Practical Test

The final stage of your tuition is taking your Practical Driving Test.

Your GDS Instructor will let you know when to apply online to book your test, this will be when your skills have reached the correct standard. Therefore ensuring you have the best chance of passing. During your training your GDS Instructor will also take you on realistic mock tests, to give you a true sense of what to expect.

On the day of your Practical Driving Test your Instructor will make sure that you arrive in plenty of time to ensure you can get yourself settled and calm. Before taking your test, you will be nervous, but this is to be expected.

The Practical Driving Test is straightforward and has been designed to see if you can drive safely in different road conditions and that you have learned your highway code.

You will meet your examiner and he/she will then inform you of what he/she will expect from you. Firstly you will have an eyesight check and then your examiner will ask you two questions about carrying out vehicle safety checks. These will be taken from the Show Me, Tell Me questions and you will have practiced these during your tuition.

The Practical Driving Test will last for 40 minutes and you will have to demonstrate everything you have learned in your driving lessons. You will be asked if you wish to have your instructor with you in the car. At GDS we encourage this, as Iit enables your Instructor to see first hand any issues that arise. You need to show you can drive competently and safely in all kinds of driving situations. You’ll be asked to do one reversing manoeuvre which we will have practised and possibly make a controlled stop. To pass, you will need to complete the test without any serious faults and with 15 or fewer minor errors.

Be prepared!
The current national average practical pass rate is around 43%, so it makes sense to be as prepared as possible.

Independent driving

In this section of your test, you’ll be asked to drive for about 10 minutes without step by step route directions from your examiner, by either following: traffic signs, a series of directions or a combination of both.
To help you understand where you are going when following verbal directions, the examiner will show you a diagram.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember every direction, or if you go the wrong way – that can happen to the most experienced drivers.”

Independent driving is not a test of your orientation and navigation skills. Driving independently means making your own decisions – this includes deciding when it’s safe and appropriate to ask for confirmation about where you’re going. Again we will work with this style of driving during your lessons, to help you prepare.
On returning to the test centre car park, your examiner will tell you your result. Hopefully you will be celebrating your PASS, if not your Instructor will go through where you went wrong and arrange a re-book with you.