Driving in Singapore: School or Private instructor??

After more than 10yrs...

which is 500 over weeks,

3,000 over days,

80,000 over hours,

5,000,0000 over mins

I FINALLY FUCKING PASS MY DRIVING!!! 

For many, driving might be something very easy but for some reasons I just can't get it right. My driving journey? 

1. At age of 19, I cleared my basic theory, when it was still in OTAS format with a dirty looking question booklet. Because BTT is for life time, thus I took it and cleared it. 1 time. 

2. I didn't have the luxury of a rich family that I can just burn some money to take the lessons while I was in school or during army, thus driving was put on hold. 

3. After army, my brother sponsored me $1,000 for my driving lessons and I top up the rest. I took my advance theory and pass it. 1 time. Got a driving instructor, took over 30 lessons and still failed my driving twice. Ran out of cash and patience, dropped it. 

4. Decided to pick it up again but 2 years has since past, needed to retake my advance theory and cleared it, 1 time. Got a different driving instructor, took over 20 odd lessons and failed it once. Got into a job and boss ran away and owe me 4-5 months of pay and some debt left behind which I had to clear. No mood, no money to drive. Dropped it. 

5. Another 2 years has past and my wife and I got a car from a friend who sold it to us at a very good price and my wife nagged motivated me to pick it up again, took my advance test, pass it again(again), 1 time. Decided to sign up with the school instead. Took less than 20 lessons and finally pass it, at the age of 29 turning 30. 

6. So in summary, I pass my basic once, pass my advance 3 times, fail my driving 3 times and finally pass it this time. 

For those who always asked me questions such as "Why don't you just do it once and get it over?", "How come your wife can drive and not you?", "You really didn't pass? I thought You caught drink driving or something" - Now you know my story, I did try my best but I guess I wasn't fated to do it but now I finally did it. 

School vs Private

So over the years many people like to ask this question, which is better - School or Private. Let's take a look at some of the difference and who takes the win in each section considering the fact that I went through 2 different private instructor as well as school. 

1. Car and Instructor - Different Instructor, different car every time for school unless you pay a premier as compared to 1 standard instructor and same car for Private. Having the same car goes by the rule of "Practice Makes Perfect" where you know the car very well. Having the same instructor means they know your progress but having different instructor means they will make you notice different things. Some instructor will tell you that tester will always take note of something where else some instructor will tell you something different. This way, almost everything is covered. 

Winner: School, always good to learn from more people.

2. Venue - You need to travel to school for your lesson if you sign up with the school while you get the flexibility of a few pick up point or even your place for some private instructors. I think you save a lot of time and you get to practice more instead of driving between your place to school but like I mentioned some private instructors starts their lessons at the school too. 

Winner: Tie, Ubi is really not the best place to go so there is no real winner for this. 

3. Schedule - You need to go online to "fight" for lessons, if you have anything on, you have 17-18 chance that you can cancel your booked timing without being charged, private instructor, you just have to call them to book and cancel.

Winner: Private, it's so easy to book everything with the instructor at one go instead of having to log in on almost a daily basis trying so hard to get the time you want. 

4. Test date - You need to go for certain number of lessons before the school instructor can advice you when you can book a test date. You have to book a test date and work towards that date with the private instructor. 

Winner: School, faster test date FTW and proper evaluation before getting a test date makes so much more sense. Getting a test date working and towards it sucks cause there will be possibility that you get too occupied in between and you do not want to cancel the date and it really doesn't help. 

5. Syllabus  - School has proper modules that allows you to follow strictly. Private has modules and allows you to skip around depends on how fast you pick it up. So if you are good at it, going for private saves you a lot of money. 

Winner: Tie. I give this a tie because this really depends on individual on how fast you wish to progress. 

6. Circuit Lessons - As a student from the school, you are allowed to use this facility with no extra cost. As a private student, you would need to pay for each use.

Winner: School. Pretty obvious winner. I really like this one actually, cause there are days that you do U-turns or what not but if  did badly the previous lesson within the circuit you can always squeeze in a 5-10 mins for 1 section of the circuit which is not possible for private students. 

7. Price -  Frankly, I can hardly remember how much I spent during my private days and I believe the price has changed much since it's over the years but like I mentioned you still need to add in circuit for private but all in all I BELIEVE, (I say believe cause I really don't know better) private is cheaper cause if I remember correctly that's the reason why a lot of people prefers private. 

Winner: Private. 

Final Result : 

School : 3

Private : 2 

Tie       : 2 

In summary, it's really a close contest and no clear winner. Which is why I believe it makes the selection so difficult cause there is no clear winner and that is also why until today we still see both private and school instructors out there. I guess it's really about which fits your style better but not so much of which is flat out better winner. 

If you are reading this and going to take your driving lessons, good luck and see you on the road. 

Mr.Smith, WATCH OUT, I'M ON THE ROAD NOW! 

*Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post, Smith paid for the lessons himself, views belongs to Smith and not CDC nor private instructors.