Lessons
Behind-the-Wheel Lessons & Pricing
Six-hour packages, single lessons and DMV drive test preparation across Ventura County.
Six-Hour Behind-the-Wheel
The full DMV requirement for drivers under 18, taught one student at a time.
from $450 / six hours
- The three lessons the DMV curriculum sets out, in a car with an instructor brake
- Pickup and drop-off included
- Pay per lesson, not all at once
- Where it fits, the last lesson is spent on the DMV pretest and some freeway
- Most students take six months to a year over it, and that is normal
Adult Lessons
For adults who want it finished quickly, whether that is a first license or a first time driving in California.
$85 to $99 / per hour
- No package required, book the hours you need
- Built around the drive test if that is what you are working towards
- Freeway, highway and canyon work available
- Taught engineers, nurses, accountants, PhDs and university students
Coming Back to Driving
For a driver whose license was suspended or revoked after a vision test, a health review or an accident, and who has to pass the DMV test again.
$150 / per hour
- Preparation aimed squarely at the re-examination
- We drive you to the DMV office and you use our car for the test
- Unhurried, and taught by the same instructor throughout
How the six hours work
Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3
The DMV curriculum is taught as three two-hour lessons rather than one long day. Spacing them out gives a student time to practice between lessons, which is where most of the improvement actually happens.
Extra hours are available if a student wants more time before the test, and freeway, canyon and tunnel practice can be added on request.
- Pay as you take each lesson, with no paying six hours in advance
- Cash, check or card
- Nothing due until your second lesson once you have signed up
The curriculum
What the six hours actually cover
The six hours California requires are taught as three two-hour lessons. Students who want more time can add it, and an adult who only wants one hour can start there. Every lesson builds toward the drive test, and the third is a full rehearsal of it.
Lesson 1
The car, the rules, and quiet streets
Two hours
- Check and adjust safety features before driving, every time
- Rules of the road and traffic safety
- Important components of the car
- Dashboard identification: what every warning light and control does
- Fundamental laws of the DMV
- Nervousness while driving
- Backing straight along the curb
- When to give a turn signal
- Hand signals
- U turns, right turns and left turns
- Habits and attitudes
Lesson 2
Real traffic, real decisions
Two hours
- Lane changing
- Use of the center lane and the turn lane
- Special attention at intersections
- Special attention to the unprotected left turn
- Physical demonstration of the blind spot
- Protection from red light crossing violators
- The three second rule
- How to react on a yellow light
- Double mindedness while turning
- Sudden stops
- Distance judgment
- Keeping patient in heavy and light traffic
- Swerving
- An object on the road
- Parallel parking, hill parking and curb parking
Lesson 3
The drive test, and everything after it
Two hours
- DMV test preparation and pre-test preparation
- A full simulation of the behind-the-wheel test
- The automatic disqualifications examiners look for
- Defensive driving
- Aggressive driving protection
- Freeway driving introduction
- Canyon driving
- Tunnel driving
- Night driving
- Driving in rain and fog
- Fatigue and its role in driving
- The large role of distraction: phone, texting, eating, music
- How to react in an emergency
- Avoiding accidents and tickets from the police department
Available on request
- Freeway, canyon and tunnel practice for students who want more of it
- Manual transmission, or stick shift, training
- Extra hours for any student who is not ready, at the same hourly rate
- Use of the same car for the DMV drive test
What the drive test is actually like
Students ask what the test is like more than they ask anything else. Here is what it has looked like at the offices we take students to.
- About thirty minutes, often less
- It is shorter than most people expect. The nerves usually last longer than the test does.
- Roughly fifteen minutes on residential streets
- Ordinary neighborhood driving is the bulk of it. Stop signs, lane position, speed control and turns, on the sort of streets a lesson is spent on.
- Parking lot work before you leave
- The examiner checks the car and your control of it in the lot, and parking rules are part of what is being scored.
- The examiner sets the route, not you
- Which is why lessons work the streets around the office you are booked at, rather than one fixed route learned by heart.
The DMV is the authority on its own test and can change any of this. Treat it as what to expect, not as a rule.
How the price is worked out
Four things move the price of the six hours
Which is why it starts at $450 rather than being one flat number. Call and you will be quoted for your address before you pay anything.
How far away you are
Pickup and drop-off are included, so a longer drive costs more. That is the single biggest reason two students pay different amounts for the same six hours.
How quickly you want it finished
Most students take six months to a year. Compressing that into a few weeks means holding slots open for you, and it is priced accordingly.
How much freeway and canyon work you want
Six hours spent on residential streets is not the same lesson as six hours that include freeway merging and canyon roads. The more of the second, the higher the rate.
Whether the last lesson is the DMV pretest
Where it fits inside the six hours, the final lesson is spent on the route and the maneuvers the examiner will ask for.
Rates that do not move
Everything above depends on where you are and what you want taught. These three do not.
Extra hours beyond the six
$85an hour
Some students want more than the six hours the DMV requires. The extra hours are charged at a flat rate, whatever the package was.
Freeway, highway and canyon
$99 to $125an hour
Merging, lane discipline at speed, and the canyon roads that connect this area. Priced above street work because it takes longer to reach the road and covers a different set of rules and signs.
Use of the car for the DMV test
Call to confirm
The cost depends on which office you are booked at and where we collect you from. Students take some lessons first, so the examiner is not the first person to see you drive.
- The six hour course is the DMV requirement for students under 18. Adult rates are hourly and work differently.
- Call before you book. The price for your address is the one that counts, and it is quicker to confirm than to guess.
- Where an instructor has to wait at a gated entrance, there is a small additional charge.
What we promise
The same promises we have made since 2013
The lowest price in town
The lowest price in town, and a professional instructor who will also prepare you for the DMV driving test.
Lowest price, or we pay the difference back
Lowest price or we pay the difference back. Professional, qualified behind-the-wheel training in a fully insured, dual-control car. Call today and we guarantee a new student a first lesson the next day or within the week, or a free one hour lesson.
Use our car for the DMV test
Use our car for the DMV test. A local driving school.
The car you will learn in
- Dual controls, so the instructor has his own brake from the first lesson
- Insured as Vehicle Code 11103 requires, and maintained in safe mechanical condition as Vehicle Code 11109 requires of every licensed driving school
- Non-smoking, and never smoked in
- The same car you can use for your DMV drive test, so the examiner is not the first thing that is unfamiliar
Prefer to start online?
The classroom half of the requirement can be completed online before the first lesson.