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Kettering driving test centre

Orion Way, Kettering Business Park, NN15 6NL

First on your home page, plus an email when the wait here falls.

Drive the 5 routes around Kettering before test day →

Pass rate 2025/26
49.1%
GB 50.0% · East Midlands 50.8%
Median wait, Aug 2026
7.3weeks
Free slots 24 weeks ahead
Tests a year
11,876
5,829 passed

Key facts

  • Kettering's pass rate was 49.1% in 2025/26 from 11,876 tests, in line with the national average of 50.0%.
  • That puts it 16 of 20 centres in East Midlands (East Midlands average 50.8%), one of the lower pass rates in the region, 1.7 points below it.
  • Since 2021/22 the pass rate has risen by 8.6 points, from 40.5% to 49.1%.
  • On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 7.3 weeks since booking (shorter 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 12.4 weeks, so waits have shortened by about 5.1 weeks.
  • 32.5% 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.

Kettering is a roundabout test. The centre sits on Orion Way inside Kettering Business Park, and the busiest of the practice loops on this page takes you through twelve roundabouts in under eight miles. The quietest still has four. Broughton Interchange and Wicksteed Park Interchange are among the named ones around the town. There is barely a stretch long enough to relax on. Ordinary turns are comparatively rare, so if you have been practising junction work at the expense of lane discipline on the approach to a roundabout, this is the centre that will find it out. Beyond the town the loops reach Isham and the A14, which supplies the only genuinely fast driving on the routes. The pass rate has climbed a long way since 2021 and now sits close to the national average.

Drive the Kettering test routes before test day

5 loops from the centre, 52 km in all, with 43 roundabouts and 93 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Kettering; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.

Drive it before test day

Drive all 5 loops around Kettering 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 · 93 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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  1. Route 1 · via Pytchley Road
    12.7 km loop with 12 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 3 left turns and a stretch of Isham Road.
    12.7 km · 22 turns · 12 roundabouts
    Drive this route
  2. Route 2 · via Pytchley Road
    12.9 km loop with 10 roundabouts, 3 right turns, 4 left turns and a stretch of Kettering Road.
    12.9 km · 17 turns · 10 roundabouts
    Drive this route
  3. Route 3 · via Pytchley Lane
    6.4 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 10 right turns, 11 left turns and a stretch of Pytchley Road.
    6.4 km · 25 turns · 4 roundabouts
    Drive this route
  4. Route 4 · via Pytchley Road
    8.2 km loop with 10 roundabouts, 5 right turns, 4 left turns and a stretch of London Road.
    8.2 km · 19 turns · 10 roundabouts
    Drive this route
  5. Route 5 · via Barton Road
    11.4 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 2 right turns, 1 left turn and a stretch of Isham Road.
    11.4 km · 10 turns · 7 roundabouts
    Drive this route

The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.

The roundabouts on the business park are the first thing you meet and the last. Orion Way and the roads around it carry more roundabout entries than anywhere else on the practice loops on this page, and because they are wide, modern and often empty, the temptation is to treat them as formalities. They are not. The observation and the signal are being marked whether or not anything is coming.

Kettering Road and London Road carry the town-centre half of the routes. These are older, narrower and busier, with side turnings close together and parked cars reducing them to a single working lane in places.

Worth practising specifically before a Kettering test:

  • Multi-lane roundabouts taken from the correct approach lane, then held round to the exit without drifting.
  • Roundabouts in series, where the exit of one is the approach to the next and there is no time to reset.
  • Joining and leaving the A14, matching the speed of traffic already on it and losing that speed again in the length of the slip.
  • Right turns out of a residential road onto Kettering Road, where the gaps are short and hesitation is as costly as impatience.

Manoeuvres are usually asked for on the quieter residential roads between the town and the business park, where kerbs are straight and parking is heavy enough on one side to make a pull-up on the right worth doing properly. The loops run between four and eight miles, so the shortest gives you very little warm-up before the first roundabout.

Pass rate at Kettering, 2008/09 to 2025/26

Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.

35%45%55%GB 50%49.1%08/0912/1316/1720/2125/26

Month by month, 2025/26

0%30%60%AprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJanFebMar

By year and gender

YearTestsPass rateMaleFemale
2025/2611,87649.1%49.6%48.5%
2024/258,48946.0%45.7%46.3%
2023/2411,22148.4%48.8%47.9%
2022/239,77644.8%47.2%42.0%
2021/228,44740.5%43.6%37.4%
2020/212,54551.0%53.1%48.9%
2019/207,91947.8%54.3%42.3%
2018/198,07950.9%55.6%46.6%

East Midlands average 50.8% · GB 50%

Waiting time for a test at Kettering

Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.

01020GB 11.9 wks7.3Sep 2023May 2024Feb 2025Nov 2025Aug 2026
MonthMedian waitWeeks to free slotsSlots offeredStill free
Aug 20267.3244732.5%
Jul 20267.3245030.3%
Jun 202612.1243824%
May 202612.9243631.1%
Apr 202613.4243230.8%
Mar 20261120.64129.5%

Tell me when the wait at Kettering drops

One email when DVSA’s monthly figure falls, or goes under the number of weeks you choose. No newsletter.

Test day at Kettering

The centre is on Orion Way in Kettering Business Park, a modern estate on the southern edge of town. Candidate parking is available and the bays are reported to be behind the DVSA block rather than in front of it, which is typical of this kind of unit, so allow a minute to find them rather than assuming a space by the door.

Male and female toilets are available inside, and the entrance and parking are wheelchair accessible. The centre conducts car tests, motorcycle modules 1 and 2 and ADI part 3.

Aim to arrive about ten minutes before your slot. Earlier than that and you are standing about with other candidates, which does nobody's nerves any good. The examiner calls you by name, checks your licence and asks you to sign the declaration confirming the car is insured for the test. The eyesight check is done outside on the business park before you get in.

Kettering station is a good way across town, so most candidates arrive with an instructor rather than by train, and tests are booked, moved and cancelled only through GOV.UK. The drive starts on the business park roads, which means the first roundabout comes before you have properly settled.

Other tests at Kettering

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.

Motorcycle

Module 1 2025/26
74.0%770 tests
Module 2 2025/26
71.2%652 tests

Year by year at this site

Learner reports from Kettering

No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.

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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 Kettering.

  1. 1Junctions - observation
  2. 2Mirrors - change direction
  3. 3Junctions - turning right
  4. 4Response to signs - traffic lights
  5. 5Control - steering
  6. 6Move off - safely

All ten, and what each one means

Getting there

Orion Way, Kettering Business Park
Kettering NN15 6NL

Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK

Nearby centres

Questions learners ask about Kettering

Is Kettering an easy test centre?
It is close to the national average: 49.1% of tests were passed in 2025/26 against 50.0% across Great Britain.
How long is the wait for a driving test at Kettering?
In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Kettering was 7.3 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 Kettering driving test centre?
Kettering test centre is at Orion Way, Kettering Business Park, NN15 6NL. 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 Kettering do a year?
11,876 car tests were conducted at Kettering in 2025/26, of which 5,829 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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