In the spirit of keeping The BBDC Experience as colourful and up-to-date as possible, I have decided to open this blog to guest contributions from past and present BBDC students. Unfortunately I don't know that many people who currently learn driving, so if you are a current student/"fresh graduate" of BBDC and would like to contribute to this blog please leave a comment with your email address.
So.. I recently just completed the course at BBDC and got my class 3 license. To anyone thinking about taking up driving, i would definitely reccomend taking it up from a driving school instead of a private instructor, especially if you're thinking of taking manual car lessons(I've heard that there arent many good private driving instructors for manual out there). My experience with bbdc was a pleasant one, with the only painful bit being the wallet and time.
To start out, BBDC makes you go through compulsory theory lessons which are quite frankly a waste of time cos the instructors conducting the lessons don't really teach you anything that is important for the BTT or FTT. But just bear with 4 of those lessons and read your own stuff while in class! The test practices are a must before the theory tests, especially the FTT which has really vague questions, cos they pretty much give you the answers for the test. A word of advice, be sure to book your FTT quickly after passing your BTT so you can complete your whole driving course faster!
After completing all your theory lessons and passing the BTT, you'll need to apply for your PDL at the traffic police counter on the second floor of bbdc, after which you'll be able to start attending driving lessons. BBDC has 3 schemes, the default non-fixed group/instructor scheme, the fixed group scheme and the fixed instructor scheme. By default, you're assigned to this group of instructors (4-5 of them) and each time you book, one instructor from this group will take you for your lessons. However, if the instructors are booked up for that day you'll be assigned to an instructor from another group. Hence there'll be times when you might get the same instructor and times when you get someone completely new. I personally went for the default scheme because the lessons are cheaper and i find that having a wider selection of instructors can actually help your driving. Each instructor has their own style and they tend to pick on differnt things and offer different advice so you can sieve through and pick out the more relevant points. I've heard from some friends that fixing a group is actually quite good too cos you're more familiar with the instructors and they know your common mistakes, yet you still get different advice from the 4-5 different instructors in the group so there are pros and cons. Keep in mind that its about 6 dollars or so more per lesson if you fix a group! The instructors that took me for lessons were generally all pretty good! some were more friendly than others but they all do a good job in their teaching. The more friendly instructors make the effort to get to know you and i remember one instructor who took me for about 3-4 lessons and always ended up talking to me about football haha. Sad to say, i cant really remember any of their names but if i remember correctly my default group number was G6007.
The only instructors that are really bad in bbdc would be the private instructors that bbdc contracts to cover for the school instructors. I happen to get one of them while booking a lesson once and it was the most unproductive lesson i ever had. The car that was used is the instructors own and it smelled of rotting fish that day so i had to bear with the smell for a full 100 minutes and ended the lessons smelling like i had gone to the market. As for the instructor, he kept mubbling things to himself and then scolding me when i couldnt hear a word he said so in the end i just gave up listening to him and drove based on what i was taught by the previous school instructors. He also made me turn back into BBDC halfway through the lesson cos he had to settle something and made me wait in the car while he got out and went into bbdc. A terrible experience indeed! I guess you would have to be pretty unlucky to get one of these instructors. It only happened to me once in about 25 lessons. the school instructors also told me that these contracted private instructors can be quite terrible. This wont happen to you if you decide to opt for the fixed group/instructor scheme so no worries if you're opting for that!
All in all i would say that the bbdc experience was a good one. I really liked the convenience of the online booking system which allows you to both book and cancel without much fuss. I felt that some of the lessons were a little uneccessary and you dont actually need that many lessons to be ready for the test but i guess it is good practice and probably why passing rates for school candidates is higher than those learning under private instructors! You also dont have to make additional bookings for the circuit and all that so its much much more convenient and i think the school instructors are a lot more professional so you're able to learn better! I eventually passed my driving test on the first try and spent a total of $2296 at bbdc. I remember booking the 11.45am test timeslot and based on what i hear from the instructors that is one of the better timeslots for the test! it does not guarantee you a pass but the roads would be very empty at the time so that helps. All the best!
Our first guest blogger Timothy is 20 this year and was a student of BBDC from 5th August 2012 to 7th March 2013. Unlike me, Timothy learnt manual instead of auto, and managed to pass on his first try. Congratulations and welcome to the "motoring society" (do they still write this on the result slip?! It was on mine... LOL.)!
To start out, BBDC makes you go through compulsory theory lessons which are quite frankly a waste of time cos the instructors conducting the lessons don't really teach you anything that is important for the BTT or FTT. But just bear with 4 of those lessons and read your own stuff while in class! The test practices are a must before the theory tests, especially the FTT which has really vague questions, cos they pretty much give you the answers for the test. A word of advice, be sure to book your FTT quickly after passing your BTT so you can complete your whole driving course faster!
After completing all your theory lessons and passing the BTT, you'll need to apply for your PDL at the traffic police counter on the second floor of bbdc, after which you'll be able to start attending driving lessons. BBDC has 3 schemes, the default non-fixed group/instructor scheme, the fixed group scheme and the fixed instructor scheme. By default, you're assigned to this group of instructors (4-5 of them) and each time you book, one instructor from this group will take you for your lessons. However, if the instructors are booked up for that day you'll be assigned to an instructor from another group. Hence there'll be times when you might get the same instructor and times when you get someone completely new. I personally went for the default scheme because the lessons are cheaper and i find that having a wider selection of instructors can actually help your driving. Each instructor has their own style and they tend to pick on differnt things and offer different advice so you can sieve through and pick out the more relevant points. I've heard from some friends that fixing a group is actually quite good too cos you're more familiar with the instructors and they know your common mistakes, yet you still get different advice from the 4-5 different instructors in the group so there are pros and cons. Keep in mind that its about 6 dollars or so more per lesson if you fix a group! The instructors that took me for lessons were generally all pretty good! some were more friendly than others but they all do a good job in their teaching. The more friendly instructors make the effort to get to know you and i remember one instructor who took me for about 3-4 lessons and always ended up talking to me about football haha. Sad to say, i cant really remember any of their names but if i remember correctly my default group number was G6007.
The only instructors that are really bad in bbdc would be the private instructors that bbdc contracts to cover for the school instructors. I happen to get one of them while booking a lesson once and it was the most unproductive lesson i ever had. The car that was used is the instructors own and it smelled of rotting fish that day so i had to bear with the smell for a full 100 minutes and ended the lessons smelling like i had gone to the market. As for the instructor, he kept mubbling things to himself and then scolding me when i couldnt hear a word he said so in the end i just gave up listening to him and drove based on what i was taught by the previous school instructors. He also made me turn back into BBDC halfway through the lesson cos he had to settle something and made me wait in the car while he got out and went into bbdc. A terrible experience indeed! I guess you would have to be pretty unlucky to get one of these instructors. It only happened to me once in about 25 lessons. the school instructors also told me that these contracted private instructors can be quite terrible. This wont happen to you if you decide to opt for the fixed group/instructor scheme so no worries if you're opting for that!
All in all i would say that the bbdc experience was a good one. I really liked the convenience of the online booking system which allows you to both book and cancel without much fuss. I felt that some of the lessons were a little uneccessary and you dont actually need that many lessons to be ready for the test but i guess it is good practice and probably why passing rates for school candidates is higher than those learning under private instructors! You also dont have to make additional bookings for the circuit and all that so its much much more convenient and i think the school instructors are a lot more professional so you're able to learn better! I eventually passed my driving test on the first try and spent a total of $2296 at bbdc. I remember booking the 11.45am test timeslot and based on what i hear from the instructors that is one of the better timeslots for the test! it does not guarantee you a pass but the roads would be very empty at the time so that helps. All the best!
(Blog owner's note: Seems like things are quite different for the manual kids. Or perhaps a lot of things have changed at BBDC.)
