As other have said, it just takes practice. I also don't condone learning MT on a nice car, I would use a beater for that. But with that said, some tidbits of advice.

1. Practice rev-matching when you are downshifting into the lower gears
2. Use the full-range of the clutch, be nice & steady from the very bottom all the way to the top.
3. Don't be afraid to let the car stall. Just stay calm, start up again and try another time (even if cars are honking at you to get going). The worst things you can do to your tranny and clutch are dump the clutch out of fear, or over-rev the engine while slipping the clutch.
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I've done #3 a few times :-)
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Learn to do heel-toe on the right foot for inclines.
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My parents version of Driver's Ed for me....

Our driveway....then San Francisco.

I can drive a manual xmsn in ANY car nowadays.

And, isn't it a REQUIREMENT for a Man to be able to drive a stick???

:-)
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Can you bring it to my neighborhood while you are practicing? I love the entertainment value of watching someone learn to drive a stick. :-):-)

I learned it with three-on-a-tree in my grandfather's old truck on the farm. Those were the days, man.
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oh man Riz...

A 71 Ford 300 with three on the tree...Now THAT brings back memories!

:-)
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I think my grandfather's was a 73 or 74 Chevy. As it got later in its years we'd be driving that thing down some old country roads and about every couple of miles it would slip out of third and start making this grinding noise. Of course Grandaddy never worried about getting it fixed, you'd just slam it back in gear and keep on trucking. :-)
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That's it, and no today's synchro trans don't need it, but it gives the engine time to catch up with the next gear and road speed. This is a good way to get the feel, then you can just shift normally. No hurries between shifts.

I learned to drive a manual on a truck older than Tobii. It was a 1947 Chevy 3100 straight six with three on the column. Ran 62mph in second and 57 in third :-) That was at the coast before farm kids needed permits and driver's licenses :-)

I wish my car ran as smooth as that old truck.....
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I'm the other way around. After driving for 31 years the Ford Escape I drive now is my first automatic. If I had it to do over again, I'd go with the manual. Much more control over the car with a manual, especially in snow. I learned to drive on an 8 speed Ford dump truck. Lots of entertainment value there for onlookers. that thing could buck like a bronco. I think I hit my mouth on the steering wheel. :-)

As the others said, practice is your friend. Watching the tach is fine, but listening to the enginbe is better. You'll get to know instinctively when the revs are right to make a smooth gear change.
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Sounds to me like you're running in first too long before getting to second, then slapping second before the rpm's back down enough.
A lot of guys have said "listen to the car".
My brother once taught a deaf kid how to drive the dump truck simply by feeling the motor through the stick. He could drive that old dump flawlessly.
Ya just gotta feel the machine and let it tell you what to do, just like any machine.
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Hmmm, I learned how to drive stick on a tractor older than 90% of the people on this forum....a 1937 International Harvester Farmall Model A :-)
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I've never driven a Jetto or TSX, but doesnt a TSX have heftier engine? I'd imagine a car with significant HP difference would be a little squirrelier on the power transfer
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Being in the UK the vast majority of cars here are manuals anyway and that's how we all learn to drive really. The problem for us is driving automatics..we hear the engine note go up and go to change gear, slamming the left foot into the brake pedal like we would a clutch...man that makes for fun driving!!

The trick to driving automatics for us is to simply NEVER use the left foot..easier said than done after years of clutch driving.

You've had good advice so far so I won't offer any, other than to say try doing hill starts. You can't allow the car to slip backwards even an inch in your test or you fail here.
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According to a TSX forum that I post on, part of the problem has to do with the fact that the TSX has a drive-by-wire config, where the amount of fuel flowing to the engine is controlled by a computer, rather than a mechanical connection from the throttle to the engine.

According to the posters on there, Honda/Acura didn't really get the fuel injection right, where when you let off the throttle completely, it shuts off the fuel injectors and when you get back on it, it takes a second to turn them on again, and it isn't smooth. They recommended slightly riding the throttle when you shift, so that the fuel injectors never really close.
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Very cool. I'm looking at a 1954 Super A while smoking a DPG Blue. Still work that tractor almost every day in the summer. And no, I'm not the original owner....
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Ours is original to us, but far from original in build :-) Also I made a typo up there, I think ours is a '47 not a '37...I'm pretty sure the A series wasn't started until 1939. It's hard to tell now though due to the age and number of rebuilds it's been through.

My grandfather purchased it new, but in 1982 it was severely damaged in a barn fire and rebuilt the following year from the ground up. Several things aren't original to the tractor, but were added in later years models like field lights, an alternator (as opposed to the original generator), and a battery starter. I don't know how much of the tractor is even original
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When upshifting or downshifting, rarely if ever, am I 100% off the throttle. You have to use the gas to bring up the rpm for the lower or higher gear. All cars vary a little bit. If you were smooth in the Jetta then you are probably doing just fine. 1 st to 2nd in my car is usually not that smooth compared to all others up to 6. The gears are just winding a lot faster and delivering a lot more torque.

Good for you for driving stick. I do it every day because it's fun. My kids will have to learn or I wont let them drive. Driving a manual transmission makes you feel your car and you will know when something is wrong.
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It's just the difference in clutches. VW uses a short clutch with smooth syncro's and a long friction point. My parents used to have a manual Dodge Neon and the transition from driving my Corrado or Passat to that when I went to visit them was hard to get used to. By the time I'd be fully off the clutch pedal in the VW's the Neon's clutch would still have engaged. The first couple start attempts would always result in either over-reving or a stall until I got used to the Neon again.

My guess is that the TSX has a very short friction point and that is what's giving you the jerky engages in low gear compared to you buddy's Jetta. It's just a matter of practice before you're fully used to the TSX.
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That was what my friend said (the guy who owns the jetta) - that the TSX has a shorter throw and a shorter span for the clutch.

So what's a good way to compensate for the short friction point? Go slower through it?
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