I keep saying that I think her instructor is rubbish, but she wont have it, and keeps using him because he is cheap, its like the ultimate false economy ever! I took her out driving recently, her reverse round a corner, bay park, turn in the road, etc are fine, but her general driving is really rough and that's what she keeps failing on. Gear changes, approaching junctions, all that sort of stuff.
It took me a while to pass, I had 4 tests and had 3 different instructors. For me it was nerves more than anything, I would be fine on lessons and then fall to bits on a test and mess up one of the manouvers and that would be it.
I think in this country though you need to be able to drive or you are really limited because public transport is pants
My first instructor was terrible, got absolutely nowhere with him and apart from the basics he taught me very little, changed instructor and it was massively different, learnt a lot quicker and enjoyed driving a lot more. Might be worth pushing her to look into that a bit more, clearly something's not quite working after 9 attempts.