Helping you to carry out realistic mock driving tests

Last Friday (21 July 2023) marked 13 months to the day since we first published guidance to help you carry out realistic mock driving tests for your pupils.

We’ve been really encouraged by the feedback you’ve given us since then.

And to mark 13 months since the guidance was first published, here are 13 facts about mock tests and our guidance.

13 facts about mock tests and our guidance

1. The guidance has been viewed over 50,000 times since it was published and has been rated as useful by 96% of people who rated it.
2. 97% of ADIs offer mock tests to either their pupils or pupils of other instructors
3. 21% of ADIs have seen requests for mock tests increase.
4. 19% of ADIs who offer mock tests are offering them more frequently after using the guidance.
5. 23% of ADIs say they’ve changed the way they do mock tests as a result of the guidance.
6. 2% of ADIs have started to offer mock tests since we published the guidance, where they did not previously do them at all.
7. 55% of ADIs offer mock tests to other instructors’ pupils as well as their own.
8. The average pass for the actual driving test is 47% for those who did not take a realistic mock test, and 65% for those who did take a realistic mock test.
9. 4 out 5 people who have taken a mock test say it increased their confidence ahead of taking the real thing.
10. 9 out of 10 people who have taken a mock test would recommend it to other learner drivers.
11. About 7 in 10 learner drivers now take a mock test to help them prepare for the real thing.
12. About 9 out of 10 learners who say they’ve taken a mock test say it included all the parts of the real test.
13. We’ve run 5 webinars about mock tests ourselves, been a guest at one DIA webinar talking about them, and have appeared on 2 podcasts discussing them (thanks again to Dipod and The Instructor Podcast for having me).

If you missed it, you can read more about how ADIs are using mock tests in a research report we published on 9 June 2023.

Catch up on our latest webinar

Our fifth and most recent webinar was held on Monday 19 June 2023. Amanda Lane, Head of Driver Testing and Training Policy, and I were delighted to welcome so many of you to the session. At its peak, we had about 350 ADIs taking part.

During the session we were able to update you on some of the findings from our recent research about mock tests.

But I was pleased that Amanda and I were able to spend most of the session answering your questions about mock tests – and there were some brilliant questions.

Some of the questions you asked covered things like:

• when it’s appropriate to use a mock test
• the difference between driving faults, serious faults and dangerous faults
• how faults might be assessed in a variety of scenarios
• whether your pupils can talk themselves through manoeuvres during a mock test

We were really happy to see that 100% of people who filled in the survey at the end of the event said they found the webinar extremely useful – thank you.

You can now watch a recording of the webinar.

To make navigation easier, we’ve added timestamps in the video description. You can select a relevant timestamp to jump to a particular question and answer. There are 19 questions in total that covers a range of topics.

If you were not able attend and have any questions, please ask them in the comments and we’ll get back to you soon as we can.

Encouraging more learner drivers to take mock tests

Our latest research shows that about 72% of learners who took their test in June 2023 say they took at least one mock test before their driving test. That’s up from about 67% of those who took a driving test in June 2022.

But we still want to encourage more learner drivers to do this important piece of test preparation.

We’ve been busy doing more research with learner drivers to find out the reasons people took a mock test – and the reasons they didn’t.

The main barriers learner drivers are saying are that:

• it’s too expensive to take a mock test
• they did not have enough time to do one
• they have already taken a real driving test (and been unsuccessful) so they know how the test works
• they already have a foreign driving licence, and they’re taking the test to get a UK licence, so a mock test is of no use
• they have watched mock test videos on YouTube, so they do not need to take one
• it would knock their confidence
• they are not learning with an ADI

We’ve updated the content about taking mock tests on the ‘Ready to Pass?’ website to address these barriers. We’ve also used information about the reasons that people did take mock tests to make the benefits clearer. We hope this will encourage more learners to take up the option.

Thank you

Keep up the excellent work you’re doing on mock tests, please keep telling us how we can help you make the most of mock tests – and thank you for all the feedback you’ve given so far.

Remember that watching the webinar counts as continuing professional development. Make sure you keep a record of your activities.

And if you were not able attend the latest webinar, please do ask your mock test questions in the comments.