Can driving instructor's tell when someones intelligent or not?
by admin on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 | 6 Comments
Can driving instructors tell if the person learning to drive is intelligent and it shouldnt be a problem teaching them, or if they are abit dopey and it might take them abit longer to learn?
Me and my friend were having this discussion today lol.
What do you think?
I think that everyone can tell if someone is intelligent or not
As a driving instructor I can tell if a person is going to be a slow learner, it does not meant they are dopey, everyone has their own learning curve and some people do take a long time to learn, getting to grips with driving skills is not easy
come on , ken d . you are taking the money right ?
What you call ‘intelligence’ has nothing to do with someone’s ability to drive. A person might come across as a bit slow or dumb, maybe due to something as simple as dyslexia or a speech impediment, but may well take to driving like they were born to do it.
I used to be a driving instructor. One of the hardest pupils I ever taught was a uni lecturer, IQ probably 200+, but absolutely no physical co-ordination at all. Another guy I taught could barely sign his name, been in and out of institutions and borstals all his life, had about 10 lessons and flew through the test.
You can never tell till someone gets behind the wheel.
I can usually tell after a few hours, if someone is destined to be a pedestrian or a driver.
I find that if you are a straight "A" pupil at school/Uni you will find the driving totally alien. I had a young lad who was an excelled pupil at Secondary, he was going to uni to become a scientist. I had a terrible time with him. No matter what I said he would do it "his way". Even though he had lived in our town for all of his 17 years he couldn’t tell you how to get to the next town near us, he refused to look at road signs, telling him to take the exit signed "so and so town" and when he went onto the roundabout he always had to ask which way. I even had him turning into a 1 way street with the NO ENTRY sign right in front of him… he even went right at a keep left sign.
On failing his 1st test I gave him some tips, and sure enough the one tip I gave him he failed on….
2nd test he couldn’t read the number plate, strange as he passed it with me and 1st test, turns out he couldn’t read the yellow plates… examiner measured the distance and he eventually passed that, but failed on his test with speed limit signs, his reply to the examiner when asked what was the speed limit on John Street, " I know it is 30, but I was KEEPING up with the other drivers". Passed 3rd attempt, I now teach his brother and he tells me that his brother has never driven since he passed 2 years ago….
So, yes most D.I can tell who is intelligent and who is destined to be a driver…..
Truth is, most instructors are not too intelligent themselves and wouldn’t know a brain if it fell on their lap!!
Yes, intelligence can make a difference. You’ll notice the answers above tend to relate to intelligent people who are not well co-ordinated so, certainly, that part of the learning process has nothing to do with intelligence.
But general road craft has a great deal to do with intelligence. Less intelligent people have more difficulty understanding ‘why’ they should behave in a certain way on the roads. That doesn’t mean intelligent people will do it, it just means they understand it and so are more likely to apply it during their test.