Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas/Driving School

The 360
Hold down then hit. The car will start to rotate; to get gold, look for the burn marks on the tarmac and use it to align your outer tire.

The 180
Essentially this is just a handbrake turn, accelerate into the half-circle of cones and press while  still holding down. Turn the car left or right and it will start to spin. When the nose of the car is pointing around the cone (so you won't hit it) release the handbrake and accelerate back to the starting point.

Due to the time limit you might need to use the handbrake again to come to stop within the cone box.

Whip and Terminate
For this test you have to do a 90° handbrake turn, then come to a stop. The two issues are the turn and the parking. To maximize turn, try to be a close to edge of cones so that you can get a better time. After you get the turn down (you can try as many times as you want until you get it), you will have to be good at parking.

Pop and Control
Speed up then slow down just before the tires pop, then speed up and park the car in the cones without touching them.

Burn and Lap
This one is tough but straight forward. The trick is to keep your laps as tight as possible to the inside cones using the handbrake to spin the car 180°. First-person view makes this much easier. Get back on the gas as quickly as possible, as you cannot afford to let the car lose too much speed if you want to get all five laps in under 36 seconds, which is required for gold.

Again, first person view is useful to get the timing right. Stay towards the inside of the track. Start your turns when the right (or left if you're going counterclockwise) edge of the screen is about 3/4 of the way between the penultimate and last cones. Picture your right (left) wheel just skimming around the edge of that last cone. If you knock it over, that doesn't count as damage.

Cone Coil
This one is also pretty tough until you learn how to do it right. All you need is to accelerate past the first two cones, then let go of the gas. And then once you pass the third cone, hit the gas and make the 180° turn. Then again, just like before, hit the gas through the first two, then just release it for the third. If you do this right, you should have about four or five seconds to get back to where you started. Going really fast then stomping on the brakes doesn't usually work here. You can go a little slow because you have some time if you did the first part correctly.

This one as well can be timed well in first-person mode. Reverse your turn between the penultimate and last cones. No need to brake; just let up on the gas.

The '90'
Slow down at about two or three seconds, by letting go of then use reverse to make the 90° turn.

Wheelie Weave
This is only tough because you have to understand one thing. If you are on two wheels, you cannot turn in the direction you are slanted in. If you do so, you will go down. It will take a couple tries, but it's not really that hard.

Spin and Go
In this test you have to back up, reverse direction, and park in the cone box.

Obviously, first-person mode is not going to help here. Instead, use third-person view and use to swivel the point of view around so you are looking at the front of the car, and the course behind it. Now all you have to remember is that in reverse, you turn the wheel the opposite way you want the rear wheels to go.

P.I.T. Maneuver
Hit the police car on the back tire and it will spin. Land up next to it without damaging yourself to achieve gold.

Alley Oop
Speed up and only let the left side wheels hit the jump, as soon as the car is near the end of the jump and half way in the air, release and try to turn right. The car will then do a barrel roll and land on its wheels, then try to park the car straight.

City Slicking
To complete driving school you have to drive across the city in under two minutes without damaging the car too badly and without stopping.

It terms of what you have to do, this is a relatively easy task but there are two things to keep in mind: firstly never stop. If you skid out or hit something keep the accelerator down and keep driving you can spin out and still complete the course. As for damage, grazing another vehicle or lamppost is not all that important if it saves you a couple of seconds. For gold you'll need no damage, but to just complete the School mission you can afford a few knocks here and there.

This is tricky due to the requirement not to stop, but otherwise you are probably pretty familiar with driving through the city at high speed. First-person view is a big help on this one to help avoid clipping turning or stationary cars. Take care, because the Super GT has a tendency to oversteer. Try not to accelerate into a turn, instead out of a turn.

When the test starts, make a quick left and right to get onto the street going past your garage. You can cut the first corner; there are no curbs to worry about. Drive as fast as you can along the street until you get to the rise in front of the cathedral (the trolley track is usually clear, except in the unlucky case you hit a trolley head-on). Turn right and then turn left at the next junction. Note that the "racing line" through this point is into the oncoming traffic so you'll have to see whether the line is clear before you decide to take it.

Now continue along the street until you get to the steep, twisting decline. This is the trickiest part of the course because it is easy to either hit something or lock your wheels and spin to a stop. If in doubt: slow down, because you are going downhill you are not going to lose momentum.

At the bottom of the hill turn right through the checkpoint and the drive as fast as you can down the Esplanade to Easter Basin Docks, turn right up the hill and stop outside the driving school.

Note: this course can also be completed in reverse to the description above, and claim the gold award. If the downhill near the checkpoint is a problem, take the course in reverse.

Another option is to get onto the rail track nearby, and head towards the tunnel. As you come out of the tunnel, turn left onto the grass, onto the road and follow to the checkpoint. This seems to allow for faster times, at least on the PC.

Two other things to note are that on the PC version you need to be wary of the game's habit of spawning vehicles directly in front of you that are too close to avoid, and there are several places were the sidewalks are more than wide enough to fit the GT. Since the game registers this as a "car" mission, fewer pedestrians spawn, so if traffic is too heavy take the sidewalk.

Rewards

 * Bronze: Super GT spawns at the driving school
 * Silver: Bullet spawns at the driving school
 * Gold: Hotknife spawns at the driving school