DLA
Online Training
Visit the DSA website for information on Theory and Driving Test Centres in your area, test fee's, test requirements and much more. Our link will take you to the DSA Home Page from where you can select the area of specific interest to you.
You must have the following information ready
The Practical Test
Minimum Test Vehicle Requirements for a Practical Test
Bonnet Checks
You have to answer two questions about the vehicle checks you would carry out before driving. These include such things as tyres, brakes, coolants, lights. Click here to view the type of questions that could be asked.
If you answer one or both of the questions incorrectly this counts as a single driving fault. More than a total of 15 driving faults and you fail.
On the day of your Practical Test
The driving test lasts approximately 38 / 40 minutes (Extended tests will last about 70 minutes). First you will meet the examiner (either male or female) in the test centre. You must have three vital documents with you:
Item 3 can be any of the following:
... a passport, photo-bearing version of cheque or credit card, work-place identity card, student or trades union membership card, card used to buy railway tickets, or a school bus pass. If none of these are available, you must provide a photograph of yourself which has been certified by an acceptable person, who can be an Approved Driving Instructor or Motorcycle Instructor, an MP, a Justice of the Peace, a minister of religion, a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a local councillor, a bank officer, a civil servant, a police officer or a commissioned officer in Her Majesty's armed forces.
You will be asked to read and sign an insurance declaration on the test form. Your instructor's car will be covered, but if it's your car check your insurance is valid before you go for the test.
At this point if you would like your driving instructor to sit in on your test - just ask
Next you accompany the examiner outside. On the way, try a bit of conversation - it will probably help you relax. Once outside, you will be asked to read a vehicle number plate. If you struggle with this, you should have seen an optician already! As a last resort the examiner will measure out the exact distance (67 feet or 20.5 metres). If you still can't read the number, your test ends here, with the loss of your fee!
You must master the following, as well as your having passed the Theory Test.
Visit 2Pass.co.uk for everything you need to help you pass your test from Theory practice, Hazard perception and video clips of the manoeuvres.
Each of the above must be performed with proper observation and under full control.
The Reverse Park manoeuvre may involve a full reverse park behind another car during the course of the Test, or a reverse into a parking bay. For the latter, this may take place either at the very start, or at the end of the Test.
There'll quite possibly be a specially marked-out bay at the Test Centre, and the candidate may choose whether to reverse in from the right or the left.
The key to success is to drive with an awareness of what constitutes a 'hazard' and to show the ability at all times to deal with the many such hazards you'll come across, as much 'on Test' as in everyday driving when you're a full licence-holder. Show an Examiner you can do that, and you will join the ranks of those with a full licence.
Driver Faults: "Has it always been this way"
You will be expected to deal competently and safely with every situation that you find, but some minor driving faults are permitted. These are errors that do not in themselves create an actual or potential danger to other road users. They are recorded on the examiner's test form, and if you make 16 or more of these driving faults you will fail the test. You will also fail if you make a serious or dangerous error. No drive is 'perfect', but faults made may not actually be 'dangerous' within the context of the observed drive. Such faults are registered on the Test form by an oblique stroke in the appropriate box, and discussed at the end.
These previously so-called "Minor Errors" are 'totted up' and called "Driver Faults". Candidates in the past could pass with any number of 'minor errors' against them, [and each error was only ever marked twice].
Therefore, friends who passed with "only 2 errors for steering" might well have FAILED the new Test, if - for example - they actually committed 15+ steering errors. They'll never know they committed the same error 15+ times, with only 2 'dashes' on their old-style Pass Statement.
Pass or Fail
When you've passed, your driving licence will be needed for the examiner to fill in the pass certificate. You need to send this to DVLA with your provisional licence, and you will receive your full licence in a few days' time. You can drive on your own in the meantime provided you keep a record of your Driver Number.