As a teenager, I started looking at driving schools a few months ago. I didn't really know of any other places, but I knew that two of my friends attended 1st Gear. The classroom was close to my house, so I figured, why not, and I signed up. Now I wish that I opted to wait a month and take it at my school.
The level of organization is horrendous, and they expect you to move your schedule around their mistakes. They always come late, one of the instructors is aggravating to drive with, and they frequently double book or mix up your hours with somebody else. No matter what time your hour is, you have to be prepared the half hour before, and the half hour afterwards. I once had an hour at 9:00, so I was ready to go and waiting by 8:30. 10:00 came, and I called the instructor, asking where she was. She told me that she had put me down for 12:00. She came by around 12:30, and there were so many mixups once I was actually driving (Other instructors picking up the wrong people, schedule errors) that I was "observing" in the back of the car until 3:30. My whole day was wasted, as I was waiting around for them al day from 8:30 to 3:30. Another time, I was scheduled to drive on a Saturday, as I had school during the week. I looked at my phone after school and saw that I had SEVERAL texts, telling me that I was driving at noon. The instructor even called my mom and asked her if she could get me out of school so I could drive.
For the quality of this program, it is in no way worth $625. The books are ripped, several pages are missing, and the quality of teaching is very low. Discussions are mainly off topic, and students get away with having their phones out during quizzes or exams.
For me, I felt that the classroom hours were completely pointless, as we really only discussed topics that have been learned in middle school health class, or are common sense rules about driving on the road. The driving hours, I felt were fairly beneficial. Sonya, although interesting to drive with, taught a lot. I was not a fan of how she would grab the wheel from me if I "looked at a car coming on the other side of the road", however. Carl, didn't really seem to care, actually. He would just kind of laugh if I made a mistake, if he wasn't on the phone. Bob was great to drive with, he gave his full, undivided attention, and gave corrections and instructed without hounding the driver. Throughout this course, I never had the opportunity to drive with Fred. I found that driving hours with pickup and drop off at the classroom were WAY better, as they actually came on time.
Overall, I would not recommend driving at 1st Gear. They were consistently late, they made errors in the scheduling, and made you responsible for the mistakes at their convenience. I don't know if this is the norm for other driving schools, but this one is definitely something that I will remember for a long time. read more