Navigating the Roads to Success: Jamie’s Inspiring Journey with IAM RoadSmart as a Young Driver

I passed my theory test at 17 years and 1 day-old. I then passed my practical test at 17 years and 2 months. I had a driving instructor, but I was not happy with the standard they were teaching me. (Things like, "Don't go handbrake into neutral; you don't have the skill to put it into gear quick enough.") And thankfully my dad took me out, and because he is an Advanced driver, he passed on a lot of skills to me, which provided a great starting ground for when I went to IAM RoadSmart.

I was very fortunate to buy my car on my 17th birthday, and my dad took me out all day every day, and we ended up doing around 3000 miles in 2 months before I went for my driving test. I really appreciated the fact that he would get home from night shift, supervise me driving to college, then drive the car home, sleep, and drive back in time for me to finish college and supervise me driving home. I really appreciate the support he has and still gives me, which is probably why I've kept going with driving. For others, they go through an instructor who gets them through a test, and they probably don't make the connections in regards to how important driving actually is.

I went to IAM RoadSmart because my dad mentioned he did his Advanced driver when he passed, and as he is a good driver, I thought it would be worthwhile. I didn't actually tell him that I had paid for the course until they asked what my plans were this week, and I mentioned that on my college off day I was going to see Paul Heasmer for my first run. I then passed the Advanced test with a first and started training to become an Observer. The first associate that I trained from start to finish got a perfect test sheet of 1's, and during our training he still wanted to develop his skills, but I couldn't help them any further, so I then decided to start the Masters course. I've done a few runs with my mentor, and now I'm waiting for the Masters test.