Driving lesson questions, answered

You can drive a car on the road from your 17th birthday, as long as you hold a provisional licence. You can apply for the provisional up to three months early — from 15 years and nine months — so it's worth getting that sorted in advance.

The DVSA's long-standing guidance is around 45 hours of professional tuition plus about 22 hours of private practice, but that's an average across everyone. Some people need fewer hours, plenty need considerably more, and neither says anything about you. You'll get an honest assessment of your own progress rather than a sales figure.

You need to pass the theory test before you can book your practical. You don't need it to start lessons, though — most people learn to drive and revise for the theory at the same time. Start the theory early; it's often the thing that holds people up.

Pass in a manual and you can drive both manual and automatic cars. Pass in an automatic and you're limited to automatics — but you'll often get there in fewer hours, and it removes clutch control entirely. If gears are the thing holding you back, automatic is well worth considering.

Yes, and it's much better than turning up in a car you don't know. Mention it when you book lessons so the date can be kept clear.

Yes — from wherever suits on the day. Pick-ups cover Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Haverhill, Thetford, Stowmarket and the villages around them.

Usually somewhere quiet, a proper look at the controls, and getting the car moving and stopped safely. Nobody's expected to be any good in hour one. Bring your provisional licence.

About 40 minutes for a standard car test. It includes an eyesight check, two 'show me, tell me' vehicle safety questions, general driving, one reversing manoeuvre and around 20 minutes of independent driving.

One serious or dangerous fault, or sixteen or more driving faults (the 'minors'). Most people who fail do so on a single serious fault rather than an accumulation of small ones — which is why observation at junctions gets so much attention in lessons.

Regularly. Plenty of people come to driving later, or come back to it after a bad experience elsewhere. The pace is set by you, and there's no expectation that everyone should progress at the same speed.

Yes. Motorway confidence, night driving, getting back behind the wheel after a break or a knock in confidence — all common requests, and all worth doing properly.

Every practical test opens with two vehicle safety questions: one 'tell me' before you drive, and one 'show me' while driving. There are 19 possible questions and the DVSA publishes all of them. Gavin covers them in the car you'll actually be tested in, which is far more use than learning them off a list.

Yes, when you're close. A mock is a full run on real roads marked the way an examiner marks, so you find out what would have cost you a fault while there's still time to fix it. It also makes test day feel familiar rather than strange.

Gavin prices lessons individually rather than publishing a rate card, because it depends on whether you're booking singles or a block and where you're picked up from. Give him a ring and you'll have a straight answer in a minute.

Bury St Edmunds test centre is at Triton House, St Andrews Street North, IP33 1TJ, and serves most learners across the area. Depending on where you live and what's available, Cambridge, Ipswich or Norwich may also make sense.