Materials

Almost every driving school will offer training materials to its students. These training materials may be in the form of books, packets, pamphlets, and online materials that will help them study for quizzes and learn the rules of the road. 

 

Most driving schools will be able to let you look at the materials before enrolling, so make sure that you can take a quick look at what they’re providing. You want to make sure that they are all up to date with the current laws and stats on driving. The materials should be informative and easy to read.

Read More: What Driving Lessons Are Available For Adult Drivers

Insurance

When taking behind the wheel driving courses, drivers will not be using their own cars. The vehicles are provided to them by the school. These vehicles must be properly insured and plated, so make sure to inquire about that when you contact the potential driving schools. 

Experience

One of the most important criteria for any driving school is experience. If you’ve ever taught a teenager or anyone else something completely new to them, it can be difficult to explain. With experience teaching driving school, instructors know how to teach their students so that they pay attention and can become safe drivers.

Likewise, if you’re considering online driving school, you will want to know how long the program has been available and have all of your concerns addressed. You should discuss the online curriculum and contact the school to learn how it may differ from classroom instruction. Also, make sure that if you choose online driver’s ed that you will have access to a live instructor to help you should any questions come up. 

Course Fees

No matter who is paying for the driving lessons, it’s always important to consider the cost. These costs will differ from school to school and depend on the experience of the instructors and the types of lessons. 

The Learning Environment

You may know about all of the course material and types of learning environments available, but you need to determine which is best for you. If you’re considering online classes, you may be able to visit the driving school and ask for a demonstration so that you can determine if you want to continue.

If you’re considering classroom instruction, we recommend visiting the school and asking if you can sit in on a current class. This will give you the information you need to know whether or not the environment is right for you.

At the same time, visiting the school will give you a feel for the instructors. Every driving instructor will be different, but you’ll want to make sure that you have a good feeling about them and can trust them by teaching you how to drive.

Behind the Wheel Training Facts in California

Behind the wheel training is required for all new drivers in the state of California. If you are a teenager, you must complete training before taking your driving test to obtain your license. Here are some facts about behind the wheel driving school in Irvine, California.

Student Driver Facts

It is required by California law that a person under the age of 18 must complete one of the following driver’s education and training courses. 

• 25 hours of classroom instruction

This includes home study or internet training programs that must be equivalent to classroom instruction. 

• 6 hours of Behind the Wheel training

Behind the wheel training is necessary for learning how to drive in the real-life environments students will be faced with after obtaining their license. 

• 50 hours of supervised driving practice

This includes 10 hours of driving during darkness or at night.

Classroom Instruction

Videos or Movies Are Required

Driving schools in Irvine must provide at least 100 minutes of viewing time of movies or videos as part of their curriculum. 

These videos or movies must relate to the program and may contain scenes of traffic accidents. 

Time to Complete Program

The time it takes to complete a program will depend on how many hours the student attends the classes or spends with the educational material.

Behind the Wheel Driver’s Training

Six Hours of Training

The student is required by law to complete six hours of behind the wheel driving lessons that do not exceed two hours each day. Observation time does not count toward this requirement. 

Time to Complete Program

There is no law that specifies that time period between training sessions, so the time it takes will depend on the student’s schedule and how often they are behind the wheel.

Driving School Vehicles

Driving School Vehicle Type

As long as the vehicles are equipped with dual controls including an instructor foot brake and additional rearview mirror, they may be used by the Irvine driving school. 

Safety Inspection 

Training vehicles must undergo a yearly inspection to help ensure that it is safe and in proper condition. 

Insurance

Driving schools must have insurance and maintain the required bodily injury and property damage liability insurance on all training vehicles.

Driver’s Education for Overall Safety

Teens who go through Driver’s Ed are safer on the road than those who learned from mom and dad. 

A recent study done by the AAA Foundation revealed that those who take driver’s education courses are safer on the roads than those who don’t. Students who take driver’s ed are involved in fewer car crashes and score higher on their driving exam.

Tips for Choosing Driver’s Education

Choosing a driver’s education can be difficult, especially if this is the first child you will have on the road. Here are some tips to help you determine what’s right for you and your teen. 

Determine Type of Education

Classroom/Online

Classroom and online courses may be great for your teen, depending on the type of learner there are. Believe it or not, some people do learn better when in a classroom environment, so make sure you consider the type of student you know your teen to be and determine whether this environment is right for them. 

Behind the Wheel

While there are some who can learn from books, others learn by doing. One of the most effective methods of teaching someone to drive is by letting them learn in a hands-on environment. This means they will drive with an instructor and learn how to drive correctly and safely. 

Yourself 

If you’re able, you may think that you are the best person for the job when it comes to teaching your teenager how to drive. However, you have to consider that there are instructors who are trained to do the job and have techniques for teaching that you don’t. 

All of the Above

One of the best methods to learn how to drive is to have your teen learn using all of the above methods. Learning in a classroom environment is ideal when your teenager really needs to let knowledge like certain laws and what they mean sink in. The instruction they learn in a class may be invaluable. 

Likewise, a person can only learn to drive by doing. This means that along with their classroom education, your teenager will be given the opportunity to drive a car on a real road in the actual environment. This will help them learn driving techniques and how to be safe on the road when they have their license and aren’t driving with an adult. 

Next, driving with your teenager will only make them better. Practice makes perfect, especially when it comes to driving. The best way to make sure your teen’s driving is improving is to drive with them as much as possible.

Always Do Your Research

Before you enroll your teenager in any driving school, make sure that you know about that driving school. You should learn about their curriculum to make sure they will be doing everything they can do to teach your teenager how to drive safely while abiding by the law. Part of your research might include visiting the driving school and talking with a few of the instructor to learn about their teaching style and understand their success rates. 

Make sure to let them know your concerns and ask for advice for helping your teenager become the best driver they can be. Once you decide on a driving school, make sure to talk to your teenager after their first day to make sure they believe it will be a good learning environment. 

Choosing the Right Driving School for Your Teenager

Parents, is there anything more stressful than the thought of your teenager learning how to drive? It’s a scary thought for many parents: Their teenagers learning how to drive and getting their license. The reason why it’s such a scary thought is that parents will always worry about the safety of their children.

Driving is a big first step into adulthood, which makes many parents feel uneasy. However, luckily for parents, you can ensure your child’s safety by choosing the right driving school for your teenager. Here, they will learn all of the ins and outs of driving, including how to be safe while in the car.

Here are some tips to help parents like you find the best driving school for your teenager.

Do Your Due Diligence

Research should be one of the first steps any parent takes when trying to choose a driving school for their teenager. Once you have a list of all of the possible driving schools in the area, check to make sure they are licensed by the appropriate government agency. If you don’t know where to begin, you can ask the DMV for a list of licensed and accredited schools in your area.

Research should also include reading or finding testimonials from other parents. You can ask around in your area and find out where other parents have sent their children and determine whether or not it would be a good place for yours. Make sure to get all of their opinions, and if their child was licensed after taking driving courses, how they feel about them as new drivers. 

Check Out the Numbers

You may be able to find the success rate of certain driving schools in Orange County on their website. However, you may have to pick up the phone and make a call to uncover these numbers. No matter the case, you will want to find out their success rate so you can determine which schools have higher success rates and can properly teach your teenager how to drive well and get their license.

It’s always important to keep in mind that success depends just as much if not more so on the student than the driving school. A student must want to learn how to drive and drive safely in order to pass the class and pass their driving test successfully. Because of this, it’s important to have a talk with your teenager before enrolling them in driving school so that they understand the importance of driver’s education. 

Visit the Classroom

While many of the important lessons your teenager learns about driving will take place behind the wheel, you must also consider the classroom environment where they will learn. If they use equipment, you will want to note that, since this equipment will help your child learn much easier.

Find out if they have textbooks or if the information is given less formally. Each student learns differently, so if you believe your teenager will benefit from more hands-on training, you will want to look for a behind the wheel driving school that offers more road-time.

Remember, class time is important, too. Students must learn the rules of the road and certain laws in order to drive. While the action of driving may be better learned in the car, laws may be better learned in a classroom environment where the students have time to take notes and understand what they are learning.

You should always ask how long the driving school has been in business and get references so that you can continue to do research and figure out if they are the right match. 

Look at the Cars

Many parents don’t consider checking out the cars that Orange county driving schools use. However, assessing the cars will help you determine if the school is ideal for your teenager. If the cars look like they have hit a lot of curbs, you may find that the school isn’t as attentive as you’d like them to be while your child is driving.

You should also make sure that the school has liability insurance so that your teenager is covered in case damage occurs. It’s expected that a new driver may hit a curb in a parking lot every now and then, but that damage should be covered by the school.

Ask About Behind the Wheel

The state of California requires hands-on driving, so most driving schools you research will offer that training in their curriculum unless they are online or not geared towards teenagers or new drivers. Some schools, however, do just the minimum behind the wheel training, while others may offer more. Make sure you get information on how much time in the car the student gets and in what environments.

You will want your teenager to get time on the road, instead of just driving around in parking lots so that when they take their drivers’ test, they will have experience driving in real-life conditions.

Meet the Instructors

Just like your teenager’s teachers in high school, the instructors should be role models. A good instructor may be stricter than your teenager would like, but sometimes that’s absolutely necessary when it comes to learning safety on the road. By meeting the instructors that may teach your teenager, you can get a better idea of the way they teach and determine if they are a good fit for your child.

You should always find out how long the instructor has been on the job and their background. 

Find Out Student to Teacher Ratio

You may know about this ratio because of the school, but research suggests learning is much easier in environments where there are fewer students per instructor. This is because the students can have more one on one time and learn in an environment that allows them to be the focus. The same is true for driver’s education. The smaller the class, the better the learning experience.

 

What is Adult Driving Education in California and How Does it Work?

The process of getting a driver’s license as a teen is familiar to most people; however, when you’re an adult, the process is different. Although enrolling in a behind the wheel driving school course is not required for adults in California, there is still some work that is required in order to become licensed.

Requirements for Adults to Become a Licensed Driver in CA

If you’re over the age of 18 and would like to become a licensed driver, you’ll need to:

1. Complete an application
2. Pay an application fee
3. Pass a vision exam 
4. Provide proof of identity
5. Pass a written exam
6. Pass a driving exam

You’ll have 12 months to complete all these tasks.

Once everything has been completed, the DMV will issue you a temporary license that is valid for 90 days. The DMV will also mail your legitimate license to your home address.

If you’re 18 years of age or older at the time of applying for a learners permit in California, you’re not required to take a driver’s education course to become licensed.

Rules and Tips for Learning to Drive as an Adult

Even though you’re over the age of 18, a learner’s permit does not allow you to drive alone. A licensed adult driver must be in the vehicle at all times when you’re practicing driving.

It’s also a good idea to take a driver’s education course before taking the behind the wheel driving exam. Driving schools in Orange County have courses designed specifically for adult learners. Taking an adult drivers education course will help to lower insurance costs and to help you learn the rules of the road quicker.

For added convenience, many driving schools offer online learning options as well so adults with full-time jobs can easily fit driver’s education into their busy schedules. 

Safe Driving Information

Outlined on the California DMV website are driving skills that the DMV recommends every new driver practice to increase their chances of passing the behind the wheel exam.

Below are some driving tips to help you pass.

• Avoid making wide turns.
• Be on the lookout for limit lines.
• Always come to a complete stop at a red light or stop sign.
• Look shoulder to shoulder and check your mirror before making a turn.
• Follow speed limit rules.
• Keep a safe distance of at least two full car lengths between you and the car in front of you.

Car Break-In Prevention Tips

Having your car broken into is one of the most upsetting things that can happen to a car owner – it’s also one of the most common forms of larceny in the United States. When the “smash-and-grab” car break-in occurs, thieves take valuable items, which car owners then have to replace while dealing with costly auto repairs.

Whether or not you received car break-in prevention information at the behind the wheel driving school you attended before you received your driver’s license, brushing up on common-sense prevention tips never hurts. Below are some ways you can prevent car theft and ensure your valuables remain safe.

Keep Your Valuables Out of Sight

Car thieves are not typically criminal masterminds; they’re usually just opportunists who see something they want and take it. If you have anything of value such as a cell phone, wallet, purse, laptop, backpack, briefcase, shopping bags, cash (including loose change), and small electronics in your car be sure to keep it out of sight to deter thieves.  

Park in Crowded Areas

The last thing a thief wants is a crowd of people with cell phones watching and taking videos of them when they’re committing a break-in, so try to keep your car parked in a highly visible place like a busy parking lot.

Also, at night, try to park in a well-lit area and, if possible, choose a parking lot with an attendant over one without.

Deter Thieves with Anti-Theft Actions

The below measures can help make your car a harder target for smash-and-grab thieves:

• Never forget to lock your doors and keep the windows up when you park.
• If possible, and permitted bylaws in your area, tint your windows.
• Don’t keep valuables in a center console or glove compartment; these are places thieves always look.
• Utilize mechanisms that lock your steering wheel. It will help protect your car and alert thieves that you’ve taken extra security measures.
• Install a car alarm.
• Although car break-in thieves don’t usually take the car itself, never leave your keys in the car. It may motivate more reckless thieves to take your car.

Never Leave Your Car Running For Any Reason

During behind the wheel driving lessons driving instructors typically teach their students never to leave a car running, and although it can be tempting to leave your car on when you’re just heading quickly into a store – this is valuable advice that should never be ignored.

No matter if it’s from a driving school in Irvine or Los Angeles, a driving defense training course, or it’s on a pamphlet from your auto insurance provider, never ignore safety information. It could mean the difference between keeping your valuables safe and having your car broken into.