How well do you need to be able to drive to pass the practical?

I've had 50ish hours and I feel ready for my test. My test isn't until late feb, which means I'll still have 12ish hours or so until then. I feel like my instructor is picking on minor things all the time and it's making me lose confidence that I am actually ready...

Reply 1

Bee3011

You have to be a goodish driver but I personally think it all depends on your luck on the day.. For e.g. what examiner you get, what kind of people are on the road and so on. Like I passed my test even though I stalled the car on my test but my sister failed hers because a little bit of her car was in the second lane when changing lanes even though it wasn't affecting the drivers in that lane.
Instructors like to be a bit like that but just ignore that and try your best ad I am sure you'll be fine because you seem to have had enough practice I think :smile:

Reply 2

kernow24

Original post by Zuki

If might help is you say the types of minor things he's picking up on, something as 'minor' as a missed mirror check, an incorrect signal, slightly cutting a corner etc etc could all lead to failing, although in everyday driving it wouldn't really matter, to an extent, on a test you could fail.

There's 101 things you could do on test, that in reality won't really make the slightest difference, and are things people do everyday, that could lead you to failing.

The test in itself is fairly easy, but there's a hell of a lot that could go wrong, couple that with nerves, the pressure you might be placing on yourself by needing to pass etc etc, and it could be a stupid little error that means you fail, if you look at the government stats on reason for failing, it's Inverably silly things that people fail for, putting yourself, the car / examiner in any real danger is relatively rare, it is the little things that catch people out.

Take what your instructor is saying and work on it, he or she is likely picking up on things that you dont realise you're doing, and it's likely to be something stupid and silly you fail on, if you do fail.

You just have to look at the amount of tards on the road to see the test isn't hard, but it is a tick box exercise, you need to do xyz, in order to pass.

Saying that, Examiners aren't stupid, they can tell pretty quickly if you're ready to be out alone, and they will turn a blind eye to a hell of a lot, some things that they could fail you for, they could just put down as minors, if your general driving is fairly ok, and your safe etc and just flag it up at the end.

Like the other person has said, so much is about who you get, what route you go on, whether anything out of the ordinary happens.

But put them at ease, don't do anything stupid and you'll do fine.

Reply 3

It's****ingWOODY

If you do anything that could be dangerous, you'll fail. If you do the minor things several times in the same test, you'll fail. So don't do those, and you will pass :biggrin: