My 50 year old mother does that and has done for years. I used to find it highly amusing watching her trying to get out of our residential road at the t-junction with a main 40mph road in rush hour. It got plain scary at times as very few people were doing 40mph and the gaps were tiny to get into.

Tried teaching her how to spin the wheel on the palm but she wasnt impressed and to this day still does that push and pull thing.

Here the examiners dont worry about where your hands are as long as one is on the wheel at all times. You can cross them in your test etc. Just adds fuel to my fire that licences are found in cereal packets here (sometimes)