Learning to drive in Exeter: An honest university student’s experience

After the pandemic ruined a lot of driving tests for many young people across the country, it has been super hard to even book a driving test, let alone learn how to drive.

Personally, I have been trying to get a lesson since I was 17 – the age you can start learning. After getting more and more tired of lugging my weekly food shop from Aldi to St. Thomas to home, I decided that 2024 was going to be my year. So, with this being said, here’s what I’ve discovered about learning how to drive in Exeter.

How hard can driving really be?

I have to honest with you, when I first driving, I felt like Alicia Silverstone in Clueless – just terrible at it. I struggled to coordinate my feet and my gear changes were awful. All I did was stall. This was especially true when I first drove on the Countess Wear Roundabout. The whole thing is covered in box junctions. Box junctions plus roundabouts equals major confusion for everyone.

Just keep driving, just keep driving 

It was around my fifth or sixth lesson that I thought: “Hey, why I was stressing this is easy!” I then discovered that we hadn’t been on slip roads yet. In theory it isn’t hard but you do have to time everything really well. There was a time where I panicked and my driver instructor had to, rather cinematically, brake and swerve the car. And another where I missed fifth gear at 56mph and the car made a terrifying groaning noise. More lessons for me…

Please, please, please, can I have a driving test?

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Finding a driving test is like trying to get a ticket for EGB. You wake up at 6am on a Monday. You log in as fast as possible. You then hope that you will be able to get a test date after the 2,500 people who have just logged into the site ahead of you. That being said, Exeter is not as bad as Bolton (Manchester). The average waiting time there was 19 weeks, with some people being forced to wait up to 21.

When trying to book a test in Exeter, the trick is to be persistent. Firstly, book a test no matter what the date is. Secondly, once you have one booked, make sure to check the DVLA website as much as possible at random times throughout the day. It’s difficult to predict when people are more likely to cancel, but you might just get lucky.

Eat, sleep, drive, repeat

Having managed to secure a test on a random Tuesday at 10:30pm, my instructor made me practice as many routes as possible in the time we had left.

We tackled Topsham and the roundabout of a thousand lights. We practiced turning left at Kenford because it is a common place to fail. I went round and round the quay making sure I didn’t get scared when I inevitably stalled and someone beeped at me.

I practiced so much I knew that even if I failed, I had given it my all. My bank account could certainly attest to that.

Oh god, am I actually a driver now?

After I had proven I could read a number plate, my examiner and I sat down while I awkwardly pointed to different bits in the car. Yes, I can de-mist the windscreen. Yes, I do know how to check if my lights are working. No, I won’t swear at the drivers who pull out without looking and make my heart fall out of my mouth.

And before I knew it, it was over. Weeks of lessons and more money than I would like to think about, I was taking my picture with my driving certificate, laughing with relief.

Now here is where the story really starts

It is true when they say that the learning really begins after you pass your test. Every day presents a new challenge. Maybe its the fact that every road in Exeter seems to be simultaneously on a hill while also being packed with cars so that every road is ridiculously narrow.

Or the fact that trying to find parking is more of a challenge than parking itself – and trying to parallel park as a new driver is no joke. I once tried to parallel park in front of Washington Singer and almost died of embarrassment. 

But hey, now I can go to Aldi every single day if I want, and no one can stop me. I’ll take that as a win.