My observer was Simon Denton and he took me out a few times and pointed out a few improvements I ought to make. In particular, I was driving very economically by changing up as soon as possible and pottering along when the road was empty behind me, rather than maintaining good progress. So I learned to ignore the green light on my dashboard telling me to select a higher gear, and started to put my foot down a bit more on open roads.
Simon never had to tell me to keep both hands on the wheel as when I'm with an observer I never relax enough to take one off anyway - but I do always keep two hands on the wheel now.
My main problem was that, as I decelerated towards roundabouts, traffic lights and junctions, I found it really, really difficult not to change down through the gears and instead to decelerate in the existing gear - even if it's fifth - and put my clutch in at the last minute, then either apply the handbrake or select the correct gear to accelerate away. It just didn't feel right to be doing only ten miles an hour in a high gear, even if I was about to stop. That was the hardest habit to break.
Then, just as I was about to take my test, the pandemic struck and I didn't get my car out of the garage for eight months. When I finally did, I only had time for a couple of runs before my re-arranged test. Although I did all right on my check run, when I went to take the actual test it got off to a bad start and went downhill (in the wrong gear!) from there.
Driving in a mask didn't help and all the gear changing habits I'd worked hard to break came back with a vengeance and, for good measure, I also threw in another few errors which I hadn't been making before. So unsurprisingly, I failed.
I thought about giving up but as I knew I really hadn't driven like myself on the test, I decided to give it another go. Simon was self-isolating but Andrew Carter very kindly stepped in and took me out for some additional sessions. He had the patience of a saint, and was even very forgiving when I completely forgot a session and Andrew waiting in the cold in Sainsbury's car park.
On the second occasion of taking the test, I passed. I think I was the first person in the group to take their test after the long hiatus, and I'm extremely grateful to all the volunteers for giving me so much time and patience. I can finally pay the subscription and become a full member!
I've been driving over thirty years and most of that has been on autopilot, deteriorating into worse habits as time went on. I would say that the main benefit of doing the course is becoming more aware and confident and making myself think about the gear and the speed all the time, rather than just pottering along in the traffic and slowing down if there isn't any.