I recently had a pupil from another Instr who could not cover her test...no problem she was well taught untill we came to manouvres !!??

She had been taught to mechanically carry out manouvres, 1turn left....2turns right....half left and stop etc.

She had no concept of guiding the car in reverse - only carrying out set steering wheel movements at set reference points.

Now I am sure we all use reference points and teach 1 turn here or 1 turn there at times but I believe pupils should be taught to guide the car in reverse and respond to things not quite going right. Personally I stay away from reference points as much as poss.

She had also been taught to go for perfection each time and got distraught if she needed to reposition, partly because she did not know how to deal with anything beyond the steering wheel turns at particular points.

I wonder how many of us teach 'mechanical' reversing