You're not allowed to go that way!

Date: May 2006
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for Fail: Serious fault, Response to signs/signals - Traffic signs

Normally, it doesn't matter too much if you go the wrong way. As long as you do it correctly and safely, it doesn't really matter if you don't go the way you've been asked to go.

But there are exceptions. Attempting to drive onto a motorway is one of those exceptions. Attempting to enter a one way street from the wrong end will be looked upon in a poor light too.

In this case, Lindsey had come over from Liverpool for lessons because she was nervous about the heavy city traffic, and thought Wirral might be less intimidating. She was nervous on her test and got flustered as she approached a busy motorway intersection roundabout.

The examiner gave her a serious fault because she should have known that as a learner she wasn't allowed to drive on a motorway.

3 point turn

Date: March 2006
Test Centre: Ellesmere Port
Reason for fail: Serious fault, turn in road - observation

Michael pulled up on the left here, and the examiner asked him to turn the car around to face the other way.

Michael did it properly until just before he'd finished. He'd completed reversing, and got ready to move forward, but didn't check to see if it was clear to his left before he went. There could have been something coming, and the examiner had to give him a serious fault.

So if Michael had looked left he'd have passed his test?

In this case, apart from a handful of minor faults, that missed observation was the only thing he did wrong, and he would have passed if he'd taken a moment to look.

Righting wrongs

Date: January 2011
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Use of Mirrors - Change speed

This is a fairly busy roundabout between Greasby and Upton. It has a small niche of a road off to your right, that leads into a short dead end, where people sometimes park their cars. This causes people to signal late if they want to take the exit before the one that's being approached in the picture above.

Steve came to this situation on his driving test. Unsure of whether he had a safe gap, he didn't really get himself sorted out, and he stalled because he was going much too slowly for third gear.

Scott abruptly stopped the car, put his clutch down and his handbrake on. He started his engine, and put the car into gear one. Then he moved away safely. The abrupt stop caused the person behind to get very close, and they themselves had to do an emergency stop. Perhaps other people further back also had to stop very quickly.

OK. So everyone stalls now and again. How should you sort it out?

First thing to do was to check the mirror! Everyone gets it wrong from time to time, and if you do find yourself off the straight and narrow, you need to keep yourself safe. This means being aware of what's going on around you. Stopping suddenly may not be the best course of action, expecially approaching a roundabout, where the person behind you may well be looking right to see what's coming, instead of looking where they're going. In this case, what Scott should have done is put his clutch down, sort out first gear, and start his engine. Even if it meant going over the give way line a bit (the vehicle that caused Scott to panic had turned off to the left without signalling)

People stall for two main reasons. As Scott found, the car will stall if you slow down or stop in a a high gear, and the clutch up. The other time is when people move off, either bringing the clutch up too quickly, or in the wrong gear, or without enough revs. If you can minimise the effect your stall has on other road users, you're much more likely to get away with a minor fault than if you do something that causes other people to have to react sharply.

Always look before you leap

Date: June 2007
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Move off - Safely

This is the sort of road where an examiner might ask you to do an emergency stop. It's quiet. You can see a long way ahead and around.

The examiner asked Tim to do an emergency stop along this road. He gave the instruction, and Tim stopped promptly. The examiner then asked him to drive on. Tim got himself ready, and moved off. Unfortunately, a car was just starting to overtake him as he moved, and he hadn't checked around before releasing his handbrake.

So what observations should you make after doing an emergency stop?

You won't be parked at the side of the road. You'll be well away from the kerb. So it's important that you check that nothing is coming down your inside (a cyclist perhaps) and that nothing is overtaking you. Ideally you should look over both shoulders. Tim associated that blind spot check with moving away from the side of the road, but it also needs to happen here.

Keep left...

Date: May 2011
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Positioning - Normal driving

Liz has just gone through a set of traffic lights. She was in the right hand lane because a car was indicating left in the left lane, so she used the lights to overtake this slow moving vehicle safely. Unfortunately, she stayed out in the right lane, and wasn't going particularly quickly. When a car overtook her on the left, the examiner was always going to give her a serious fault.

What should Liz have done?

She should have been looking in her left door mirror to make sure she was past the car she was overtaking, with a view to getting back to the left as early as possible. By staying out to the right, she made it difficult for herself to get safely back over, because of cars coming up on her left. It would have been better if she'd been a bit more assertive, as she would have gained the space to move over safely. Accellerating while changing lane takes you away from the danger,

Is this a clue?

Date: June 2011
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Reverse Park (road) - Control.

John was asked to pull up on the left, and the examiner asked him to pull up alongside the parked car, and to reverse into the space behind it, parallel to and reasonably close to the kerb. John did the reverse, but because a part of the kerb was missing due to a driveway, he couldn't see quite where he was up to, and finished up a couple of feet away from the kerb.

At this point, the examiner ostentatiously looked out of his window at the kerb, and asked john if he had finished. John said that he had. Then the examiner made an obvious show of looking in his door mirror, and looked at John, asking, "Are you happy with that?" John agreed, and the examiner asked him to drive on.

But don't you have to get it right first time?

If you want to become a driving instructor, you have to do the parallel park on your advanced driving test, and you are expected to complete the manouevre without adjustment, but on the learner test, they're not as strict. If you find that you've ended up in the wrong place, you can drive forwards and correct things. But make sure you check around before you do. If you knock someone of his bike while doing it, you'll fail.

The examiner tried to give John a big clue that he wasn't happy with his position. Unfortunately, John, mainly because of nerves, failed to pick up on it.

When people are nervous, they rush.they want to get whatever it is that is making them nervous, over and done with.

Left? Which one?

Date: June 2011
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Turning Left - Observation

David was asked to take the next road on his left. There are two ways into the side road - The slip lane you can see with the parked cars in it, and a more conventional T-Junction, which is mainly used by traffic turning right into the side road.

Not being that familiar with Wallasey, David saw the "T" part of the junction, and turned left there. However, since the majority of people turning left there would use the slip road bit, and join the same bit of road that David was now going into, it was important that he looked left as he completed the turn. Unfortunately, he didn't do this, and the examiner had to give him a serious fault. Shame really, as he only picked up a handful of minor faults, and would have easily passed if it wasn't for this error.

Look where you're going!

Date: 2006
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Junctions - Observation

Busy town centre streets. Shops and offices. People want to go to and from here, and the islands to the left of the picture allows pedestrians to cross these busy roads one bit at a time.

Steve came to this junction, intent on finding out if there was anything coming from his right. The way was clear, so he emerged, only for the examiner to press the dual brake because there was a lady with a pushchair crossing the road to his left.

Well I'd fail him for that too! So why didn't he look where he was going?

It's a really common thing, both with learners and with experienced drivers. To look right is a natural thing. To look left is counter-intuitive, and I spend a lot of time getting people to focus most of their attention on where they are going. A lot of the time, that look right is useless, since all you can see is a wall or a hedge or a fence.

You must check it's clear to your right before you emerge, but really, the danger comes from the left, not the right. People cut corners when turning right into the junction you're coming up to. The road you want to turn into could have a car coming down on the wrong side of the road if there are parked vehicles forcing them out. And yes, there could be pedestrians crossing.

Look left, glance right.

It's just a shame that's all...

Date: April 2010
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Turn in Road - Observation

Kathryn was asked to do a turn in the road. She got ready, checked it was clear around her and moved slowly across the road. She stopped, and put her handbrake on, then prepared herself, and made sure it was clear around her. As she reversed slowly back, she saw an old man walking along the pavement. Alert to the possibility that might walk out into the road, she kept still and waited until he had gone past and then continued to reverse, before putting her handbrake on, getting ready, checking around and completing the manouevre.

Huh? She got a serious fault for that? Why?

She had been sat still for quite a long time in the middle of the road, and didn't look both ways before continuing. If a cyclist had been coming or something she might have hit them. The examiner had no option but to give her a serious fault. If she'd looked around after waiting for the pedestrian, or if she hadn't waited for him in the first place, she wouldn't have got the fault. her kindness turned around and bit her on the ass.

I failed my first one too!

Date: 1995
Test Centre: Ellesmere Port
Reason for fail: Junctions - Turning Left

I came to this junction on my first driving test. Back in 1995, Stanney Lane had a 40mph speed limit. It's now a 30mph limit but people tend to go a bit quicker than that sometimes, because it's a wide straight road.

I got to the junction, looked right, saw a car in the distance, turned out to the left anyway.

Seemingly moments later, the car that had been in the distance was overtaking me, and since he'd been affected by my pulling out, I got a serious fault.

Gutted mate! What should you have done?

It didn't matter that the car that overtook me was probably doing more than 40 miles an hour. I should have had another look, seen that he was approaching quickly, and waited for him to pass before emerging.

I did pass second time though!

Busload of trouble...2

Date: 2007
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Awareness/planning

The Royal Mail van is driving past a bus stop on Woodchurch Road, in Birkenhead. Buses have to stop on the road itself. There is no lay-by for them to pull into.


Jameele was following a bus down this road when it signalled left. As the bus slowed, he got closer and closer to it and had to slow down. This meant that traffic in the right hand lane was now coming up from behind too quickly for him to get around the bus safely, and so he had no option but to stop close behind it and wait until it had pulled away.


Ouch! He could have been stuck there for ages! What should he have done instead?


As soon as the left indicator of the bus went on, Jameele should have checked his right hand door mirror. If he'd had a safe gap he could then have moved out into the right hand lane. If it wasn't safe to immediately move over, he would need to tell other drivers what he wanted to do, by signalling right, and kept as far back as he could. Generally, drivers in the right hand lane can see what the situation is and will often hang back to allow a vehicle signalling right to move out. If they don't, and you do have to stop in the left hand lane, it's better to have plenty of room in front of you, as this gives you more room to get out, and allows you a better view of what's going on beyond the bus.

Busload of trouble...1

Date: 2009
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Use of Mirrors - Change speed

This isn't the actual bus. I don't have a video camera mounted on my car, recording tests. As far as I'm aware, such a thing would be frowned upon. I use google street view instead, and this picture is just to give you an idea that this one concerns a bus, just in case the title wasn't enough.

The bus was stopped at a bus stop as John approached it on his driving test. Having let off or on everyone that wanted to get on or off, the bus driver signalled right to say he wanted to move off.

John's reaction was instant! He was going to let that bus out! He braked sharply, and a man driving a van behind him had to brake even more sharply.

Not good. How could John have done it better?

Bus drivers are often working to a deadline.When they want to move away they signal right and often start to move slowly off. Then they check it's clear and if it isn't, they wait. the right signal doesn't give them the right to pull out in front of people. John should have checked his centre mirror, seen that it wasn't safe to stop, and carried on past the bus. If he'd checked his mirror, and the road had been empty behind him, he could of chosen to be courteous and allow the bus to move off, because he wouldn't have caused a danger to others.

Wrong lane blues

Date of Test: May 2011
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Use of mirrors - Change Direction

Karen was in the middle of the "independent driving" section of her driving test. She had been asked to turn left at this junction, but unfortunately ended up in the right hand lane. She realised that she was going the wrong way, and attempted to suddenly change lane, without looking in her left hand door mirror first.

A lorry was to her left, and the examiner hit the brakes, in order to avoid a collision. Not surprisingly, she got a serious fault for it.

So if she'd just gone right, she'd have passed?

Yes. The examiners mark your driving, not your ability to remember a series of directions. Everyone gets it wrong from time to time, and it's important that you do the safest thing, rather than just forcing your way into a different lane. You can always find a way to get back on track somewhere further on. If you do find yourself in the wrong lane, the first thing to do is to check your mirrors, so that you know how you will affect other people if you choose to try to correct it. If you have the time and space, a signal can tell people what you intend to do (but it doesn't give you the right to do it - have another look after you've signalled to see if other road users are giving you the space you need) If it's not safe to change lane, just keep in the lane that you're in, and go the wrong way. The examiner can then give you a couple of instructions to get you back on route.

Nerves!

Date of Test: Every time
Test Centre: All test centres
Reason for fail: Anything and everything

The vast majority of drivers take lessons from a professional instructor. These instructors are (or should be) teaching them to do the right things, and generally trying to present their pupils for test at the right time.

But the overall pass mark is only about 45%. More than half the candidates that turn up for a test go home disappointed.

So why doesn't it happen on the day?

Not everyone is nervous when they come to sit their driving test, but the vast majority of people are, to some extent.You're not alone!

Nervous people tend to rush things, which causes them to make mistakes, which then makes them more nervous. I try to keep a close eye on my pupils on their pre-test lesson, and if they are nervous, I try to get them doing things a bit slower than they want to. Sometimes, because this puts them back in control, it can help them to feel less nervous.

This is something that occurs right through the process of learning to drive, not just on your test. It's a huge part of my job, and I spend as much time trying to give my pupils the confidence to do what they need to do as I spend teaching them how to actually drive.

Stop!!!

Date of Test: December 2010
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Response to signs/signals - road markings

You're on your driving test, and you come to this junction. There are some big clues to help you here. There's a solid white line marking the end of the road. There's the word, "STOP" written across the road before that solid line, and there's a big red octagonal sign displaying the word "STOP" in bold white letters.

You MUST come to a complete stop, and look both ways before you proceed. It's mandatory. You're breaking the law if you don't, and not stopping will certainly cause you to fail your driving test.

An uphill struggle.

Date of Test:August 2010
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: serious fault, Controls - Handbrake

This is Portland Street in New Brighton. At the top of the picture you can see a give way triangle. This is a junction that causes a lot of problems for people both when learning to drive, and when on test. Common faults are rolling back, stalling, and just generally panicking.

For Jenny, it was all three. First she stalled. Then she panicked. Then she rolled back. The examiner stepped on the footbrake for her.

Blimey! That's a nasty looking hill! How can you do it safely?

Ideally, when you're dealing with T Junctions, you want to have everything sorted out before you get to the give way line. If you get the speed right, and sort out first gear, you can often balance the car on the clutch, make sure it's clear, and move away with a bit of accellerator. Trying to move away up a steep hill with your foot on the brake is... well, difficult to say the least.

If you haven't had time to get everything sorted out, you still need to be ready to go before you try to go, so stopping, and applying your handbrake allows you to find your biting point on your clutch, and to get your right foot off the brake pedal and onto the accellerator.

Don't keep left!

Date of Test:  2008
Test Centre: Wallasey, Merseyside
Reason for fail:  serious fault, Response to signs/signals - road markings

As you approach this mini roundabout, the road widens and splits into two lanes. Normally, if you want to go straight ahead at a roundabout, you'd keep to the left, but here, arrows are painted on the road. They make the left hand lane exclusive to road users turning left. Everyone else should keep to the right.

Unfortunately, Rachel didn't read the arrow, and went straight ahead from the left hand lane. Occasionally, if queueing traffic makes the road markings impossible to see, the examiner will tell the candidate where to put themselves, but on this occasion, the road was clear, and she should have read it.

The danger in putting yourself in the left hand lane here is two-fold.

First of all, if another car, also intending to go straight ahead, had come alongside, to the right, there would be a risk of a side to side crash, as both cars attempt to squeeze into a single lane beyond the roundabout.


Secondly, if anyone was waiting to emerge from the left, they could pull out, thinking you intended to turn left.

So was there any way she could have passed at that point?

Well, believe it or not, yes!

Obviously, it's better to read the clues around you, like road signs and road markings, but everyone gets it wrong now and again.

The rules reflect this, and if you do end up in the wrong lane, you should try to do the safest thing. Many people fail their tests because they panic and try to change lane when it's not safe to do so. Often, the safest course of action is just to go the wrong way.

If Rachel had just turned left, she would have been in the correct lane for what she did, and would cause less confusion and danger to other drivers, so she'd have got a minor fault for not signalling, instead of a serious fault for not reading the paint. It would then be up to the examiner to direct her back onto whatever route she should have been on.

Booking your test

This blog carries advertising that's related to it's content. That includes advertisers who offer to book your theory test.

My advice is not to use them. They charge a booking fee for doing something that's free, and they save you no time or work at all. It's a scam folks. Your theory test costs £31.00. If you get charged more than this, you're not at the right place.

Everything you need to book or manage either your theory or your practical test can be found by clicking the link below.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/dsa/Category.asp?cat=661

Alternatively, you can phone the Driving Standards Agency on 0300 200 1122

To book your theory test you will need your driving license number, and some means of payment, such as a debit card.

To book your practical test you will need the above, plus your theory certificate number, and the date you passed your theory test.

Get a move on, sunshine!

Date of Test:  2006
Test Centre: Upton, Merseyside
Reason for fail:  serious fault, Progress - Appropriate Speed

This is Lever Causeway. It's a mile long, perfectly straight, tree lined road. Beyond the black and white signs in the foreground, the speed limit for it is 60 miles per hour.

But Danny, on his driving test, and with the idea that he had to do everything slowly, went up this bit of road at a nice steady thirty.

He caused havoc! People were trying to overtake, but having to swerve back in because of oncoming traffic. He acquired an ever growing tail of frustrated drivers behind him. He knew how to drive on fast country roads, but he just got the wrong idea of what was required of him, and the examiner had to give him a serious fault.

OK. So how do you deal with a situation like this?

I think the first principle here is that you must be able to sto pwithin the distance you can see. If you're on a narrow and bendy road, and you come to a bend with a tractor stopped dead in the middle of the road, you really do want to be able to stop in time.

The road markings can help you here too. Long white lines with short gaps mean there are hazards around. Short white lines with long gaps tend to occur when the road is clear.

Being able to drive properly does not mean doing everything slowly. It means doing everything at the right speed, and sometimes, when you have a clear and open road in front of you, you should be prepared to travel at the speed limit.

The Test Report Sheet

This is what the examiner marks your test on. Click on it for a bigger view.

It looks complicated but it's logically arranged.

Your name goes into the big long white bar at the top, and you have to sign your name in the box in the top left hand corner. The rest of the top few lines is admin stuff that has to be filled in, like the name of the examiner, the instructor's registered number, the date and time, the cars registration number, etc. This bit also records if you have an observer present on your test. That may be your instructor, or an interpreter, or occsionally, a supervising examiner, who is there to make sure rhw person marking your test is doing the job properly.

The main body of the form is the marking section. Anything you do wrong while on your test, the examiner will have a box for it somewhere.

Each of the three main columns is divided into 3 bits, marked "Total", "S" and "D"

"Total" counts up any minor faults in each section. You're allowed upto 15 minor faults on your test, but it you keep making the same minor fault more than 4 times, it becomes a persistent, and therefore serious fault.

"S" is a serious fault. If you get any serious faults, you will fail your test.

"D" is a dangerous fault. As you might expect, if you drive dangerously, you will fail your test.

The "eyesight" bit only has a checkbox under "S". If you can't read a numberplate at the required distance, you automatically fail your test, and will not drive the car at all. For everything else, there are degrees of fault. That degree is partly dependent upon whether anyone else is affected by what you've done.

At the end of all that, there are three boxes maked "pass", "fail" or "none". If you've passed, the examiner will  check the "pass" box. If you fail, the "fail" box gets ticked, and if the test cannot be completed, perhaps because someone crashes into you through no fault of your own, ir gets marked as "none".

If you've passed, you sign the bottom of the form to say you've recieved your certificate.

And that covers most of it. If you have any questions, go right ahead and ask!

Keep left!

Date of Test:  June 2011, 12.43pm
Test Centre: Upton, Merseyside
Reason for fail:  serious fault, Positioning - Normal Driving

Apart from getting things wrong at the end of a one way street, Fred also picked up a serious fault on a bit of road with more than one lane. The road had two lanes for westbound traffic, and there were some parked vehicles on the left, forcing traffic out into the outside lane. After the last of these parked cars was passed, Fred checked his mirrors and sigmalled left, and started to move to the left, but had to abort the lane change because of a lady in a BMW aggressively overtaking on his left. He could have done with breaking down the MSM stuff there into M----S----M, rather than it all happening in a vvery short space of time, but this wasn't where he got a serious fault. His driving was good enough to keep himself safe, and the examiner recognised that Fred was travelling at the speed limit, and that the BMW driver was at fault for breaking the speed limit and illegally overtaking on the left.

But a few hundred yards further on, Fred had to move out to the right hand lane again, because of a parked van, and this time he made no attempt to get back to the left after passing the obstruction. A car once again overtook him on the left, but this time he was travelling a little too slowly (the speed limit changed from 30 to 40 mph around this point) and he'd had plenty of time to get back to the left.

Well what was the proper way of doing it?

There has to be a reason for you to be in the right hand lane. If you're overtaking another vehicle (moving or parked) or some other obstruction like roadworks or something, fine. Get out there and stay out there until you know you're clear of whatever it is you're overtaking. If you want to turn right fairly soom, again, there's a good reason for you to be out to the right.

But in the absence of those reasons, keep left. It's safer. It allows other drivers to overtake you legally. It shows that you're reading the situation properly.

This is a really common fault! I had a pupil fail her test for thesame thing in the same place a couple of weeks ago, and a different pupil made the same error on a different stretch of road, but with the same mark on the test sheet: Serious fault, Position - Normal Driving and the same outcome: Failed test.

Quotas

"Is it true that they are only allowed to pass so many people in a week, and if you have your test on a Friday they will fail you if they've already passed enough people?"

I get asked this all the time, and I've never seen it happen. The examiners have a rigid set of guidelines to adhere to, and if you meet the criteria, you will pass. If they didn't follow the marking rules they would be in trouble, and it's too good a job to lose lightly, believe me!

Driving Examiners are human beings. Some of them are better at putting you at your ease than others, but they don't like having to tell you you've failed, and they like to be able to tell you you've passed.

Wouldn't you?

It's the end of the road for Fred!

Date of Test:  June 2011, 12.43pm
Test Centre: Upton, Merseyside
Reason for fail:  serious fault, Junctions - turning right

I was sat in the back for this one, so I saw exactly what happened, and the driving examiner called it exactly right.

"Fred" got to the end of a one way street and was asked to turn right. He should have positioned himself over to the right hand side of the road, but kept to the middle of the road. The danger is that another driver will come down your outside, and potentially you then have two cars alongside each other, both wanting to occupy the same space at the same time. It also shows a lack of attention or understanding to road signs and road markings.In this case a car behind us positioned itself correctly, but the driver wisely stayed behind us, but even if no other vehicles had been involved, this would have been marked as a serious fault.

So, what should he have done then?

Well the clues were there. The double row of broken lines extending right across the full width of the junction, and the give way triangle right in the middle of the road, instead of off to the left, are big clues. Another thing that can help is the backs of the circular no entry signs. There were one way signs at various points along the road, and all the parked cars were facing in the same direction. So Fred should have been aware that he was in a one-way street and should have positioned himself well to the right.

In fact, by the time he got to the end of the road, he sort of knew things were not right, but did it anyway. If he'd cancelled his signal and gone straight ahead, it would have been safer, and he would probably have just got a minor fault for incorrectly signalling. It would then be upto the examiner to get Fred back onto whatever route he was meant to be following. With a few exceptions, like trying to join a motorway, or attemting to turn into a no-entry road, you don't get failed for going the wrong way.