Exeter driving test centre
Thorverton Road, Marsh Barton, Exeter, EX2 8FS
Drive the 5 routes around Exeter before test day →
Key facts
- Exeter's pass rate was 46.8% in 2025/26 from 8,679 tests, 3.2 points below the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 16 of 21 centres in South West (South West average 51.7%), one of the lower pass rates in the region, 4.9 points below it.
- The rate has been stable since 2021/22, moving between 45.1% (2021/22) and 49.2% (2022/23).
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 7.6 weeks since booking (shorter than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 12 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 9.9 weeks, so waits have shortened by about 2.3 weeks.
- 23.7% 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.
Exeter is easy to book and hard to pass. The wait in the summer was under eight weeks, shorter than the national median, with nearly four in ten slots in the booking window still free; the pass rate was 46.8 per cent, sixteenth of the twenty-one centres in the South West and almost five points under the regional average. Newton Abbot, twenty kilometres away, passes seven points higher on a shorter wait. The reason is the ground the test covers. Marsh Barton is a working trading estate laid out in long straight roads with roundabouts at the end of each, and the loops run through it before they reach anything resembling a quiet street.
Drive the Exeter test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 47 km in all, with 46 roundabouts and 104 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Exeter; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Exeter from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 47 km · 104 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 Sannerville Way11.3 km loop with 12 roundabouts, 9 right turns, 10 left turns and a stretch of Reddaway Drive.11.3 km · 31 turns · 12 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Canal Banks7.9 km loop with 10 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 3 left turns and a stretch of Matford Park Road.7.9 km · 20 turns · 10 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Topsham Road12.0 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 6 right turns, 4 left turns and a stretch of Dawlish Road.12.0 km · 18 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Topsham Road9.0 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 5 right turns, 5 left turns and a stretch of Bad Homburg Way.9.0 km · 18 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Canal Banks7.0 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 3 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Hennock Road.7.0 km · 17 turns · 8 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Count the roundabouts before anything else. The five practice loops on this page hold between eight and twelve of them each, and 15 of the junctions in the area are mini-roundabouts. On a nine-kilometre lap that is a roundabout every few hundred metres. Nothing else about an Exeter test is as demanding as keeping the observation fresh through the eighth one.
The estate roads carry the bulk of them. Yeoford Way, Hennock Road, Alphinbrook Road, Matford Park Road and Clapperbrook Lane East are wide, straight and busy with vans, and the roundabouts joining them are often marked with lane arrows that matter. Get in the correct lane early, because a late change with a transporter alongside is the fault that ends tests here.
Bad Homburg Way and Sannerville Way are the faster links, and Thorverton Road runs past the centre door. Away from the estate the character changes completely: 43 per cent of the roads around here are 20 mph, which is a high share, and the residential streets off Millbrook Lane and Burnthouse Lane are where the bay parks and the pull-ups on the right are usually set.
Longer loops climb out towards the B3212 and Dawlish Road, where the limit rises to 40 and the road narrows at the same time. There are 21 schools inside the area the routes cover, and an estate of this kind takes its own traffic at the start and end of the working day rather than at school times, so a mid-morning slot is usually the calmer one.
Pass rate at Exeter, 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 | 8,679 | 46.8% | 45.8% | 48.0% |
| 2024/25 | 8,714 | 47.9% | 47.3% | 48.7% |
| 2023/24 | 9,046 | 48.7% | 48.4% | 49.1% |
| 2022/23 | 7,586 | 49.2% | 49.7% | 48.6% |
| 2021/22 | 7,180 | 45.1% | 46.6% | 43.6% |
| 2020/21 | 1,909 | 47.5% | 49.4% | 45.4% |
| 2019/20 | 6,338 | 48.3% | 49.4% | 47.4% |
| 2018/19 | 6,370 | 49.2% | 53.2% | 45.6% |
South West average 51.7% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Exeter
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 | 7.6 | 12 | 48 | 23.7% |
| Jul 2026 | 7.6 | 17 | 49 | 22.5% |
| Jun 2026 | 6.6 | 16.4 | 51 | 19.4% |
| May 2026 | 7.4 | 21.8 | 49 | 22.8% |
| Apr 2026 | 8.6 | 24 | 45 | 27.6% |
| Mar 2026 | 10.6 | 24 | 43 | 31% |
Tell me when the wait at Exeter drops
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Test day at Exeter
The centre is on Thorverton Road in Marsh Barton, the largest trading estate in Exeter, with something over five hundred businesses spread across it. Car showrooms, motor factors, builders merchants and plant hire are the neighbours, which tells you what the traffic around the door looks like on a weekday morning: vans, transporters and customers who know the estate better than you do.
Marsh Barton railway station opened in 2023 and is close enough to walk from, which is rare for a test centre on an industrial estate. If someone is dropping you off, that is the easier arrival.
Car tests run here alongside motorcycle module 1, the off road part, module 2, and ADI parts 2 and 3. Module 1 needs a marked manoeuvring area, so there is hard standing on site. DVSA also confirms wheelchair access.
Candidate parking is not published for this centre. Bays on a trading estate unit are usually shared and usually taken, so plan to park a short walk away rather than at the door. There is a separate lorry and bus test centre on Grace Road on the same estate, so heavy vehicles are part of the picture from the moment you move off.
What DVSA publishes about Exeter
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)ADI part 2ADI part 3
- Wheelchair access
- DVSA states you can access this centre in a wheelchair.
Other tests at Exeter
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 Exeter
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 Exeter.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Thorverton Road, Marsh BartonExeter EX2 8FS
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- Newton AbbotTQ12 4YQ · 20 km53.8%+3.8 vs GB6.8 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Exeter
- Is Exeter an easy test centre?
- Its 46.8% 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 Exeter?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Exeter was 7.6 weeks, and you had to look about 12 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 Exeter driving test centre?
- Exeter test centre is at Thorverton Road, Marsh Barton, Exeter, EX2 8FS. 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 Exeter do a year?
- 8,679 car tests were conducted at Exeter in 2025/26, of which 4,061 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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