What are the top 10 reasons for failing the driving test?

This list covers April 2024 to March 2025, from the guide DVSA updated on 14 August 2025. The order and the meaning of each reason are DVSA’s. The explanations are ours.

DVSA’s newer data table for April 2025 to March 2026 keeps the same top two, then has turning right at junctions third, traffic lights fourth, steering fifth and moving off sixth. Road markings, traffic signs and road position stay seventh to ninth, and tenth becomes keeping up progress rather than use of speed. DVSA’s guide has not been updated for that year, so the order and examples below are still the guide’s.

Go through it with your instructor or supervising driver. Several of these mistakes are habits repeated throughout a test, so fix anything you keep doing in lessons. The guide to what examiners look for explains the fault levels, and the show me, tell me guide covers the vehicle safety questions, which are not on this list. Both are listed at the foot of this page.

You can look both ways and still go wrong if you misjudge how fast something is coming and make it slow right down. A look also comes too late once your car is already partly in the new road. Others include driving over a crossroads without seeing it as a junction, and going onto a roundabout in front of traffic from the right.

Approach at a speed that lets you look properly and stop if you need to, then judge what you see. Rule 170 says to look all around before emerging and not to join a road until there is a gap large enough to do so safely. DVSA reports that ineffective observation by a driver, rider or pedestrian was a factor in 47% of all collisions in 2023.

Practise it:

• How do you turn right at a mini-roundabout on your driving test?
• How do you emerge from a blind junction?
• How do you turn right into a side road on your driving test?
• When is it safe to go at a busy roundabout?
• Should you turn offside to offside at a crossroads?
• Can you pull out when a car from the right is indicating left?
• What do you do when you are turning left with a cyclist beside you?

This covers a missing mirror check and a check you then ignore: moving across lanes on a big roundabout with no look behind, seeing a car coming up in the next lane of a dual carriageway and moving anyway, or leaving a roundabout and cutting across a car close on your left.

Use Mirrors, Signal, Manoeuvre, in good time. Rule 161 says to check before you signal or change direction or speed, and reminds you that mirrors leave blind spots. If someone is there, wait.

Practise it:

• Which lane do you use to turn right at a roundabout?
• How do you change lanes safely on a dual carriageway?
• What do you do when you are turning left with a cyclist beside you?
• When do you signal if you are pulling up just after a side road?
• Where should you pull over for an ambulance?

Examples are checking but going anyway in front of an approaching vehicle, and repeatedly skipping blind spot checks. Pulling away from the right-hand side of the road into other traffic, or moving off after an emergency stop without looking behind, can count too.

Rule 159 gives the order: all mirrors, blind spots, a signal if needed, then a final look round. Move off only when it is safe to do so.

Practise it:

• How do you move off safely on your driving test?
• How do you move off from behind a parked car on your driving test?
• What are the common faults on the pull up on the right test?

These mistakes all involve being too far left: waiting to turn into a side road and holding up traffic that could have passed on your left, sitting on the left at the end of a wide unmarked road, or using the left-hand lane at a roundabout to turn right when that is not appropriate.

Rule 179 says you should take up a position just left of the middle of the road or in the space marked for turning right, leaving room for others to pass on the left if possible.

Practise it:

• How do you turn right into a side road on your driving test?
• Which lane do you use to turn right at a roundabout?
• Should you turn offside to offside at a crossroads?

Trying to go through on red is on the list, and so is sitting still on a green with the junction clear. So is stopping past the first line at an advanced stop, in the box kept for cyclists, driving on at green with no room and blocking the junction, and staying put in the junction to turn right when the oncoming traffic has stopped and it is safe to go.

You MUST stop behind the white line unless the light is green, though on amber you may go on if you have already crossed the line or are so close that stopping might cause a collision (rule 175). At advanced stop lines you MUST stop at the first line if the lights are amber or red (rule 178). Rule 176 says to go on green only if there is room to clear the junction safely, or you are taking up a position to turn right.

Practise it:

• Can you go through an amber light?
• Can you go on a green arrow with a red light?
• What does flashing amber mean at a pelican crossing?
• What do you do at a half barrier level crossing?
• What do you do if an ambulance is behind you at a red light?

Steering at the wrong moment, early or late, can clip the kerb or take you into someone else’s path. Examples include running wide on left turns, clipping the pavement on a bend or while stopping, ending up on the wrong side of a new road after turning right late, and getting too near parked cars.

Look well ahead and slow down in good time, so you can steer smoothly at the right moment and not at the last second. Rule 160 says keeping both hands on the wheel where possible helps you stay in full control.

Practise it:

• What do examiners mark on the parallel parking test?
• How fast should you drive past parked cars?

This covers turning against the lane arrows, straddling two lanes on a roundabout, needlessly crossing double white lines when the solid one is on your side, and steering wrongly at a mini-roundabout.

Read the arrows early, and change lanes only if you can do it safely in good time. If you cannot, follow the lane you are in, even if that takes you away from the examiner’s direction or the sat nav’s route. The examiner will not give you a fault for taking a wrong turning and will help you get back on the route. That covers the change of route, not how you drive: being in the wrong lane can still be marked, and turning against the arrows is one of the mistakes counted here.

You MUST NOT enter a box junction until your exit road or lane is clear (rule 174), though you may wait in it to turn right if only oncoming traffic or others waiting to turn right are stopping you. At signalled roundabouts you MUST NOT enter the box unless you can cross it completely without stopping. At a mini-roundabout, cars MUST pass round the central markings (rule 188).

Practise it:

• How do you turn right at a mini-roundabout on your driving test?
• Which lane do you use to turn right at a roundabout?
• Can you stop in a yellow box when turning right?
• What do you do if you are in the wrong lane on your driving test?
• Do you have to stop at a stop sign if the road is clear?

Five kinds of mistake come up here: passing a keep left sign on the side it forbids, not obeying a stop sign or no entry sign, using a bus lane when its sign says you cannot, ignoring a sign that shows your lane at a roundabout, and responding late, or not at all, to a change of speed limit.

Look well ahead and read the whole sign. You MUST stop behind the line at a stop sign, even when the road looks clear (rule 171). Rule 141 says that, unless otherwise indicated, you should not drive in a bus lane during its period of operation.

Practise it:

• Can you use a bus lane on your driving test?
• Do you have to stop at a stop sign if the road is clear?

Repeatedly hugging the kerb endangers people on the pavement, and drifting towards the centre endangers oncoming traffic. Sitting in the right-hand lane of a dual carriageway for a long stretch with no reason counts too, and so does cutting straight over an unmarked roundabout instead of following its curve.

Stay in the middle of a marked lane and change lanes only when you need to. On a two-lane dual carriageway, rule 137 says you should stay in the left-hand lane, and move back to it after overtaking when it is safe.

Practise it:

• How fast should you drive past parked cars?
• How do you take a sharp bend on a country road?
• Which lane should you be in on a dual carriageway after overtaking?
• How much room should you give a cyclist when overtaking?
• Who has priority on a narrow road with parked cars?

One mistake is going over the limit: staying above 30 mph too long after a 40 limit drops to 30, or ignoring a temporary limit at roadworks. The other is not slowing for conditions, as on a busy high street, in heavy rain or fog, or going into a sharp country bend too fast and losing control.

You MUST NOT exceed the maximum speed limit (rule 124). Rule 126 says to drive at a speed that lets you stop well within the distance you can see to be clear, and rule 146 says not to treat speed limits as a target. Driving too slowly can bring its own fault, marked under progress.

Practise it:

• Can you use a bus lane on your driving test?
• How fast should you drive past parked cars?
• How do you take a sharp bend on a country road?
• How do you pass a horse on the road?
• What is the two-second rule in the rain?

• What are the show me, tell me questions on the driving test?
• What do examiners look for on the driving test?
• All 37 situations, explained

• DVSA: top 10 reasons for failing the driving test in Great Britain
• DVSA: car driving tests, top 10 faults made (data table DRT121F)
• GOV.UK: what happens during the car driving test
• DVSA: understanding your car driving test result
• GOV.UK: driving test faults and your result
• GOV.UK: The Highway Code

Checked against these pages on 4 November 2026. If GOV.UK says something different, GOV.UK is right.