What’s Next?

The Advanced Driver or Advanced Rider Courses can be purchased securely online through the IAM RoadSmart website: www.iamroadsmart.com/courses. You then become an IAM RoadSmart Associate Member and if there is more than one IAM RoadSmart Group in your area, you can select the one you wish to train with. However, if there is just the one Group in your area, IAM RoadSmart will inform them that you are an Associate Member and someone from that Group will contact you to make arrangements for your training.

THE TRAINING PROCESS

Once started, Guidance Sessions follow over the next few weeks, on dates and at times mutually agreed between you and your Observer.

There are seven main Guidance Sessions:

  • Initial Session: You will be given an Assessment to check the current standard of your drive / ride. On completion, the Observer will give you a verbal debrief, pointing out your strengths and weaknesses in a helpful and constructive way. You will then be given a demonstration drive / ride to let you see the standard required to pass the Advanced Test and finally the Observer will give a brief Theory Presentation, to introduce some of the terms and concepts used later in the Course;
  • Core Competencies: You will learn how to apply ‘The SYSTEM of Car / Motorcycle Control’ whilst driving / riding in a hazard rich urban environment. This is also an opportunity to consolidate Highway Code rules for dealing with  fixed feature hazards, such as roundabouts; junctions and all forms of Traffic Light controlled features;
  • Corners and bends: You will learn how to read the Limit Point and apply the Safe Stopping Rule, whilst using  ‘The SYSTEM of Car / Motorcycle Control’ to maximise progress with safety, on challenging, twisty roads’; 
  • Overtaking: Possibly the most hazardous manoeuvre a driver / rider can undertake. You will be shown techniques for overtaking, based on a thorough assessment of risk and application of ‘The SYSTEM of Car / Motorcycle Control’ to reduce that risk when overtaking;
  • Motorways and Dual Carriageways: Our Motorways are statistically the safest roads on which to drive / ride. However, higher speeds can lull you into a sense of false security, owing to the low ‘relative’ speed of other traffic, coupled with the monotony of typically long Motorway journeys. You will learn about the ‘Human Aspects’ of driving / riding and how to apply ‘The SYSTEM of Car / Motorcycle Control’ to deal with Motorway and Dual Carriageway driving / riding;
  • Consolidation: During this Guidance Session, your Observer will assess your overall competence dealing with everything taught to date on Course. It is an opportunity for you to go over anything you feel needs a bit more work, so that you are comfortable and competent to take the Mock Test;
  • Mock Test: By now, you should be driving / riding at an Advanced standard! Before going for the IAM RoadSmart Advanced Test, we will give you a ‘Mock Test’ with another Observer. Not only is this a Quality Assurance check on you and your Observer, it also gives you the chance to see what it is like being ‘assessed’ by a relative stranger, as opposed to being ‘coached’ by your own Observer: an essential experience prior to the actual Test!

If on completion of the above, you are deemed to be of Advanced Test standard, we will inform IAM RoadSmart.

The Examiner will then contact you to make arrangements for your Test at a mutually agreeable time and place. The Test lasts about 90 minutes and if successful, you become a Full Member of IAM RoadSmart.

There is also an option to assess your competence and award Full Membership, if the ‘Advanced’ standard is achieved on completion of training, without the need for a formal Test with an Examiner. This option is only available through selected IAM RoadSmart Groups,  which meet strict criteria for excellence: such as Carlisle and West Cumbria Advanced Motorists. The option must also be taken BEFORE the start of training.

Visit the IAM RoadSmart website for further information about Our modules.

If you think any of the above courses would benefit you then perhaps you would like to know… what’s next? Before moving on, why not try out our Highway Code Quiz below?’