Most parents in Officer assume their main job is logging hours. Book some lessons, sit in the passenger seat a few evenings a week, sign the logbook, done.
The problem is that the gaps between what parents think they need to do and what actually matters don't show up until test day.
The myLearners App vs the Paper Logbook
VicRoads offers a free official app called myLearners, available on iOS and Android, alongside the traditional paper logbook. Both are accepted.
The app does the tracking automatically. You approve sessions from your own phone as the supervisor, which removes the risk of forgotten signatures or illegible handwriting.
If your teenager switches from paper to the app mid-way, they need to take the paper logbook into a VicRoads Customer Service Centre. Staff will add those earlier hours into the app for them. Don't wait until test day to do this.
If you lose the paper logbook, a replacement is available from any VicRoads Customer Service Centre. But any hours recorded in a lost logbook are very hard to recover. The app removes that risk entirely.
How Professional Driving Lessons Build Confidence
A professional driving instructor in Officer teaches the specific behaviours the testing officer is scoring - head checks before lane changes, correct mirror timing, give-way decision-making, and smooth control under pressure.
These are things most parents do on autopilot, which makes them genuinely difficult to explain out loud.
An instructor who works locally will also know the current Officer road environment. That matters because Officer is still a growing suburb, with new estates and intersections appearing regularly.
Route familiarity on the actual roads near the Pakenham East testing centre is something a local instructor builds into lessons specifically.
What Parents Often Get Wrong About the 120 Hours
VicRoads expects the logbook to show a variety of driving conditions.
If the entries show 120 hours of quiet evening drives around Officer's residential estates near Timbertop or Grandvue, a logbook showing nothing but quiet residential drives may signal to VicRoads that your teenager hasn't had the breadth of experience the GLS is designed to build.
The drive test is conducted at the Pakenham East Licence Testing Centre at 129 Treloar Lane. Routes from that centre include Princes Highway sections at 80 km/h, school zones dropping to 40 km/h, roundabouts, and multi-lane roads near Pakenham East.
If your teenager has never driven on the highway or handled a roundabout under pressure, the test will feel nothing like their practice sessions.
Note: the 120-hour logbook requirement applies to learners who are under 21 at the time they go for their Ps. If your teenager is 21 or older, the logbook isn't required though supervised practice is still recommended.
- School zone times on weekdays (40 km/h zones are easy to miss if you only practise on weekends)
- The Princes Highway between Officer and Pakenham
- Roundabouts, including those on busy roads near Beaconsfield or Berwick
- At least 20 of those 120 hours must be at night (between sunset and sunrise), so it's worth building night sessions into the routine early rather than rushing them at the end
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