The DVSA practical driving test

What happens on the practical driving test

The test is the same in a manual or an automatic. You can have your instructor, or a friend or relative over 16, sit in the back. They can’t help you during the test.

1. Eyesight check: you read a number plate from 20 metres, or 20.5 metres for an old-style plate. If you can’t, the test stops there and you fail.
2. A “tell me” question before you drive off, about how you’d carry out a safety check on the car.
3. General driving on different roads and in different traffic, but not on motorways. You’ll pull over and pull away, including behind a parked car and on a hill, and you might be asked to do an emergency stop.
4. Independent driving, following a sat nav the examiner sets up, or road signs, or both. A wrong turn isn’t a fault, and the examiner helps you get back on the route. Routes aren’t published.
5. A “show me” question while you’re driving, where you show the examiner how you’d work one of the car’s controls.
6. One reversing exercise: parallel parking, parking in a bay, or pulling up on the right, reversing about 2 car lengths and rejoining traffic.

How long is the practical driving test?

About 35 minutes. Around 20 to 35 minutes of that is independent driving. If you’ve been banned from driving and have to take an extended test, it lasts about 65 minutes.

How it’s marked

You pass with no more than 15 driving faults and no serious or dangerous faults.

The car you take

Most people use their instructor’s car, which must have dual controls. Your own car doesn’t need them, but it must meet DVSA’s rules:

• Taxed, insured for a driving test, roadworthy, and with an MOT if it’s over 3 years old
• No warning lights for safety faults, legal tread on every tyre and no space-saver spare
• An extra rear-view mirror inside for the examiner, a passenger head restraint (not a slip-on one) and L plates front and back (D plates in Wales)
• Able to reach 62mph, with a normal mph speedometer
• Not on DVSA’s banned list, which includes panel vans, the Toyota iQ, the 2-door Smart Fortwo and some convertibles

What to take

Forget your licence and the test is cancelled, and you won’t get your money back.

• The car
• Your UK photocard driving licence, or your paper licence and a valid passport
• Your theory test certificate, if you took the theory test in Northern Ireland
• Proof of a name change, like a marriage certificate, if your name has changed since you booked

Booking it

You usually need to pass your theory test first. Then book on GOV.UK with your licence number and a card, between 6am and 11:40pm. You must book it yourself: since 12 May 2026 it’s against the law for an instructor or anyone else to book a car test for you.

New dates are released 24 weeks ahead, at 6am every Monday. There’s no waiting list. Earlier dates turn up when other learners change or cancel, so it’s worth checking often. To find where the tests happen, put your postcode into GOV.UK’s Find a driving test centre service. Theory tests are taken at different centres.