Driving test fail stories and videos from my 20 years experience as a driving instructor.
I’ve been on over 400 real driving tests. As you can imagine I have seen it all from the boring to the bizarre!
On this page you can watch videos of real driving test fails and read about the most common reasons for failing the driving test. These are not official top 10 lists which mean nothing because that’s a general national overview. These are real driving test fails that I’ve seen over and over again.
There’s a link at the bottom of this page to funny driving test stories I’ve collected and seen over the years.
What causes a driving test fail?
Here are four common reasons for failing the driving test.
If you read this and take in the advice you’ll be ahead of 90% of people that take a driving test.
Using the wrong lane at roundabouts
You can see a great example of using the wrong lane in videos above called real driving test fail.
I’ve written a whole page on how to drive roundabouts but let’s look at exactly what it is that pupils do wrong on their driving test.
The most common driving test mistake on roundabouts is simply changing lanes without realising it.
It sounds really obvious but you just stay in the lane you started in: left to left, middle to middle and right to right.
If there are more than 3 lanes then you can number them starting with the lane on the furthest left being number 1. There are times when it seem this doesn’t work but it does so long as the roundabout is designed properly.
Generally you are doing it wrong if you are moving to the right on a roundabout. You can see this in the video above where the learner car goes from the left lane to the middle.
You can’t do that – stick to your lane and move left when needed.
Not listening to the examiner
It’s absolutely incredible how many people just completely ignore the examiner.
They’re not allowed to help you officially but they do give many clues that people often don’t pick up on. Listen very carefully to what the examiner says and do that your instructor too!
One example is when they ask you to “Turn right at the very end of the road”.
What do you think they’re telling you by saying that? Read it again and see if you can spot the clue.
They said at the very end of the road which means not before then. There’s often a right turn before the end and they’re telling you to look out for that and only turn right at the very end.
Another example was one that I witnessed when I was sitting in the back of the car.
This is how the conversation went between the examiner and the pupil:
Examainer – “Reverse into a parking bay on the left”
Pupil – “Forward or backward?”
Examiner – “Reverse into a parking bay on the left”
Pupil- “Shall I go forward or back?”
Examiner – “REVERSE into a parking bay on the left”
The pupil then drove forwards into a disabled parking bay on the right and said “I thought you meant go forwards.”.
The examiner replied “Clearly not.”
Driving differently to normal
Many people have the idea that you have to drive different on a driving test compared to driving lessons or normal driving.
You don’t: you drive the same way whether it’s a lesson, driving test or after you’ve passed!
There is no “test way” of driving. Pupils are forever asking me “Can I do that on a test?”.
If you drive on a test like you normally do on a lesson you will pass. That’s of course assuming that you have been taught well and usually drive well.
It takes some people months (and several tests) to realise this.
Not being ready for a driving test
One of the biggest reasons for people failing driving tests is that they just aren’t ready to be taking one.
There’s this common driving test myth that so long as you don’t stall or cross your hands on the wheel then you’ll pass.
That is rubbish!
Driving is far harder than people think. Many people say driving is easy and anyone can do it but those are the worst drivers who think it’s easy because they aren’t doing it properly.
So what’s the best way for you to tell if you’re ready for a driving test?
You need to be able to drive completely on your own without any help from your instructor at all. If you can’t do that then how are you going to pass a driving test?
You can watch me giving pupils mock driving tests in the videos below. There’s a menu button at the top right of the box so you can choose which video you want to watch.
Doing at least one mock driving test before your real driving test is essential. You don’t need to pass it (you’ll see in my videos below that not many do) but it shows you the standard you’re at.
More driving test fails
See my page on common driving test mistakes. You can read some funny driving test stories or funny driving lesson stories.
To watch more videos you can visit my driving lesson YouTube channel.
If you want to be really helpful then share this page with your friends because it really helps me out!
