Your Driving Test
The Big Day Has Arrived
On the day of your driving test your driving instructor will normally pick you up from your home, work or college. You normally have a one-hour practice lesson then attend the test centre for your driving test which will last about 40 to 45 minutes. Some people are understandably nervous about taking a driving test but there is nothing to worry about, treat your driving test as just a continuation of your practice session but with another person giving you route directions. After all some examiners used to work for this school as instructors so they are quite used to handling nervous anxious people.
About five minutes before the time of your driving test you and your driving instructor will go and wait in the waiting room at the driving test centre, at the time of your test your examiner will come into the waiting room and ask for you by name, he/she will then ask you to read and sign a declaration to say that you have attended, the examiner will also want to see both parts of your provisional driving licence or if you still have the old paper licence you will also need to show a valid passport.
The examiner will ask you to lead your way outside, once outside you will be asked if you want to be called by your first name and also to point out your car, you will then need to read a number plate of another vehicle, this should not be a problem because at the beginning of your training your driving instructor will have checked this for you.
You will then be asked two mechanical knowledge questions known as ‘tell-me, show-me’ these questions are available for you to study by clicking ‘here’
Once the questions are out of the way, the examiner will ask you to get into the car. After getting into the car the examiner will briefly explain how the test will be conducted and to drive as you normally would with your driving instructor.
Get yourself ready and move off safely. During the test if you make a mistake try and correct it immediately, for example, if you stall the car try and make the necessary corrections straight away, immediately put your footbrake on to stop the car from rolling, then apply the handbrake and put the gear into neutral and start the engine again, make sure you know why you stalled and avoid it from happening again, then proceed with your test and don't dwell on your mistake.
The examiner will give you route directions and also ask you to pull up at the side of the road quite a number of times, remember its up to you to find a safe place to park, just because the examiner asks you to pull up doesn’t mean you need to find a place within the next 5 metres. After stopping in a safe place your examiner will sometimes just want you drive on again, or sometimes ask you to perform a certain manoeuvre. You will normally be asked to perform two manoeuvres from the following:
- A turn in the road exercise commonly nicknamed a three point turn.
- A reverse around a left hand corner. (a right if you take the test in a van)
- A reverse around a parked vehicle on the left known as a parallel park.
- A reverse into a parking bay.
You may also be asked to perform an emergency stop exercise, these are not tested on every driving test.
At the end of your driving test your examiner will ask you to switch off your engine and then you will get the result, as long as you have drove in the same way as you have been taught there should be no reason why you shouldn’t pass your driving test first time, however if you have made an error that was deemed to be serious or dangerous or accumulated more than 15 minor errors then you will have failed the test and at that stage your examiner will offer you a debrief, your driving instructor can also listen to the debrief.
However failing is not a good word at Expressway The Driving School so lets be positive and make sure you put everything that was taught to you into practice and pass the driving test first time.
After passing why not book a Pass Plus Course with your driving instructor at a discounted price for people who have learnt with us.