How easy it is to pass your driving test is made up of the following combination:

1. Your Experience and Skill Level
2. Preparation
3. Confidence and Nerves
4. The Driving Test Centre Location
5. The Examiner
6. The Time of Day that You’re Taking your Test
7. Luck

Your Experience and Skill Level

You’ll find the test much easier to pass when you’re able to anticipate possible situations ahead, and the only way you can achieve that is get plenty of experience.

Driving to a competent and safe standard requires a good level of multitasking. It’s the ability to not only control the vehicle, but to simultaneously anticipate what hazards may lie ahead and plan in advance what you’re going to do if it happens.

When you’re able to demonstrate these two skills to a good standard, your confidence will improve and you’ll be ready for the driving test.

Preparation

Preparation means you know exactly what you’re going into. A person that researches a situation before they get involved in it, is less likely to have unwanted surprises. To make it a little easier to pass the driving test, find out exactly what’s going to happen. This should include:

• Understanding the testing procedure and exactly what you’ll be expected to do
• Get to know the test centre and what it’s like to enter and exit it in a car
• Get to know the roads directly around the test centre as a lot of tests are failed here
• Ask an experienced driving instructor to take you round the difficult parts of the test routes (where tests are commonly failed)
• Become accustomed to the driving test by taking mock tests. Mock driving tests mimic the real thing and should help to make the real test easier as you’ll know exactly what to expect.

Confidence and Nerves

You’ll gain confidence as your skills and experience level, and level of preparation increase. The greater the confidence, the less stressful and easier the test will be.

However excessive nerves can fail a test. As experienced driving instructors, we’ve seen highly competent learner drivers fall apart on the driving test, where they make novice mistakes that would never happen during the later stages of their driving lessons.

A certain level of nerves is of course expected but you’ll find the test far more easy if you keep them in control. Lot of practice, experience and preparation helps and on the day of the test, try not to place too much importance on passing the test and just think of it as a practice session; if you fail, you’ll just try again.

The Driving Test Centre Location

The location of your driving test centre most certainly has a direct impact on how easy it is to pass your driving test. Essentially, the busier the area, the harder your test will be as can be found by the test centre pass rates.

Based on April through to September last year, Erith driving test centre – a very busy London based test centre had one of Britain’s lowest pass rates of just 31.6 percent. This is an area that has high levels of traffic and plenty of complicated traffic systems.

Compare this to less traffic-dense towns, then you’ll have pass rates of between 40 to 50 percent. Then extend that out into more rural locations, you can achieve pass rates of between 60 to 70 percent.

Although you are free to take your test at whichever test centre you choose, it is of course not always practical. But if you really are struggling to pass, it might be worth looking at an alternative test centre in a less busy location.

The Examiner

Driving test examiners are of course human and like the rest of us, they have good and bad days. Examiners do generally have a consistency with marking test results, but it’s no secret that some are a little harsher than others. If you get assigned a particularly strict examiner who’s having a bad day, then your test may not be as easy as you’d hoped.

The Time of Day that You’re Taking your Test

The time of day in which you book your test to take place can impact how easy it’s going to be. If you take your test during rush hour periods, you’re likely going to have to deal with drivers who are late for work, impatient and who have little time for learner drivers taking their test. Equally, you could take a gamble on it by hoping that you’ll be spending a lot of time in traffic queues.

That doesn’t often work out so well, so it’s usually best to book a test slot that’s the quietest time of day. this way, you’ll minimise the chances of having to deal with frantic drivers.

Luck

Does luck really influence how easy the driving test is? Sometimes it does yes. We’ve seen driving test candidates spend most of their 40 minute test queued up in heavy traffic. In this situation, there’s really not much that can go wrong.

Then on the side of bad luck, we’ve seen test candidates that have come up against every bad and impatient driver in the area that have ended up ruining their test.

Some say that as a driver, you should be able to handle every situation, but when dealing with unpredictable, impatient drivers, it’s hugely challenging for anyone, especially for drivers with little experience.