Failed your driving test? Here is your 7-day plan.
Pick the faults on your DL25 sheet and the centre you are retesting at. You get a week of short sessions, two exercises a day, aimed at exactly what the examiner marked, finishing with a mock test on your own centre's routes.
1. What did the examiner mark?
Tap the fault that failed you first, then any others on the sheet. Up to 6.
Control
Move off
Mirrors
Signals
Response to signs & signals
Speed & progress
Junctions
Judgement
Positioning
Awareness
Manoeuvres
2. Where is your retest?
Example: the three most common faults
This is the plan for the faults DVSA marks most: observation at junctions, mirrors before changing direction, and response to traffic signs. Yours follows your own sheet and adds your centre's test routes.
- 1
Junction observation
Slow right down, look right, left and right again, and keep looking as you creep forward. Only go when you can see it is clear.
- 2
Mirrors when changing direction
Interior mirror, then the door mirror on the side you are heading to, before every change of speed or direction.
- 3
Traffic signs
Read every sign before you reach it: speed limit changes, give way and stop. A missed sign is a missed instruction.
- 4
Junction observation
Slow right down, look right, left and right again, and keep looking as you creep forward. Only go when you can see it is clear.
- 5
Mirrors when changing direction
Interior mirror, then the door mirror on the side you are heading to, before every change of speed or direction.
- 6
Mock test day
Mock test day. Drive a full test route without stopping, then do a set of hazard clips while you are still switched on.
- 7
Junction observation
Slow right down, look right, left and right again, and keep looking as you creep forward. Only go when you can see it is clear.
How the week works
- Days 1 to 5 rotate through your faults, starting with the one that failed you. Each day pairs one thing to remember with two short exercises that train it.
- Day 6 is a mock test: a full route from your test centre, then hazard clips while you are still switched on.
- Day 7 goes back to the fault that failed you, so it is the freshest thing in your head on test day.
Questions
- How soon can I retake my driving test after failing?
- You have to wait at least 10 working days before you can take another practical test, and in most areas the wait for a slot is far longer. That gap is the time to fix the faults on your sheet.
- Does this replace lessons with my instructor?
- No. The plan is practice between lessons: the simulator drills the observation, positioning and decisions behind each fault so your lessons can go on the road skills only a real car teaches.
- What is free?
- Picking your faults and the first 2 days of your plan are free and need no account. The full week, and the test routes, manoeuvres and roundabouts it links to, come with a pass or a subscription.
- Which fault should I pick first?
- The serious or dangerous fault that failed you. The plan starts with it on day 1 and comes back to it on day 7, just before your retest.