The highest number of attempts at the practical test before passing last year was 21
It’s not even hard. You just read the highway code which isn’t long and is mostly common sense and then take the test. I passed it on the first attempt.
There hazard perception bit is infuriating but the actual theory bit is easy.
There are a bunch of £5 apps with mock tests on them. Even James May made one.
My sister a Nintendo DS game which had all of the tests on it, isn’t what old medium for which to distribute it but I guess it worked.
I just did a bunch of online ones, I don’t think I even paid for them.
Some of them don’t exactly replicate the hazard perception part. My brother misunderstood and thought you were supposed to spam click as fast as possible for the whole duration of each hazard, which worked just fine on his practice website, but got him instafailed for too many clicks on the real thing.
Did he only realise that after the 128th time?
No, but if he hadn’t been bullied by people who’d passed when he told them he’d failed and interrogated about what on Earth he could have done to fail, it would probably have taken him more tries than it did.
Maybe after 20 times, it’s time for a bus pass.
20?? If you’ve made it to 5 you need to start rethinking things. Drivers tests are not that hard
Driving tests aren’t all that easy in the UK. Not the hardest in the world by a long stretch but they’re very easy to fail.
The practical is hard. The theory is pretty basic. One of the questions I had was
You’ve just had a heated argument and are in a bad mood, but you need to drive somewhere. Do you:
- Drive with some calming music
- Drive fast to your destination and try not to think about it
- Drink an alcoholic drink to calm down while you’re driving
- Wait until you’ve calmed down completely before driving
The UK’s driving test is one of the hardest in the world apparently. A lot of them in other countries don’t even take place on actual roads.
I know people in the Netherlands that are fine drivers after failing 5 times. It’s pretty hard here, no clue about other countries.
…in theory
Considering the potential consequences of incompetent driving, I’m surprised there’s not a cap on the amount of attempts already.
If not a cap on the total, at least something like “no more than 12 attempts allowed in a year”. If evenly spaced that allows 1 attempt per month, giving time to practice and revise what was failed before.
Any more than that seems to be a case of throwing shit at the wall until enough sticks, or rather, make enough attempts and eventually you’re bound to do one without any majors. That hardly proves competence and capability though, which is really the point of testing in the first place.
Given how backed up testing centres are I’d be amazed if you could get more than four in a year. I took my test in 2020 (great year to take a test) and the time between me trying to take the test and me actually getting to take the test was about 5 months. Assuming it’s improved a little bit since then but they’re still backed up from what I hear
remember this is just the theory test, not the practical test. You cant take that before you pass your theory iirc.
I can’t see how you could fail that so many times. I wonder if its the hazard perception test each time.
The article also discusses the practical and how it took one candidate 21 tries to pass
… How? The theory test is easy
