Birmingham driving test centre
DVSA name: Birmingham (Garretts Green) · Granby Avenue, Garretts Green, Birmingham, B33 0SD
Drive the 5 routes around Birmingham before test day →
Key facts
- Birmingham's pass rate was 44.4% in 2025/26 from 22,480 tests, 5.6 points below the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 19 of 26 centres in West Midlands (West Midlands average 46.2%), one of the lower pass rates in the region, 1.8 points below it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has risen by 3.1 points, from 41.3% to 44.4%.
- Male candidates passed at 46.9% and female candidates at 40.7%, a gap of 6.2 points, wider than at most centres.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 7 weeks since booking (shorter than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 23 weeks ahead.
- 29.6% of the standard slots in the booking window were still unbooked in August 2026, which usually means a cancellation or new date is realistic here.
Garretts Green is a working industrial estate east of Birmingham, and the test centre sits on Granby Avenue in the middle of it. Vans and lorries use the same access roads, so the first minute of your test is spent reading traffic that is bigger and slower than you are. Once you are out on Garretts Green Lane the character changes completely. This is suburban Birmingham: long 30 mph roads through housing estates, parked cars on both sides, and mini-roundabouts every few hundred metres. Around a fifth of the roads nearby are 20 mph. The pass rate here is one of the lower ones in the West Midlands, although it has climbed steadily over the past few years and the centre is no longer the outlier it was.
Drive the Birmingham test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 54 km in all, with 32 roundabouts and 98 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Birmingham; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Birmingham from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 54 km · 98 marked turns
- Examiner-style marking on signalling and observation
- Street View tour of each route
- Every roundabout and junction, in the order you'll meet them
- The four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios, included
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- Route 1 · via Garretts Green Lane12.2 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 10 left turns and a stretch of Meadway.12.2 km · 25 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via St Giles Road12.4 km loop with 11 roundabouts, 4 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Lea Ford Road.12.4 km · 22 turns · 11 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via The Radleys12.0 km loop with 5 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 5 left turns and a stretch of Granby Avenue.12.0 km · 18 turns · 5 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Granby Avenue9.5 km loop with 5 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Meadway.9.5 km · 19 turns · 5 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via The Radleys7.8 km loop with 3 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 3 left turns and a stretch of Granby Avenue.7.8 km · 14 turns · 3 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Leaving the estate puts you onto Garretts Green Lane, and from there most of the driving is on the distributor roads linking Sheldon, Kitts Green and Tile Cross: Meadway, Sheldon Heath Road, Tile Cross Road, Mackadown Lane and Bell Lane. These are wide 30 mph roads with bus stops, side turnings every hundred metres and queues at the signalled junctions. There are seventeen sets of traffic lights within a couple of miles of the centre.
Mini-roundabouts are the thing to practise. There are around fifteen in the area, and several sit close enough together that you are reading the next one before you have finished the last. Conventional roundabouts appear as well, on Brays Road, Cooks Lane, Silver Birch Road and Holly Lane, so you need to switch between the two without thinking about it. The practice loops on this page run between five and eight miles and carry anything from three to eleven roundabouts each.
The A452 and the dual carriageway stretches give you the faster part of the drive, where the fault is usually hesitation at the merge rather than speed. Away from the main roads, the streets around The Radleys, Mirfield Road and Chapelhouse Road are narrow and parked up. There is a railway level crossing in the area, so approach any rail line expecting to stop. With more than forty schools within a couple of miles, an afternoon slot means school traffic on almost every route.
Pass rate at Birmingham, 2009/10 to 2025/26
Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.
Month by month, 2025/26
By year and gender
| Year | Tests | Pass rate | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 22,480 | 44.4% | 46.9% | 40.7% |
| 2024/25 | 21,871 | 42.0% | 44.3% | 38.8% |
| 2023/24 | 21,951 | 40.2% | 42.8% | 36.9% |
| 2022/23 | 12,677 | 42.9% | 46.9% | 38.7% |
| 2021/22 | 11,486 | 41.3% | 45.1% | 36.7% |
| 2020/21 | 3,393 | 42.9% | 47.5% | 38.7% |
| 2019/20 | 12,399 | 38.0% | 43.9% | 33.4% |
| 2018/19 | 14,093 | 36.7% | 43.4% | 31.8% |
West Midlands average 46.2% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Birmingham
Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.
| Month | Median wait | Weeks to free slots | Slots offered | Still free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 7 | 23 | 44 | 29.6% |
| Jul 2026 | 7 | 24 | 50 | 25.6% |
| Jun 2026 | 5.7 | 24 | 53 | 21.9% |
| May 2026 | 3.6 | 24 | 58 | 21% |
| Apr 2026 | 4.6 | 24 | 63 | 15.3% |
| Mar 2026 | 4.1 | 24 | 63 | 22.9% |
Tell me when the wait at Birmingham drops
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Test day at Birmingham
The centre is a DVSA unit on Granby Avenue, signed from the estate road. The estate carries commercial traffic all day, so give yourself time to find the turning rather than committing to it late.
There is a car park for candidates. Accounts of how much space it holds differ, which is usual for a centre of this size, and it is tightest when one group of tests is returning as the next is arriving. Aim to arrive about ten minutes before your slot rather than half an hour. Male and female toilets are available inside. Garretts Green runs car tests and instructor checks.
Marston Green station is a little over a kilometre away. That is walkable, though the route is along estate roads rather than pavements you would choose, and buses along Meadway stop within a few minutes' walk. Most candidates are dropped off or arrive with an instructor.
The median wait here has been short by national standards, around seven weeks, but the diary still fills a long way ahead, so book early and watch for cancellations.
What DVSA publishes about Birmingham
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- carmotorcycle module 1 (off-road)motorcycle module 2 (on-road)lorry and busADI part 3
- Wheelchair access
- Not published. Ring DVSA before the day rather than assuming.
Other tests at Birmingham
This centre is not car only. DVSA publishes results for these categories separately, and they are taken by different candidates on different vehicles, so the rates are not comparable with the car figure above.
Learner reports from Birmingham
No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.
What examiners mark most often
DVSA does not publish faults by centre, but it does publish them nationally. These collected the most marks across every car test in Great Britain in 2025/26, and they are the same ones you will be marked on at Birmingham.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Granby Avenue, Garretts GreenBirmingham B33 0SD
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- Birmingham (South Yardley)South Yardley · B26 1EA · 3.3 km42.8%-7.2 vs GB10 wkswait
- Birmingham (Shirley)Solihull · B90 4AA · 8.3 km56.6%+6.6 vs GB16.2 wkswait
- Birmingham (Sutton Coldfield)Sutton Coldfield · B73 5UB · 9.6 km44.1%-5.9 vs GB15.1 wkswait
- Birmingham (Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre)Birmingham · B14 6ER · 10 km53.5%+3.5 vs GB3.1 wkswait
- Birmingham (Kings Heath)Birmingham · B14 5JA · 11 km46.8%-3.2 vs GB11.7 wkswait
- Birmingham (Kingstanding)Birmingham · B44 9UL · 11 km48.5%-1.5 vs GB23 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Birmingham
- Is Birmingham an easy test centre?
- Its 44.4% pass rate in 2025/26 is below the 50.0% national average. Busy urban roads and complex junctions usually explain lower rates; knowing the local routes closes most of that gap.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Birmingham?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Birmingham was 7 weeks, and you had to look about 23 weeks ahead to find a week with at least 10% of slots free. DVSA publishes this monthly; the figure above updates when they do.
- Where is Birmingham driving test centre?
- Birmingham test centre is at Granby Avenue, Garretts Green, Birmingham, B33 0SD. Arrive at least 10 minutes early with your provisional licence; parking rules vary by centre, so check the learner reports below.
- How many driving tests does Birmingham do a year?
- 22,480 car tests were conducted at Birmingham in 2025/26, of which 9,980 were passed.
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A (pass rates by centre and month) and DRT122F (waiting times and availability), Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRank adds the comparisons and rankings.
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