2015 Review: Xcel Driving School

Recently finished 18 hours worth of lessons with Xcel Driving School this 2015, so here’s a review!

The Location ★★★★★
I enrolled in their Fairview-Meadows branch (cause there’s another one at FCM), conveniently located between resto Hoy Panga!, and suprise surprise: Il Padrino coffee shop.

I attended their 4-hour lecture (with snacks and water) in their Fairview-FCM branch where we took a 60-item exam. Their exam was pretty legit, and could be used as a reviewer for when you’re applying for a license. A lot of the questions from that did come up when I took the actual exam from LTO.

The Receptionist ★★★★☆
First thing you’ll get asked by the receptionist is if you have previous driving experience. I had none, so her next spiel was to offer me to enroll in a Manual course, even though my aim was to learn via a Matic auto.

Scheduling was a nightmare. Once you pay in full, they’re basically just gonna schedule you wherever they could fit you regardless of the availability you previously mentioned during enrollment! She of course asks you first by texting you before finalizing, but there was this one time where I said to have the rest of my Matic lessons at a certain time. And I distinctly remember her writing it down in her notebook where she keeps all the students’ schedule while I typed in down on my calendar. The day before my lesson, she texted me a different schedule from what we talked about before. We eventually worked it out, but– just beware.

The Instructors ★★★★★
I’m not sure if I could just easily give out Excel’s instructors’ names, so I’ll just use their initials.

Took my 2 hours of Manual with Sir Z, and my 3 hours with Sir R.

Took most of my Matic lessons with a different Sir R, until I scheduled for a night driving lesson, for which I got Sir W for that. Nope, none of them were perverts, and nope, Xcel has no lady instructors.

They have this Evaluation Form that also functions as their lesson plan, and grading sheet. They’ll mark you in specific areas with either Excellent (should’ve been Xcellent *ehem*), Good, or More Practice.

 

 

The instructors were pretty fair. If you started a bit late because they were, you’d still get the full duration of your lesson. If you’re scheduled for 3 hours, you’ll get 3 hours.

Number 7 sounds pretty sexist to me

The Baby-Sitting (LTO License Acquisition) ★★★★☆
I was told to get my license via Xcel San Juan branch. I was told to be there by 7:30. Due to bad directions, and fucked up Google Maps, we got there at 7:40, by that time, the office was still closed, but to our comfort, one of the receptionists was already there.

Google Maps shows the road you’ll take should be just straight from Robinsons Galleria, but this is a LIE!!! Don’t get nervous if your jeepney/bus traverses a winding road.

You see, I was told by the receptionist to take the jeepney to Puregold Agora but from experience, I advise you all to take the bus instead of the jeepney, since the jeep stops around 10 minutes from the actual Puregold Agora.

When we finally got in their San Juan branch, we were told that there was no affirmation that we wouldn’t take the actual driving exam. When he said that, I thought to myself, “Then WTF-ing am I paying you 1.6k???”

We started at 8:00, and this is what we actually went through:
“Medical”. This consisted of the staff writing down the information from our Student’s Permit to a piece of paper.

Photosig. We were finished with this by 8:30. Just be wary of the staff calling out your name for the next step, they make use of a pretty bad audio system where everything they say comes out muffled.

Written Exam. I was called to take the exam at 11:50. A 3-hour difference! Mind you, we didn’t immediately take the exam the moment we were called. Apparently I was called before, but didn’t go to the Lecture Room when I was called. Remember: keep an open ear when you hear someone speaking via sucky mic. I was done with the exam by 12:50, we ate for about an hour, went back to LTO where I was greeted by the Xcel receptionist.

The Xcel branch I enrolled in got my license the next day, tho I was told that I was lucky since some of their students who applied on Thursday (I applied on Tuesday) just got a temporary one… good things happen to good people, I guess?

The Price ★★★★★
As you know, there’s a plethora of driving schools in the Philippines, and we chose to stick with Xcel because from our research, they had the cheapest package. From the other driving schools online, we saw that Matic courses cost for PhP1,000 per hour!

Here’re the rates I got when I enrolled in Xcel:
PhP2,400 for 5 hours Manual (PhP480 per hour)
PhP5,600 for 7 hours + 1 hour Matic (PhP700 per hour)
I then enrolled 5 hour Rush Course. This could’ve just been PhP3,000 (PhP600 per hour) but I chose a specific instructor so instead, it cost me PhP3,500 (PhP700 per hour).

The Verdict ★★★★.6
Definitely a driving school that I once again would enroll in if ever I would want to go somewhere but my mum won’t let me drive to it.

Just be wary of scheduling with their receptionists.