What turns a Grade B into a Grade A – Part 3 or Standards Check
There’s a quiet myth that won’t die in instructor circles. If you’re calm, polite, and don’t crash the car, the Grade A will somehow appear.
It won’t
A Grade A Standards Check is not about being tidy. It’s about being intentional. Examiners aren’t hunting for perfection. They’re looking for evidence that you know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and that you can adapt when the lesson doesn’t go to plan. An appropriate focus, and learning to take place.
Three things keep showing up, again and again, in Grade A outcomes.
- Consistent structure
- Flexible delivery
- Questioning that actually means something
All of it inside a controlled (safe) environment.
How do I know this? I teach it. I have perfected its simplicity to fit EVERY lesson, EVERY pupil, and EVERY instructor. If you want to discover more about that you can find my GRADEA course here.
Let’s unpack that properly…
Structure isn’t a script – It’s a spine.
Grade A instructors don’t drift. They don’t “see what happens.” They don’t improvise their way through an hour and hope it looks clever.
They arrive with a structure that gives the lesson shape. That doesn’t mean every lesson the same, no personality or ‘DVSA lessons’. It just means they have an approach that delivers the results needed. Targeted lessons, risk awareness & thinking pupils.
It is not a checklist or a Part 3 crib sheet. It is a learning structure.
This is where LTD (Look, Tell, Do) quietly does a lot of heavy lifting.
Look
What’s happening? What does the learner notice? What’s relevant right now?
Tell
What meaning are they making? What language are they using? What do they think is going on?
Do
What are they going to try next? What changes? What’s the outcome?
Examiners recognise this, even if you never say the words. They can see when a lesson flows because it’s built on thinking, not because you’ve memorised a format. If your structure only works when the learner behaves perfectly, it’s not structure. It’s fragile.
Grade A structure bends without breaking
Flexibility is planned, not improvised.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth…
Flexibility without structure looks like winging it.
Structure without flexibility will not fit.
Grade A lives in the middle
Examiners are watching how you respond when the learner does something unexpected. Misses a mirror check. Hesitates at a junction. Gets something right for the wrong reason.
Do you panic and revert to telling?
Do you plough on regardless because “that was the plan”?
Or do you adjust while keeping the lesson on track?
This is where Tri-Cycle Goals matter more than most people realise. Not heard of the triple-goal system? Check it out here
This develops laser-sighted goals that are specific and terrific. It allows you to lead, coach and develop not just the physicality but the culture of learning AND reflection. Not just by luck, but by design
Good questioning isn’t polite conversation.
This is where most Grade A attempts fall over.
People ask questions they already know the answer to.
“What should you be doing here?”
“What mirror do we check?”
“What does that sign mean?”
Those are recall checks. They have their place, but they won’t carry you to Grade A.
The key to Grade A is asking questions you don’t know the answer to.
Questions that reveal thinking.
Answers that might surprise you.
Ones where the learner’s response actually shapes what happens next.
For example:
“What made you choose that speed?”
“What were you most unsure about just then?”
“If we ran that again, what would you change first?”
You can’t fake those. You have to be genuinely curious. You can’t preplan your responses as you will not know what the answers will be.
Examiners spot this instantly. The moment your pupils answers start influencing the lesson, not just filling space, the tone of the assessment changes.
This is the backbone of the GRADEA course. Not tricks. Not examiner hacks. But learning how to structure and question in a way that shows insight, control, and trust in the learner.
Control doesn’t mean dominance.
A controlled environment doesn’t mean tight reins and constant narration. That would result in the wrong level of instruction.
It means safety is managed, goals are clear and the learner knows what they’re working on and why. You can let go without losing control.
Grade A instructors aren’t quiet because they’ve run out of things to say. They’re quiet because they’re listening, and allowing ‘it’ to happen. They step in when it matters, but they step back when it doesn’t.
That balance is teachable. It is learnable. And it’s exactly what GRADEA is built around.
Bringing it together
If you want to understand what examiners are really looking for, don’t search the ’17 Competencies’. Stop thinking in terms of marks and start thinking in terms of learning.
- A clear structure that supports thinking.
- Flexibility that’s planned, not panicked.
- Questions that you genuinely don’t know the answers to.
If you want to go deeper, explore the GRADEA course, the LTD system, and Tri-Cycle Goals here on the site. They’re not theory for theory’s sake. They exist because this is what works, in real cars, with real learners, under real examiner scrutiny.
Not seen these before? No, because they are exclusively ‘Chrisisms’. So if you like them, you know where to find more!
Grade A isn’t about impressing the examiner. It’s about making it obvious that you know exactly what you’re doing.