I think everyone does at the start and then it just becomes second nature
It does become second nature although every clutch is different, I still remember picking up a car soon after I had passed and within a couple of minutes getting a red light on the steepest hill I donāt recall ever having a hill start as steep as that since, needless to say I was shitting bricks 
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I canāt do hill starts. I think it was due to both cars I had being Ā£300.
Iām waiting until I can afford a Tesla before I get another. Let auto pilot take care of hills
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I had a new clutch last year, I definitely had some kangaroo petrol in that tank! 
Hill starts in an automatic are far scarier 
Once stopped you donāt hold the break, you place all your trust in the car that it will stop itself from rolling back and will apply the handbrake
Then when you want to set off again, you just press the accelerator and again pray to the car gods that it doesnāt roll back.
In these situations Iād much rather have a manual. At least you can feel it holding and have some sort of control 
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Iāve heard of people struggling after passing with the clutch as theyāve gone out and bought a petrol car but learned in a diesel. The instructors havenāt taught them to do gas, then bite and bring it up slowly, meaning they stall it more. Diesels will still roll just on bite only and lifting gently as the engine just gets the power it needs to roll. Some petrol will do this but most especially older models donāt.
Iām personally getting an automatic when I pass, just one less thing to have to mess around with. 
Never had an issue with the clutch depending on fuel type and Iāve had all sorts of cars.
Itās all more or less the same in my opinion just the biting point that is slightly different. So as long as you slowly release the pedal youāre fine. Even when you know where it is, you should still do this to avoid excessive wear from banging the clutch plate in.
The only reason I went automatic is because itās lazy driving. Itās much more relaxing just having stop and go pedals with smooth instant gear changes.
I have those steering wheel paddles if I want to switch into manual but Iāve never used them
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Yeah diesel up hill will just go, however majority of petrol wonāt. My instructors car will go without gas on flat and obviously down hill, but any incline, nope itās not having it
Think thatās where the diesel people fall down if theyāve not had the proper training
Stop and go pedals is what I want ah ha, can pretty much do the clutch now at least. Just donāt want to have to think about it once Iāve got that license.
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Around a year for me. Took it slowly about 3 lessons a month so like 40 lessons
Someone on my street was driving 8 years without a license.
Then one day confessed to my auntie whoās an instructor and taught me.
She had to pick him up around the block so people didnāt see then he passed.
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Lucky to not get caught 
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Literally!
I guess thatās the reason he wanted to get in the car around the corner as people will be curious.
Luckily he passed straight away too.
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Just coming back to this thread. I passed with 1 minor 
it was my 2nd attempt as the 1st test I failed at the last hurdle.
In total Iāve had 64 hours worth of lessons, which I donāt class as too bad given there was 2 lock downs where instructors werenāt allowed to teach and then a 3 month gap waiting for a retest.
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1 minor is really good. Congrats!
āThe real learning starts nowā
I get the impression that youāre not 17, so is insurance still as bad for someone more mature? 
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The last time I looked at insurance for a Corsa I think it was, just around a grand. Iāve not looked lately as didnāt want to jinx myself 
Iāll probably look in a month or so at a motor, last of a big loan payments ends at end of this month, so then Iāve got free money to see whatās what.
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I recently had a discussion about car insurance with someone at work who had recently passed.
They were complaining that a brand new Qashqai was going to cost them Ā£3.5k a year in insurance. And they were going to go ahead with it too believing it to be ānormalā 
After I explained why (size, power, car value, inexperience with driving etc) they finally understood that starting out with an old Corsa or the likes is best financially and build up from there. Plus you wont really care if you kerb the alloys and such either.
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I havenāt actually driven since I passed my test 16 years ago bar a couple of holidays. I barely remember the controls!
And yet, my insurance quotes are really low! Probably half that of a new driver. Seems itās less āinexperience drivingā and more ātime since test was passedā. Silly really but I guess it wasnāt designed for edge cases like me.
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Did you intend that to be the case? Or just how circumstances turned out?
a mixture, I never really had a reason to drive when I passed, but I probably imagined Iād need to before now! Itās still a useful thing to have I guess, never expires and all.
I did have a motorbike for a bit but that was a different learning curve and license!
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I think car licences should be more like bike licences.
You get different licence types based on the power of the bike and your age. Theyāre far more in-depth for training and assessment too.
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