tips to success in driving test

You cannot have driving lessons or drive a car on UK roads until your provisional licence has been accepted and is in your possession.You must be 17 years of age for the licence to be valid 16 years old if you receive the highest rate of mobility allowance.You can apply for the provisional licence up to two months before your 17th birthday. See DVLA for full information on costs and relevant forms.

The Green Cross Code.The advice given below on crossing the road is for all pedestrians. Children should be taught the Code and should not be allowed out alone until they can understand and use it properly. The age when they can do this is different for each child. Many children cannot judge how fast vehicles are going or how far away they are. Children learn by example, so parents and carers should always use the Code in full when out with their children. They are responsible for deciding at what age children can use it safely by themselves.

There may be special signals for pedestrians. You should only start to cross the road when the green figure shows. If you have started to cross the road and the green figure goes out, you should still have time to reach the other side, but do not delay. If no pedestrian signals have been provided, watch carefully and do not cross until the traffic lights are red and the traffic has stopped. Keep looking and check for traffic that may be turning the corner. Remember that traffic lights may let traffic move in some lanes while traffic in other lanes has stopped.

The officers agree that the big mistakes are the small but important things like signalling either forgetting to indicate or not doing it for long enough and observation failing to check your mirrors or blind spots. Stop signs can also be troublesome, particularly when it comes to stopping before the line.

Dont just flick your indicator and drive off, you must signal for at a least 5 seconds before leaving a parking space or moving from a kerb. It is also important to signal at the right time because signalling too early, too late or leaving your indicator on can confuse other road users.

Not checking blind spots is another common error. You need to check your blind spots and mirrors when merging, changing lanes and during your manoeuvres. Drivers often forget to check their left hand side blind spot when turning left off wide roads. Think of it this way, if you could fit a car between the kerb and your car, a head check in your blind spot is required before turning left. You never know when something will be travelling up that part of the road. And dont forget that an observation check is also required to confirm that it is safe to continue before moving off after being stopped at traffic lights.

A common mistake is not stopping at stop signs and just slowly rolling through. You have to stop the whole car behind the line at a stop sign and traffic lights. Stopping behind the line at traffic lights and then creeping forward does not count you have to stay behind the line. You can move forward at stop signs when the view may be obscured, but only after youve come to a complete stop.

Another problem is not selecting safe gaps in traffic. Its a matter of judgement and experience. Sometimes learners will pull out and misjudge the speed of the car coming towards them or, if its a truck, you need to take into account that the truck takes longer to stop than a car.

Be decisive, learners trying to turn right at lights can take too long to turn there may be plenty of room but if you hesitate you can get into trouble.

Be sure to read the Guide to the Driving Test , make sure all forms and sections of your log book are completed correctly and signed. If youre not sure on something in the guide or are confused over something that someone else has told you about the driving test, you can always drop into your local motor registry and ask to speak to a testing officer to clear up any questions you may have.