Birmingham driving test centre
DVSA name: Birmingham (Kingstanding) · 205 Birdbrook Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham, B44 9UL
Drive the 5 routes around Birmingham before test day →
Key facts
- Birmingham's pass rate was 48.5% in 2025/26 from 16,133 tests, 1.5 points below the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 14 of 26 centres in West Midlands (West Midlands average 46.2%), a mid-table pass rates in the region, 2.3 points above it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has risen by 12.6 points, from 35.9% to 48.5%.
- Male candidates passed at 51.7% and female candidates at 45.5%, 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 23 weeks since booking (longer than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 24 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 18.7 weeks, so waits have grown by about 4.3 weeks.
The hardest part of taking your test at Kingstanding happens before you drive. The median wait here has been running at about twenty-three weeks, roughly double the national figure, so the date you book is the date you get and there is little room to slip it. Set against that, the centre has been getting steadily better. Its pass rate has climbed more than twelve points since 2021/22 and now sits above the West Midlands average and above all three of the centres nearest to it, including Sutton Coldfield three and a half kilometres up the road. The driving is ordinary suburban Birmingham: 30 mph estates, a handful of big roundabouts, and one junction everybody local names.
Drive the Birmingham test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 52 km in all, with 19 roundabouts and 125 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 · 52 km · 125 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 Kings Road10.1 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 12 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Hawthorn Road.10.1 km · 24 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Kingstanding Road10.7 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 15 right turns, 11 left turns and a stretch of Kings Road.10.7 km · 30 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Dyas Road11.6 km loop with 6 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Aldridge Road.11.6 km · 25 turns · 6 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Kingstanding Road10.2 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 10 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Beeches Road.10.2 km · 20 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Aldridge Road9.6 km loop with 1 roundabout, 17 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Shady Lane.9.6 km · 26 turns · 1 roundabout
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
This is a 30 mph centre. Nine in ten tagged roads within a couple of miles carry that limit, with only a small pocket of 20 mph streets and a little 40. That sounds forgiving, and it is not. The faults here come from the junctions, not the speeds.
Kingstanding Circle is the one your instructor will keep coming back to. It is a multi-lane roundabout where Kings Road meets Kingstanding Road, in the middle of the local shops, and it punishes a late lane choice more than anything else on the route. Queslett Road and Aldridge Road carry more traffic and faster traffic, and there is dual carriageway in the area, so you will be asked to join and leave at 40 rather than potter about at 30 all test. Six mini-roundabouts and twelve sets of lights sit on the same loops. On the mini-roundabouts the trap is treating them as give ways and rolling through.
The rest is estate driving. Dyas Road, Shady Lane, Old Oscott Lane, Warren Farm Road and the streets off Birdbrook Road are the sort of parked-up residential roads where a reverse manoeuvre or a pull up on the right is straightforward but a meeting situation is not. Forty-seven schools sit in the area, and the streets round them narrow to a single working lane at the start and end of the day.
The practice loops on this page run about ten to twelve kilometres. Notice how many of the turns are right turns. That is the shape of the driving here, and it is where the observation marks go.
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 | 23 | 24 | 30 | 50.4% |
| Jul 2026 | 23 | 24 | 26 | 58.6% |
| Jun 2026 | 23 | 24 | 23 | 59.6% |
| May 2026 | 23 | 24 | 31 | 53.9% |
| Apr 2026 | 13 | 24 | 44 | 41.6% |
| Mar 2026 | 17.4 | 24 | 34 | 44.9% |
Pass rate at Birmingham, 2007/08 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 | 16,133 | 48.5% | 51.7% | 45.5% |
| 2024/25 | 17,909 | 44.6% | 47.7% | 41.5% |
| 2023/24 | 15,044 | 44.0% | 48.0% | 40.0% |
| 2022/23 | 6,511 | 39.7% | 42.9% | 36.8% |
| 2021/22 | 11,132 | 35.9% | 39.9% | 31.3% |
| 2020/21 | 3,173 | 36.2% | 40.9% | 31.6% |
| 2019/20 | 11,767 | 33.8% | 39.3% | 29.0% |
| 2018/19 | 9,620 | 37.6% | 43.1% | 32.8% |
West Midlands average 46.2% · GB 50%
Tell me when the wait at Birmingham drops
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Test day at Birmingham
The centre is at 205 Birdbrook Road, a plain building on a residential street rather than a retail park or a shopping parade. Nothing about it announces itself, so if you have never been, drive past it once during a lesson.
There is candidate parking on site and a waiting room inside, with male and female toilets. Bays are limited, which is normal for a centre this size, and the sensible move is to arrive about ten minutes before your slot and let your instructor park facing out so the first thing you do is drive forward. If you have a disability, DVSA arranges what you need at this centre, but ring ahead rather than turning up and hoping.
No railway station is close enough to walk from. Getting here without a car means a bus along the Kingstanding Road corridor and a short walk into the estate, so allow more time than the map suggests.
Kingstanding Road and Kings Road are busy at the school run and again at teatime. If you have a choice of slot, the middle of the morning gives you emptier residential streets for the manoeuvre and a calmer run at the roundabouts.
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
- car
- Wheelchair access
- Not published. DVSA says it will make arrangements for candidates with a disability, which is not the same as step-free access. Ring DVSA before the day rather than assuming.
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
205 Birdbrook Road, KingstandingBirmingham B44 9UL
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- Birmingham (Sutton Coldfield)Sutton Coldfield · B73 5UB · 3.4 km44.1%-5.9 vs GB15.1 wkswait
- WednesburyWS10 9HN · 8.4 km35.0%-15.0 vs GB10.3 wkswait
- Birmingham (Garretts Green)Birmingham · B33 0SD · 11 km44.4%-5.6 vs GB7 wkswait
- Birmingham (South Yardley)South Yardley · B26 1EA · 11 km42.8%-7.2 vs GB10 wkswait
- Birmingham (Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre)Birmingham · B14 6ER · 14 km53.5%+3.5 vs GB3.1 wkswait
- WolverhamptonWV4 6JX · 14 km34.3%-15.7 vs GB12.7 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Birmingham
- Is Birmingham an easy test centre?
- Its 48.5% 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 23 weeks, and you had to look about 24 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 205 Birdbrook Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham, B44 9UL. 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?
- 16,133 car tests were conducted at Birmingham in 2025/26, of which 7,829 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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