This is my view of the UK Driving Test and why candidates fail. It is my opinion and based only on what I have seen first hand as an examiner. Please feel free to comment but keep it clean and accurate and evidence based.

There are no secrets about the UK driving test. It is designed to test a candidates ability across a range of scenarios, be that moving off safely and in control, turning left and right, negotiating roundabouts, hills, potholes, one way streets, crossing traffic and testing a candidates understanding of road markings. 

The UK roads tell a story. There are signs, road markings, traffic islands; you name it, there are enough instructions ahead of a driver on and at the side of a road to be able to safely negotiate a journey.

It is the driver who makes the journey difficult, be that the learner on a lesson or a test, the experienced driver with no regard for anyone but themselves, the delivery or refuse truck driver going about their business or any one of a number of things that happen on the roads at any given time. If only everybody drove how they did on the day they passed their driving test, everything would be a lot easier. But they don’t. Including me. I’ve had points on my licence. It was over twenty years ago. I got caught on a motorcycle at 43mph in a 30mph speed limit coming out of a country lane in Essex one Sunday morning when i was on my way to deliver a CBT lesson. I didn’t even see the hidden speed camera van at the time and learnt of my capture in a letter some 10 days later. Caught redhanded, but not as red handed as i could have been. I had rolled off the throttle at the 30mph sign coming down from 60mph, when i should have rolled off earlier to hit the change of speed limit at exactly 30mph. It has only happened once in my driving life (being caught that is). I have driven at a heart racing 153mph on a UK motorway in convoy perfectly safely on route to an emergency needing traffic police urgently. I was able to drive at that speed because my training allowed me to. As did my legal exemption to speeding and in my role as said traffic officer, I could justify that speed to a court of law. Had there been a single doubt in my mind that 153mph was too fast, i would have slowed down. My training taught me that and for 28 years as a police driver, I followed my training. I had a couple of mishaps along the way, but they were mainly reversing errors at such slow speed in a police van that caused me little dinks. I did have one lucky escape in 2005 when i was by my own admission too fast for the conditions and the car i was driving fishtailed at over 100mph in the wet. I managed to regain control using brain and not the foot brake. Catastrophe averted, I never drove too fast for the conditions again. 

What does that have to do with the driving test you may ask. The answer is that in order to pass your driving test, you have to have training and a sufficient amount to make you competent. The DVSA despite all their faults (they are a government agency after all) have set the bar low. Very low in my opinion and in the opinion of my peers too. As an experienced driver with over 35 years as a car and motorcycle licence holder and as a former examiner, I know that to pass first time is achievable. Sure, candidates almost pass but then make an error that is recorded as a serious fault and that’s it, an unsuccessful result. They are the unfortunate and unlucky ones, but the test is only 30-40 minutes long and requires the highest level of concentration. 

Lets get to it. Why do people fail. Because about 60% of people sitting their test have not had enough lessons. Why not ?, because they are expensive. Running through the core of this is a one million plus backlog of tests, caused in the main by the covid-19 pandemic of 2020/1, the fact that 300,000 people in the UK turn 17 every year and a high percentage want to pass their test, the very fact that nearly 60% of people fail their test and go back in the pot, the huge loss through covid again of driving instructors whose businesses failed and were never reopened after the pandemic and the simple fact that there are not and never will be enough examiners to clear the backlog. Recruitment takes months and successful applicants give up waiting and go and get another job, retention is an issue; think public service salary and the dangers the examiners face on a daily basis. I for one, will have taken hold of the steering wheel or applied the brakes at least twice a week if not more and I am being conservative with those numbers. The only reason examiners do that is to avoid a collision. There is another reason too actually, to prevent a legal breach such as going through a red light.

So, it comes down to lessons, money and test availability. Everyone is in a rush these days. got to have it now, rather than wait. Whether it’s a new iphone or sparkly something or other, we want it now. For that , there are credit cards, interest free loans and Klarna etc.. Same with the driving test. The wait is around 20 weeks in London. What happens is people book a test and then look for an instructor. Good Instructors are running waiting lists with over 60 customers, while managing full diaries with around 25 active students. Some instructors are working 12 hour days, 6 or even 7 days a week, are so tired and exhausted that they cannot possibly deliver the best instruction and just do the minimum to get people to test. Yes, there are some really bad instructors out there, some have little or no moral fibre, are unscrupulous and are exploiting you, the customer. There are also a lot of very good instructors with a great moral compass. Now it is time for you tell me, of the 40% of candidates who pass, who are their instructors ? The good ones or the bad ones. 

A good instructor makes all the difference. What is needed is patience. Get on their waiting list and your time will come. It is worth the wait. Of course they are expensive or so it would seem. One quality lesson at £40 an hour is a whole lot better than two poor quality lessons at £25 or even £35 an hour. Instructors in the main are self employed with overheads, families and expenses. They work hard and long hours, they charge less but work more hours, degrading the lesson quality and probably without realising it. You pay for quality. £40 an hour is still a good price for a good instructor. You will know they are good, because you won’t be able to start your lessons with them for a couple of months after you make your initial enquiry. The instructor who can squeeze you in at 8pm every night is likely to have been at work from 7 in the morning and is powering through on coffee and exhaustion. Why do yourself the disservice of letting yourself down right from the beginning. 

It is really important at this point to say that all driving instructors who hold an ADI badge have gone through a meticulous set of examinations to hold the badge. They are subject to check tests at periodic intervals to ensure they are delivering the training in the right manner. That check test is easy to fake and only requires one hour of doing it properly every couple of years. 

You really do need to commit to learning to drive. The DVSA suggest up to 45 hours of lessons and 20 hours of private tuition with a friend or family member. My thoughts on these figures are similar. The keywords are “UpTo”. The way the syllabus is set out (that should be followed by all instructors) requires you to reach independence across all disciplines. Only then will you be ready to take your test. All disciplines.. that means all of them because every driving test will test all of them. The test routes are not random, they meet a criteria. 

Let me throw some numbers at you. 

10 lessons = £380 Test and Car Hire £212 = £592 FAILED

Another 5 lessons concentrating on the things you failed on in the first test = £190 Test and Car Hire £212 = £402 FAILED

5 more lessons and another £402 totals £1396 PASSES

20 lessons and one test = £972 , a saving of £424 or another 11 lessons. 

Add into that , that most people are now buying tests through a third party app and paying up to £400 for a test, the costs skyrocket and it really is a false economy in trying to rush it.  (more about these charlatans in another blog). I examined someone on their 6th attempt having paid £1200 for tests 10 days apart with no lessons in between. I wonder if they passed on their 7th attempt ?

Can you pass with just 20 lessons ? Yes, it’s possible and far from impossible but you run the risk of not being ready. A good instructor will tell you when you are approaching ready because your progress reports will be Factual Accurate Relevant and Agreed. If you can’t turn right properly after 20 lessons, you won’t magically turn right correctly on your test. I will never say “I told you so”, because I am unlikely to provide you with my car for a test if you are far from ready. You will thank me in the long run.