It’s one of those landmark times in life, where you’re excited to sit behind the wheel of a car, and terrified your attempts at driving will end in disaster. We bring to you the tell-tale signs you’re adjusting to life in the fast (or ridiculously slow) lane… The offending ‘L’ plates: Required by law, dreaded by all. Glaring white and invading your car windscreen, displaying ‘L’ plates in the car definitely takes the shine out of sitting behind a wheel for the first time. You’re one stop short of having a flashing cone on the roof of your car. Yes, EVERYONE does know you’re the new kid on wheels. Rude road neighbours: There’s a place reserved in hell for beepers of first time drivers. Yes, you’re slowly crawling along but beeping at you in 5 minute intervals will not drastically improve your driving skills. BACK. OFF. Cyclists, Pedestrians, dogs… basically anything you can hit. You’ve nothing against other road users, you’d just prefer if they didn’t exist. With the threat of invading your path, there’s no guarantees you’ve bagged the swerve skill-set just yet. Finding the ‘bite’: It’s a stupid name for a difficult concept when you’re hitting the roads for the first time. You’re not quite sure what it means, except if you don’t start feeling pressure under your foot apparently you haven’t got it. The worst part of ‘finding the bite’ is what your instructor wants you to do with this new found information… Hillstarts: Never have you realised that the whole world is now on a hill. You know the saying ‘Mountain out of a molehill’, well this phrase just got real. Take a deep breath, let down the handbrake and pray you don’t roll backwards. Cutting out… at the lights: You’ve tackled the roundabout, managed not to roll back on the hill and all cyclists are firmly on their saddle. So far, you’re an ace. Then you slow down for the lights, and wait, no, it can’t be happening. You’ve cut out. Not once, but twice. Now there’s a queue behind you. Our tip? Do a Dara: New routes: You’ve mastered the trip from mum’s to your best mate’s house, and there’s not a back road within a 5mile radius that you don’t know better than the Sat-Nav. Saying that, don’t even dare ask to meet at a new spot. Or even worse, tackle a major road. They’re called nerves – and they’d like to keep theirs in check. Being asked when you’re taking the test… for the first, second or fourth time (we’re not judging). There’s a certain sense of failure when you walk out of the centre ‘L’ plates still in-tact. You’ll also be hell-bent on telling anyone who’ll listen that the instructor was marking unfairly and the test centre has a terrible pass rate anyway. It definitely WASN’T your driving.