Someone PM-ed me a question regarding the number of times private instructors bring you to drive in the BBDC circuit, and I thought I'd share my reply here.
What you have to know is that for private students, the use of the BBDC circuit is rather limited, so you have to request for circuit training in advance.
Most instructors teach you virtually the same thing, but either on a private circuit or some place else. But, yeah, I know it's not the same. So what you have to do is tell your instructor, wayyyy in advance, to book for you at least 3 circuit dates before your test. Since the booking slots are limited, you have to make sure you don't wait till the last minute.
Learning via private instructors is not the same as learning via school... There's no syllabus that is followed. Mr Yeo had booked only 1 slot for the circuit for me as well, but I knew I wanted at least 2 tries in the circuit, so I requested early and got them. I wasn't happy with my performance, but I passed anyway!
You may want to add on to the 3 circuit dates if you don't feel confident. All the best!
I'm not sure, but maybe it's the norm to just give you only one slot for driving in the circuit. For me, I feel that's not enough! And if you don't know what's going on, I think you wouldn't even think to request for more slots.
If you're just beginning to learn how to drive, I'd recommend you to request for circuit lessons early on. If you start driving today, then straightaway tell the instructor you want to take, for example, 3 circuit lessons, but book them for dates that are in the future (maybe about a month from now). If you have already booked your driving test, then I'd recommend you to try to get circuit dates near the test date.
Once you made your request, your instructor would then try to get those slots for you (if he's not the CMI type), and inform you if you can get them. As I said, the slots are limited, and you might not get the amount of slots you want. I wanted 3 circuit lessons, but I only got 2.
There's no point to take your circuit lessons near the beginning of your learning journey, since these lessons cost extra, and you don't want to waste learning clutch control (for example) in the circuit. I think you should be driving somewhat competently by the time you get into the circuit, so that you can focus on familiarising yourself with the circuit layout and parking lots.
Hope this WOT helps someone!
Edit : I say "at least 3 circuit dates", because it is my opinion that if you're driving somewhat competently on the road and outside circuits by the time you go into the BBDC circuits, 3 times would be sufficient to get an idea of the test circuit and such. I went in twice and I knew I would have felt better if I had at least one more try. Adjust this number based on your own driving ability. Cheers!
