Birmingham driving test centre
DVSA name: Birmingham (Shirley) · 401 Stratford Road, Shirley, Solihull, B90 4AA
Drive the 5 routes around Birmingham before test day →
Key facts
- Birmingham's pass rate was 56.6% in 2025/26 from 9,385 tests, 6.6 points above the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 3 of 26 centres in West Midlands (West Midlands average 46.2%), one of the higher pass rates in the region, 10.4 points above it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has risen by 7.6 points, from 49% to 56.6%.
- Male candidates passed at 57.9% and female candidates at 54.7%, a gap of 3.2 points.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 16.2 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 13.3 weeks, so waits have grown by about 2.9 weeks.
Shirley is the outlier among the Birmingham centres. Its pass rate is close to seven points above the national average and more than ten points above the West Midlands average, and it is higher than at any of the nearby centres, including Kings Heath a couple of miles away. Some of that is the road mix. A third of the roads mapped around the centre carry a 20 mph limit and most of the rest are 30, so there is very little fast driving to go wrong on. What is left is dense: Stratford Road through Shirley itself, the estates on either side of it, and a great deal of roundabout work. Nearly ten thousand tests a year are taken here, and the rate has been climbing since 2021.
Drive the Birmingham test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 53 km in all, with 39 roundabouts and 143 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 · 53 km · 143 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 Stratford Road12.2 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 11 left turns and a stretch of Solihull Road.12.2 km · 30 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Bills Lane10.3 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 9 right turns, 13 left turns and a stretch of Stratford Road.10.3 km · 30 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Stratford Road10.9 km loop with 13 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Hurdis Road.10.9 km · 29 turns · 13 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Haslucks Green Road9.9 km loop with 5 roundabouts, 9 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Bills Lane.9.9 km · 23 turns · 5 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Hurdis Road9.3 km loop with 5 roundabouts, 12 right turns, 14 left turns and a stretch of Union Road.9.3 km · 31 turns · 5 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Stratford Road is the spine and every loop touches it. It is a 30 mph main road with side turnings close together, bus stops and traffic that stops and starts, so the first and last few minutes of most drives are the busiest part of them.
Off it, the character changes quickly. A third of the roads mapped within two and a half kilometres of the centre are 20 mph, and the estates either side of Stratford Road are where that limit applies: Haslucks Green Road, Bills Lane, School Road, Union Road. The drop from 30 to 20 happens at the sign, and speed faults here are usually a candidate carrying main-road pace into a residential street rather than driving fast on purpose.
Roundabouts do the rest. One of the practice loops on this page passes thirteen of them in under eleven kilometres, and the named ones nearby include Shakespeare Drive, Marshall Lake Road, Monkspath Hall Road and Stanway Road. Nine mini-roundabouts are mapped in the same radius, and those are where the exit signal gets forgotten.
Thirty-seven schools sit inside that radius as well, which matters for timing more than for driving. A mid-afternoon slot puts you into the school run on roads already narrowed by parked cars.
Manoeuvres are usually asked for on the estate roads, where kerbs are straight and one side is parked. Longmore Road, Hurdis Road and the streets around Cranmore Boulevard are that sort of street.
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 | 16.2 | 24 | 29 | 46.7% |
| Jul 2026 | 16.2 | 24 | 29 | 42.3% |
| Jun 2026 | 14 | 24 | 39 | 39.4% |
| May 2026 | 5.4 | 24 | 53 | 32.7% |
| Apr 2026 | 4.6 | 24 | 57 | 29.8% |
| Mar 2026 | 12 | 24 | 46 | 37.8% |
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 | 9,385 | 56.6% | 57.9% | 54.7% |
| 2024/25 | 9,582 | 58.1% | 59.1% | 56.6% |
| 2023/24 | 7,960 | 53.2% | 54.9% | 50.7% |
| 2022/23 | 4,856 | 50.0% | 51.8% | 47.9% |
| 2021/22 | 3,621 | 49.0% | 51.7% | 45.8% |
| 2020/21 | 1,325 | 51.1% | 54.7% | 47.1% |
| 2019/20 | 4,235 | 43.3% | 46.0% | 40.7% |
| 2018/19 | 4,483 | 44.5% | 48.1% | 41.1% |
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 401 Stratford Road, on the main road through Shirley rather than tucked away on an industrial estate. The number on the door is worth checking as you go past, because the frontage sits in a run of other buildings and it is easy to walk on by.
Shirley station is about a mile away, which makes arriving by train realistic if your instructor is meeting you at the centre. Parking is the harder part. The official record does not mention candidate parking, and a main-road frontage of this kind rarely has much, so the typical arrangement is a drop-off at the door with the instructor finding a space on a side road.
DVSA publishes that it will make arrangements for candidates with a disability, but there is no statement of wheelchair access for this centre, so ring the booking line ahead if you need to know about the entrance.
Car tests and ADI part 3 are what this centre runs. There are no motorcycle tests here. Booking, moving and cancelling a test are done only through GOV.UK.
Expect the first minute of the drive to be the busiest of it: moving off into Stratford Road traffic, with buses, and a turn to plan early.
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
- carADI part 3
- 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
401 Stratford Road, ShirleySolihull B90 4AA
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- Birmingham (Kings Heath)Birmingham · B14 5JA · 4.4 km46.8%-3.2 vs GB11.7 wkswait
- Birmingham (Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre)Birmingham · B14 6ER · 4.8 km53.5%+3.5 vs GB3.1 wkswait
- Birmingham (South Yardley)South Yardley · B26 1EA · 5.6 km42.8%-7.2 vs GB10 wkswait
- Birmingham (Garretts Green)Birmingham · B33 0SD · 8.3 km44.4%-5.6 vs GB7 wkswait
- RedditchB97 6HJ · 14 km51.4%+1.4 vs GB4.4 wkswait
- Birmingham (Sutton Coldfield)Sutton Coldfield · B73 5UB · 16 km44.1%-5.9 vs GB15.1 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Birmingham
- Is Birmingham an easy test centre?
- By the numbers, yes: 56.6% of car tests were passed there in 2025/26, against 50.0% nationally. Pass rates reflect the local roads and who takes tests there as much as the examiners, so treat it as a guide, not a guarantee.
- 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 16.2 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 401 Stratford Road, Shirley, Solihull, B90 4AA. 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?
- 9,385 car tests were conducted at Birmingham in 2025/26, of which 5,309 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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