Not impressed w/my school so far, am I justified in being upset?

This post is about the driving portion of the class, the in-class permit portion was great. I'm going to school through a local college, and have not signed on w/any carrier.


Monday was my first day, a half day because they used the first half to test other students. One student came back from testing and had failed because she wasn't used to that clutch and stalled during the test. She had only been in that truck 2 times prior. They start the students on their beater trucks and then work their way up to the "testing truck."

The rest of the day was getting paperwork, starting the pre trip inspections, and then getting in a truck and watching other students practice the in cab air brake tests.


Tuesday I learned that a lot of the "class" is just standing around watching others back, or practicing the pre trips on our own. Class starts at 7 but there's little to no structure, no morning meetings, or finding out who is doing what and with who etc, and with new people coming in every week, everyone is at a different place in terms of skill set and time before they test.

3 other students and I went out to some rural roads to practice shifting, the first time for me. I was last to go, and did 2 laps, maybe a few miles total. The other students then got another chance to practice driving, then we went back for lunch. Get back from lunch at noon, no communication from the instructors until 1230 when they break us back into groups.


Time for yard backing skills, I did a couple pull ups and straight backs and that was it. Back to standing around and pre tripping. I found out that a teacher was let go a week or two before, and a truck which they recently added for yard skills, had a check engine light on, so we can't use that one. Their test truck also had to have some issues fixed, and still needs more work.


Today felt almost pointless. Get there at 7 and by 11 I didn't have any time behind the wheel. After lunch I got to practice the in cab/air brake test once. A little while later one of the instructors got us together and walked us through the pre trip, I think this was the first time I saw an instructor participate in it.


They've got roughly 10 students, 3 teachers, 5 trucks and I've driven maybe 30 minutes total.

 

They have written on their white board "no one on one teaching, group learning only".

 

I initially mentioned it because it's something that I find frustrating but then removed it from the initial post because I'd prefer to get feedback on the rest of my class experience and not something political.

 

IL