I had stopped in on two other driving schools before choosing ADDS. One felt like a wrong fit,…read moremostly due to availability and the other (also in Evanston) had a front desk person who was condescending and gave what I knew was incorrect information. As an elderly woman, new to Illinois and not having driven for over a year, this challenge was almost overwhelming. From the minute I entered the office of ADDS, I felt comfortable. First contact was the very busy Kemyta, who was juggling phone, paperwork, walk-ins and still smiling. When she was free, she asked me a few questions, then showed me how to maneuver their website, which had practice tests and much other information. There was also a voice behind a partition - an instructor giving a lesson to a group of high school students. Kemyta and I discussed my tailored requirements including pick-up and drop-off as well as instruction for written test, driving test and all the crazy paperwork associated with an out-of-state elderly person licensing situation. Kemyta assured me that the owner Doug Whitmore, a retired state policeman, would lead me through the process. When I met Doug, I asked him to be very straightforward with criticisms because I wanted to get this right. In turn, he gave encouragement, precise feedback, directions and kindly-phrased criticisms. After each session, I received a detailed summary from Doug's wife Andrea, while Doug was off giving CDL lessons for truck drivers. Text messages and emails were answered in reasonable time. This group has so many dimensions but operates very compatibly. I was apprehensive about taking the test and asked if I should have one more lesson, but Doug said he thought I could pass and gave specific issues on which to focus. He easily could hae had another payment from me, but he took the high road (no pun intended). I passed all the testing and got a license. Yay! This company is like family. They care about your success, know what they are doing, kind, moral and truly a pleasure to work with.

On the plus side, they teach the kids the necessary theory and the driving instructors are great…read more It would do them a lot of good to be well mannered on the phone with parents. The person on the other end of the line is rude, unhelpful and should not represent this school. I have had more than one child learn from them and their manners just don't seem to improve, to the point where they have a reputation for being nasty. Would love to write a more solid review as your instructors are great and I like how you teach them the theory with realistic scenarios. You seem to care that they do well, just change the person at the other end of the phone!

Had an absolutely great experience here. Everything was very organized and easy to schedule. My…read moredaughter actually enjoyed the classes and really benefitted from the one on one lessons. I ended up adding extra one on one lessons because my daughter is a nervous driver. It was great how he picks up from your house for lessons and how Brian gives the final road test. He's a great teacher , highly recommended

I took a class with Eddy and he is fantastic! He is super zen, explains things with drawings and…read morevisuals and it is just a great teacher. I was super nervous and I ended up feeling exciting about my driving. Highly recommended.

The driving instructor was calm but wasn't able to answer my questions. He confused me at times…read morewith his instruction but overall a good experience.

BEWARE. I don't believe this is a legitimate business. At the very best, they are lazy, unreliable,…read moreliars, terrible communicators, and they just don't care. I signed up my son and never heard anything from them after they took my money. I had to BEG them for confirmation. I then received a short email after that just stating confirmation that seemed like it had been written just to satisfy me but contained no details - and their website is also lacking details and made it difficult to know which package to sign up for. I still hadn't received anymore details as we were heading into the weekend before the Monday my son was supposed to start. I again had to BEG for details - calling and emailing multiple times. I finally received communication over the weekend which didn't acknowledge all my attempts to contact them but just said class was canceled because the instructor was sick. Eventually that whole session was canceled, so I asked for a refund. The LIED to me and told me they had issued the refund but upon checking with my credit card company, I found out this was not true. Of course it was at this point that their communication dropped off again and I had to dispute the charge with my credit card company to get my refund. All this while scrambling to find another option for my son for the summer. STAY AWAY!!

tl,dr: Let my driver's license expire, needed a new one, plus a car to use for the driving test…read more Nova Driving School was fantastic. I moved back to Chicago after 14 years in SF and finally needed to get my license again, mainly so I could help my aging folks in Southern Indiana if I needed to. I don't own a car, and I didn't want to borrow one from friends, so I looked for a driving school that also provides a vehicle for the test. Nova kept coming up in the ads, searches, and on Reddit. But I still needed an instructional permit to drive for the driving test. I went to the downtown DMV, took the written and vision tests, and got my instructional permit. I bought Nova's "2HR BTW + ROAD TEST" package on their site, which included 2 hours with an instructor and the use of the car on the day of the DMV. Called a coordinator, and they got me set up for a Friday morning. I'd show up at 6am at the Elston DMV (closest to me), practice the route in their car, then take the driving test. I arrived at the DMV at 6 AM, where I met an instructor named Jamie. He provided an overview of the driving test, explaining what the examiners look for and what questions they might ask. After that, we switched sides, and I got behind the wheel for the first time in 20 years. I was relieved to find that everything came back to me. Jamie took me through the two variations of the route used for the test. The route was very short, consisting of about four to five turns. There was no parallel parking or interstate driving involved. (Please note that this is specific to the Elston DMV; other branches may have different procedures.) Another student arrived, so we picked him up, and I sat in the back while that student drove the route a few times. Then, two more students joined us, making it three in the back and one in the driver's seat, with the instructor in the front. Each of us drove the route 2-3 times, and we had the opportunity to ask questions. As my appointment time approached, I returned to the front seat and went for another round of the two main route variations. Got into the DMV showing my text confirmation of my appointment. They won't let you enter without revealing either the email or the text proof of your appointment. And this branch doesn't take walk-ins. Stood in the first line to get the paperwork reviewed. I went to the camera line to get a photo, then waited, went to a counter, had everything reviewed, filled out more paperwork, signed more things, went over to pay at the cashier, came back, and got my paperwork for my driving test. Went outside to wait to take the driving test. Note that you can't stay inside the building so dress warm if it's winter. The other guys had less complicated paperwork, so one was in line for the driving test. The other one was in front of me. Then I was next. But this is mixed in with all the different people taking the written test. I waited an hour for the car to come back from the other guy and then got in. The instructor drove me around to the back parking lot. He stepped out, I took the driver's side, and got in line, the line of cars. I waited about 40 minutes in the car in line to get my assigned examiner. They had about 4-5 working that day across 3 lines of vehicles. I was finally at the front; the examiner who was the same woman who had helped me with the paperwork got in. We went exactly the route that Nova had reviewed with me several times. At the end, you have to park in a wide test parking space, then after that you park in angled parking with the rest of the other cars, with completed driving tests, but awaiting results. I choked on the question about which way your wheels point if you are facing uphill/downhill, and which side of the road you are on. Overthinking myself. But still passed thankfully. Examiner gets up, out, and leaves, and goes on to another driving test. 10 minutes later, another person comes out with my temporary driver's license and hands it to me, and I'm done. The real one arrives in 2-3 weeks. The $245 fee was definitely worth it for having a car provided, receiving two hours of driving experience on the exact test routes, and having them handle the appointment scheduling. And Jamie the instructor was clear, patient, and at ease in explaining and repeating all things we needed to keep in mind. I procrastinated on this for a long time and felt foolish when I realized how simple and straightforward the process was. If you're in a similar situation, make getting a new driver's license one of your goals for 2026 and call Nova.

Do not book driving lessons with this company. They do not disclose that it is nearly impossible to…read morebook times to take your classes until after you have purchased the package. They are rude unhelpful.

I can never book a driving lesson, they open the list and it's immediately filled, I email them…read moreabout And get rude responses, I wish I had known this before paying for the class.

Don't waste your time here. It is not worth the headache. Unprofessional, unfriendly, they make…read moreyour life difficult for no reason. Use one of the many other driving schools in the area, no other place could be as bad as this. It is a rip off and should go out of business asap.

Twice the instructor did not show up for behind the wheel. You can not schedule driving instruction…read moreon line and they have no times open except months away. I asked to be refunded for the two times the instructor did not show and they refused.

For the price we paid, the whole experience with this driving school was horrible. First, for the…read moreclassroom portion, the teacher would come late, let the kids out early, and give them a twenty-minute break every day. So, a class that was supposed to be 2 hours turned into an hour and twenty minutes. Not to mention everything is out of date. The books we are given are out of date by about 3 years and some of the rules are different, but the videos they watched looked to be about 10 years old and from another state where the laws are different. Now for the on-the-road portion. Today, I came from my LAST lesson very upset. My instructor, Mr. W, would constantly make snappy remarks at me. It's a LESSON. He's supposed to teach me; not to yell when I don't know something I haven't done before. Like today, when I was learning U-turns, 3-point turns, and 2-point turns and he was getting really frustrated when I didn't grasp it right away. That's just one of many examples. First, he told me to pull into a gas station, which I had barely done before. He snapped and told me to pull into the other entrance (which I didn't even know I had to do). After pulling in, he snapped again for me to pull around the pumps because I went too far (he didn't tell me to stop). After turning, I pulled forward and he yanked the steering wheel to turn and yelled at me and said, "What are you doing!", even though he didn't even tell me what to do in the first place. After pumping gas and I left the gas station, he called me something along the lines of a horse on wheels. Later, I had to do a tight turn at an intersection with another car, but I felt completely in control. He thought otherwise and harshly stopped the car and snapped again. Again, at stoplights, I wanted to turn right. He told me to turn even though it was a red light. I said, "But it's no turn-on red. Oh, wait! Only when pedestrians are present." So, I understood right away. This was still unacceptable to him and he snapped again and harshly told me I needed to read signs. I was literally pulling into the lane. I started to turn maybe 15 seconds later. It's not that big of a deal; I was just trying to be safe. I also hesitated because, in a previous lesson, he snapped at me for turning on-red even though I knew I could. So I didn't know if he made a mistake or not again. Later on, at a neighborhood intersection where there weren't any stop signs, I slowed down because I wanted to be safe. He snapped AGAIN and told me to not do that because there "clearly" wasn't a stop sign there. I just wanted to be safe because a few minutes before he told me to stop. Not to mention, as I was driving, he was like, "Keep driving, I'm just going to fix something" while reaching over and changing the dashboard settings. He was obstructing my vision and just told me to keep driving. Earlier, we heard good things about him. But, my mom and I agree that he's no longer patient enough to teach lessons. He told my mom I panicked too much. But, the truth is, it's him who's panicking and doesn't even give me a chance to try. I had lessons with two other instructors, and there weren't issues and I was told I'm a really good driver. But Mr. W is truly too old and impatient and creates problems that weren't problems to begin with.

After a rocky beginning as listed above from a few days ago, Mayra and David really went above and…read morebeyond to fix things. They were responsive and booked my child for an appointment the next morning. They were kind and apologetic. My child said he learned a lot from working with David in the car. A huge thanks to them for taking our concern seriously!!

Everything was smooth at the beginning, and they were quick to collect payment. However, once the…read moreclasses were completed, the experience became extremely frustrating. I made multiple calls requesting my certificate of completion. During one of those calls, the representative was rude and repeatedly told me to stop talking when I tried to explain the promises that had been made to me on three separate occasions but were never fulfilled. I could hear her speaking with her manager in the background, and the manager refused to address my concerns, stating that he had multiple other things to do. The explanation I was eventually given was that they were transitioning to a new system, which had never been mentioned during any of my previous calls. Instead of resolving the issue, they expected me to drive all the way to their Morton Grove office just to pick up my certificate. Overall, this was an extremely disappointing customer service experience. Communication was poor, commitments were not honored, and the lack of professionalism made what should have been a simple process unnecessarily stressful.

This school is one of my best choices i made. Staff members are very friendly, educated and treat…read moreyou like your family Thank you Vikings helping my next adventure

Viking Driving School helped change my life! it only took 2 months for me to obtain my CDL A…read morelicense. Now I'm working as a professional driver on track to making over $100k this year. The owner Kaisa personally helped me from the day I walked in and continues to help me with career planning and guidance. The secretary Veda has the most welcoming smile and greetings every time you walk into the school! All the teachers and instructors are experts in their field, they're so good they could teach a monkey how to drive! Viking Driving School is more than a school it's a family.

Great place highly recommend. Our son was very happy here and the instructors were all very good.read more

We just finished our driving lessons with fresh Green Light in Northbrook. The staff was…read moreknowledgeable and personable! I highly recommend Fresh Green Light!

Hackstudio is one of the coolest after school programs I have ever experienced. In the program,…read morechildren pick their own goal and work through the process to accomplish their own "definition of done." Hackstudio teaches resilience, persistence, and teamwork. My most favorite thing about it is that my child said "Mom, it's a judgment free zone." How amazing to have a creative space with amazing adult mentors who create a supportive environment where children PRACTICE EMPATHY through doing -- not just talking about it. I highly recommend Hackstudio -- we love it!

To know Hackstudio is to love Hackstudio! And that really is the key- to get to know this unique…read moreprogram. SO much more than just a place for kids to 'make things' (although with the amazing facilities that includes a professional looking wood shop, craft supplies, various computer technology and lots of interesting spaces to dream, create and build- there's a great chance your kids will be making some cool stuff) it's more of an incubator for young people to learn how to support and be supported in their own personal paths. Kids are grouped roughly by age, and then work alongside adult mentors who help guide them through their projects or 'quests'. It's a really neat program and our child who is on the timid/shy side has really blossomed in this class that supports her love of creativity and learning while boosting her self esteem. She adores this class and the friends she's made there and can't wait to go every week. I highly recommend- and if you are interested in joining make sure you speak with the staff who can better explain the awesome ideas at play here- it's so much more than just a place to make things! A+++