Passed on the first try. Happy I chose this school.
I completed the intensive driving course at Autorijschool Dutch Driving.
Initially my feelings were mixed, as I had a different instructor for each lesson, and the variations in their teaching styles made it difficult for me to gain confidence behind the wheel.
However, due to a long backlog in the CBRs practical exam scheduling, I had to pause the course for ~6 months. After the break, I was assigned one instructor (Fatmir) for all of my lessons.
This proved to be a blessing in disguise, as Fatmir is an excellent instructor.
His teaching style strikes a balance between theoretical background and practical application (though, I got the sense that he tailors this to fit the student's needs). Overall he is very patient, and is just a nice dude to hang out with (you will spend a lot of time with your instructor, so this is very important). By the time I got to my exam, I actually felt like I was confident enough to drive, and that I knew what I was doing.
My only (very minor) criticisms are:
- For the intensive course I was assigned whichever instructor was available for a lesson. This led to poor continuity in lesson content and teaching style - I feel like I didn't have a good handle on where I was in terms of progress (Note: this is *not* a criticism of the instructors, they were all very capable)
- I also had one lesson during which an instructor (not Fatmir) was mostly busy on their phone and was only giving feedback in the form of "don't make this/that mistake" without giving much context. This stressed me out a lot, and led to me overthinking everything I was doing, which led to even more mistakes! However, I provided some feedback to the instructor during the lesson, and the remainder of that class went well.