G2 Road Test Preparation
Across every manoeuvre on the G2 test, the problem is where you're looking - not what your hands are doing. That is what these lessons work on.
PHOTO 3:2 - dual-control car, local road
Changing lanes is the hardest thing most new drivers learn
Igor's view: it's one of the hardest manoeuvres on the road, and it goes wrong the same way for almost everyone. The student turns the steering wheel at the same moment they turn their head to check the blind spot. The car drifts while they're looking away.
So Igor holds the wheel. Physically - he won't let it move while the student's head is turned. It takes a few sessions, but by the end students check the mirror, check the blind spot, and steer as three separate actions instead of one. That's the difference between passing a lane change and being safe doing it for the next forty years.
What to do when you freeze at a stop sign
A lot of students freeze at stop signs. They've stopped, and then they don't know where to look or when to go.
Igor starts by separating the two kinds. At an all-way stop, everyone stops and whoever arrived first goes first. At a one-way stop, you're the one giving way, and you wait for a real gap.
Then the looking. Left, centre, right - in that order, every time, so it becomes automatic rather than a decision made under pressure. Igor explains why it matters: you're not just checking whether you have right of way, you're checking whether the other driver is going to take it anyway. Some of them do.
Within a couple of sessions, most students stop freezing. They've stopped guessing and started deciding.
Parallel parking: the mistake isn't the parking
Students focus so hard on the manoeuvre that they forget to look around before starting it. Igor's first correction is always the same: before you pull alongside the car you're parking behind, check that it's safe to stop there. Nobody coming up behind you. Nobody ahead about to move.
Then position. Too close and you'll hit the car. Too far and you're sitting in oncoming traffic while you work. There's a right distance and it's learnable in a few lessons.
Igor's students pass the parallel parking portion. It's the part that looks hardest and turns out not to be.
The three-point turn: three places it goes wrong
Pulling over. Before anything else, check the traffic behind you, and make sure you're not blocking a driveway or stopped within three metres of a fire hydrant. Then observe properly before you start - behind, ahead, and beside you for pedestrians and cyclists. This is the step nerves erase.
Reversing too far. Students concentrate so hard on what's behind them that they don't notice how far back they've gone, and hit the curb.
The finish. Almost done, and they check left - the direction they're going - but not right, where someone can appear.
All three are observation, not steering. That's what Igor works on, and a couple of lessons makes the difference.
The same thing, four times over
Lane changes, stop signs, parallel parking, the three-point turn: four manoeuvres, one problem underneath all of them. Almost nobody fails a G2 test because their hands can't work a steering wheel. They fail because of where they were looking, and when.
Fix that and the manoeuvres follow. It usually takes fewer lessons than people expect.
Before the test
Two things worth reading before test day.
Newmarket DriveTest road test guide
What happens on the day at 320 Harry Walker Parkway South, what to bring, and where students most often lose marks.
Single lessons and packages that include the use of Igor's dual-control car for the test itself. All prices are listed in one place.
Test booked already?
Call Igor with the date. He'll tell you honestly whether you need one lesson or five.
Or email isaev.igor@gmail.com