What is the examiner actually doing from the back seat on your Part 3? Diana sits down with Wayne Pinnington, who spent more than 20 years with DSA and DVSA as a car examiner, an ADI examiner, and then a test centre manager and LDTM, at one point running seven test centres and 22 staff between Wrexham and Buxton. He qualified as an ADI himself in 1999, and he is now back in the ADI world as a training consultant.
The first thing Wayne clears up will surprise a lot of PDIs. The chat you have with the examiner before the lesson carries no weight in the marking. It gives the examiner a picture of what the lesson should look like, and the more detail you give, the less they need to probe. After that, only the evidence in the car counts, and the whole lesson is assessed together back in the test centre. He is just as clear on another point: everyone starts a Part 3 on a pass, and every examiner wants to give one.
From there they get into how the marking really works. The examiner is looking at what the highest risk is, and whether you have seen it and are doing something about it. Deal with the high risk and you are heading for a pass. How far you go with the lower risk issues is often the difference between a B and an A. And when an examiner marks a competency as a 3, it means they could not give you a single piece of advice to improve it.
They also cover whether manoeuvres are allowed on a Part 3 (they are, if it is a real lesson and not a quick recap), why beginner lessons disappeared after Covid, how obvious a staged lesson looks from the back, and why PDIs are so often 10 to 15 seconds too late with their instruction. Diana shares what she has seen when pupils are used to having a trainer in the back, and Wayne gives his one piece of advice for the night before your test.
What we cover:
- Why the pre lesson chat with the examiner is not marked, and why it still matters
- How the examiner builds a holistic picture and decides the result
- Risk based marking, and what separates a Grade B from a Grade A
- What a score of 3 really means
- Manoeuvres, beginner lessons and what counts as a realistic Part 3 lesson
- Staged lessons, over instruction and being proactive
- How the Part 3 differs from a standards check
Key takeaways:
- Give the examiner plenty of detail before the lesson: hours with you, private practice, driving history. It saves them probing, but the marking only starts when the wheels turn.
- Find the highest risk your pupil is showing right now and work on that first. Everything else comes after.
- Being proactive means planning around the pupil's needs before you set off. It does not mean talking more.
- Get your pupils used to someone sitting in the back long before test day, so the examiner in the mirror is nothing new.
- When a pupil makes one mistake, ask why before you fix it. Do not reteach something they have done well for the last 20 minutes.
- The night before: teach the pupil next to you what they need, keep them safe, and keep it simple.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Wayne Pinnington Driver Training Consultancy on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590239812561
- Email Wayne: waynepinningtonitc@gmail.com
- Wayne works across Merseyside and Cheshire and offers online consultations for everywhere else.
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