Sunday, 1st March 2026
The UK driving system feels surprisingly disorganized, especially when you come from a country where things are done differently. Back home, we have large, dedicated driving schools with their own internal road networks. Learners stay within those controlled environments until they've genuinely mastered the basics -- steering, observation, manoeuvring, clutch control -- before ever touching a public road. The whole process feels structured, efficient, and relatively straightforward.
The UK, by contrast, is a different story. Expensive lessons, near-impossible exam slots, and a testing process that often feels more subjective than it should be. The core issue is this: you're not really being examined on your driving ability -- you're being examined on your ability to make the examiner feel safe. Those are two very different things.
I failed my test once already, and looking back, both reasons highlight exactly this problem. The first was approaching speed -- not dangerously fast by any objective measure, but enough to make an examiner uncomfortable when they don't know you or your capabilities yet. The second was lack of observation, which is honestly debatable. You might genuinely check your mirrors with a subtle eye movement and take in all the information you need, but if the examiner didn't see you do it, as far as they're concerned, it didn't happen.
So, this post is partly a reminder to myself for next time. Drive slower than you think you need to, especially when approaching junctions or hazards -- give the examiner plenty of time to feel settled. And make your observations obvious: turn your head, use your mirrors frequently and visibly, and don't rely on subtle glances that only you know happened. It sounds performative, because it is -- but that's the nature of the test.
I feel if everyone going into their test applied just these two principles, the national pass rate would jump by at least 30%.