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Chapter 2

The Worcester driving test centre: what happens on the day

Where the test centre is, what to bring, what the examiner will ask you to do, and the kinds of Worcester roads you're likely to drive on.

Where it is

Worcester's driving test centre is on Stanier Road in Warndon, close to junction 6 of the M5. It's also the nearest test centre for learners in Droitwich and Pershore, so tests from all three towns start and finish here.

View the test centre on Google Maps (map, Street View and directions).

Arriving

• Get there about 10 minutes before your test, and no earlier, so you don't get in the way of the tests before yours.
• Reverse park into one of the candidate bays, so your car is already facing the right way to leave the car park when your test starts.
• The waiting room is on the right of the building.
• Turn your phone off completely, not just on vibrate. Even the buzz of a vibration can be enough to distract you.

What to take

Just your driving licence (if you have an old paper licence, bring your passport too).

You don't need to bring your theory test certificate; your pass is already on the system. You must look like the photo on your licence, so if you've changed your look a lot, it's worth knowing that in advance.

What happens on the test

1. Meeting your examiner. At test time all the examiners walk into the waiting room together, and one of them calls your name. Walk up to them, show your licence, and sign their iPad. That's a declaration, including that you're insured to drive the car. They'll also ask whether you'd like your instructor, or whoever came with you, to sit in the back during the test. It's entirely your choice.
2. Eyesight check. You read a number plate from 20 metres away. If you can't, the test ends there and counts as a fail.
3. "Tell me" question. Before you set off, the examiner asks how you'd carry out a safety check on the car.
4. General driving. Around 35 minutes on different kinds of roads and traffic, but never the motorway.
5. "Show me" question. While you're driving, you'll be asked to show how to use something, like the windscreen washers.
6. One parking manoeuvre, chosen by the examiner: parallel parking; parking in a bay (either reversing in and driving out, or driving in forwards and reversing out); or pulling up on the right, reversing about two car lengths and rejoining the traffic. Whichever you get, there's some reversing involved.
7. Possibly an emergency stop. Not everyone gets one.
8. Independent driving (the sat nav part) for 20 to 35 minutes. The rules allow a sat nav, road signs or both, but in my experience almost every Worcester test now uses the sat nav for nearly all of it, and following road signs is rare.

If you do have someone sit in the back, they can watch and hear the result, but they can't help you during the test.

The roads you're likely to meet

Test routes from Stanier Road use the roads around Warndon and across the city, often including the A4440 ring road and its roundabouts. Rather than repeat them here, I've covered the trickiest ones properly, with videos, in my guides to Worcester's awkward test junctions and Six Ways roundabout.

The examiners don't publish fixed routes, and they change them. For real examples of routes used on Worcester tests, see my Worcester driving test routes guide.

After the test

If you pass, the examiner gives you a pass certificate and can send your full licence to you automatically. You can drive on your own straight away, without waiting for the new licence to arrive.

If you don't pass, you'll be told what went wrong. You can book another test, but it has to be at least 10 working days away, and you pay again.

At the end, the examiner goes through how you did. I always suggest asking your instructor, or whoever came with you, to listen to this too. If it hasn't gone your way, you'll probably be too upset to take in why, and they can go through it with you afterwards.

Test facts checked against GOV.UK: What happens during the test, What to take, Driving test faults and your result.