If you’re nervous about your driving test, you’re certainly not unusual.
I work with a remarkably wide variety of clients. At one end of the spectrum are complete beginners who have learned to drive from scratch with me. At the other are experienced international drivers who may have been driving for many years but need to obtain a British driving licence.
And almost without exception, they’re nervous.
I’ve seen extremely confident people become nervous on test day. I’ve seen experienced drivers suddenly doubt themselves. I’ve seen excellent learner drivers make mistakes in the hour before their test that I’ve never seen them make before.
So the first thing to understand is this:
Being nervous doesn’t mean you’re not ready.
Nervousness is a completely natural response to being tested. In fact, the DVSA takes driving-test nerves sufficiently seriously that practising ways of managing them is one of its five indicators that someone is ready to take their driving test.
The DVSA also says that around one in ten people who fail their driving test say nerves were the main reason.
But I don’t necessarily want to eliminate nerves altogether.
A certain amount of nervous energy can be useful. It can make you more alert, sharpen your concentration and help you focus.
The challenge is to make those nerves work for you rather than against you.
For some people, nerves make them lock in and concentrate. For others, they become consumed by them. Instead of thinking about what’s happening outside the windscreen, they start thinking about what’s happening inside their head.
What if I fail?
Did I just make a mistake?
Why did the examiner write something down?
Was that a serious fault?
What will everyone say if I don’t pass?
That’s when nerves become dangerous to your performance.
So how do we prevent that?
In my experience, reducing driving-test nerves begins several weeks before your test – not on the morning of it.
Preparation is the best treatment for driving-test nerves
There are dozens of tips and techniques for managing driving-test anxiety, and we’ll come to some of them.
But nothing is as powerful as being properly prepared.
By the time one of my pupils reaches their driving test, I want them to have experienced an enormous variety of driving situations.
They should be comfortable driving independently. They should have experienced difficult junctions, busy roundabouts, dual carriageways and unfamiliar situations. They should be comfortable with all the manoeuvres. They should have driven in different traffic conditions and at different times of day.
I don’t want them sitting in the Sevenoaks Driving Test Centre thinking:
I hope they don’t take me somewhere difficult.
I want them thinking:
I’ve done all this before.
There is an enormous psychological difference between those two positions.
Take lots of realistic mock driving tests
This is one of the reasons I use mock driving tests so extensively in my training.
A mock test isn’t simply an assessment of whether you can drive.
It’s also an opportunity to practise being assessed.
During a normal driving lesson, you have an instructor beside you. Even when they aren’t saying very much, there’s reassurance in knowing that they’re there to help if necessary.
A mock test changes that relationship.
Suddenly you’re receiving examiner-style instructions. There may be long periods of silence. You’re following the satnav independently. You’re making decisions without asking for reassurance. And you know that the person sitting beside you is assessing what you do.
That’s a very different psychological experience.
The DVSA actively encourages learners to take mock tests for precisely this reason. Its research found that 92% of learners who had taken a mock test said it helped them prepare for the real test, while 87% said it increased their confidence.
That makes complete sense to me.
The first mock test might feel strange.
The second feels slightly less strange.
After you’ve done them repeatedly, the format becomes familiar.
Eventually you reach the point where the real driving test is essentially:
another mock test, but with a different person sitting beside you.
That’s exactly where I want my pupils to be.
The driving test shouldn’t feel like an enormous leap into the unknown. You should have rehearsed the experience so many times that, psychologically as well as technically, it feels familiar.
Don’t try to cram the night before
The evening before your driving test, my advice is almost the opposite of what you might expect:
Forget about driving.
Watch a film. Go for a walk. Play a game. See your friends. Read a book. Do something you enjoy that occupies your attention.
What I wouldn’t recommend is spending the entire evening watching driving-test videos, studying test routes or desperately trying to learn things you’ve neglected during your training.
Driving isn’t an academic examination.
You’re not going to dramatically improve your ability to control a car, judge a roundabout or anticipate another road user’s behaviour by cramming the night before.
If there are enormous gaps in your ability the evening before your test, you’re probably not ready to take it.
Otherwise, trust your preparation.
Think about sleep before the night before
Getting enough sleep is sensible, but there’s another trap here.
Don’t put yourself under enormous pressure to achieve the “perfect” night’s sleep immediately before your test.
That can simply give you something else to worry about.
Instead, think about getting reasonable sleep over the few nights leading up to your test.
If you’ve slept reasonably well all week and then have a slightly restless night because you’re excited or nervous, don’t convince yourself that this means your test is doomed.
Again, don’t start analysing yourself.
Get up and follow your normal routine.
Keep test day as normal as possible
One of my most important principles is:
Don’t suddenly become a different person because it’s your driving test.
Eat what you would normally eat. Drink what you would normally drink. Get up at a sensible time and follow your normal routine as much as possible.
If you normally have a coffee with breakfast, I wouldn’t suddenly tell you that you’re forbidden from drinking coffee.
But equally, test morning isn’t the time to drink three coffees and an energy drink because you think you need to be extra alert. Too much caffeine can make you feel jittery and potentially make nervousness worse.
The same principle applies to medication and remedies.
If you take prescribed medication, don’t start changing how you take it because you’ve got a driving test. And I certainly wouldn’t recommend experimenting for the first time on test morning with supplements, herbal remedies or anything else someone on the internet claims will magically remove driving-test nerves.
If you have questions about medication, that’s something to discuss with an appropriate healthcare professional.
Test day should be familiar, not experimental.
Arrive early – but don’t sit in the waiting room for an hour
I like my pupils to be at Sevenoaks Driving Test Centre approximately an hour before their test.
That doesn’t mean sitting in the test centre for an hour.
It means we’re already in Sevenoaks, driving.
We can warm up, see what the traffic is doing and understand the conditions that particular day.
Perhaps it’s unusually busy. Perhaps it’s raining. Perhaps there are roadworks somewhere. Perhaps everything is completely ordinary.
Whatever the conditions are, you’ve experienced them before your test begins.
Most importantly, by the time we arrive back at the test centre, you’re already driving.
Your brain isn’t trying to go from sitting anxiously at home to suddenly taking a driving test.
You’re simply continuing something you’ve already been doing for the previous hour.
I generally wouldn’t recommend spending more than about ten minutes inside Sevenoaks Driving Test Centre.
The waiting room reminds me a little of a doctor’s waiting room. It’s usually fairly quiet, people are waiting for their name to be called, and sitting there for too long can simply give your imagination time to get to work.
I’d much rather you were outside driving.
I can often see when nerves are becoming a problem
Sometimes I can tell that one of my pupils is struggling with nerves before their driving test has even started.
One of the biggest warning signs is when someone who would normally talk to me suddenly becomes very withdrawn.
Their answers become shorter.
They stop engaging with people.
Their personality almost seems to disappear.
They’re retreating inside their own head.
And that’s exactly where I don’t want them to be.
Stress can interfere with concentration and decision-making – precisely the abilities you need when driving.
Fortunately, something interesting normally happens once the driving test begins.
The first five minutes are often the hardest
In my experience, most people become considerably more relaxed once they’ve been driving for a few minutes.
Suddenly there are real things to deal with.
There’s a junction ahead.
There’s a pedestrian approaching a crossing.
There’s a speed-limit change.
There’s a roundabout.
Instead of thinking about the driving test, you’re driving.
And your training begins to take over.
That’s another reason preparation is so important. Under pressure, I don’t want you desperately trying to remember what you’re supposed to do.
I want good driving to have become habitual.
Talk to your driving examiner
This is probably my number-one practical tip for reducing driving-test nerves.
Have a conversation with your examiner.
Driving examiners aren’t there to intimidate you. They want you to have the opportunity to demonstrate what you can do.
In fact, official guidance for driving examiners specifically says that if a candidate is clearly struggling with nervousness, the examiner should offer some reassurance to help them settle down.
So don’t think of the examiner as your enemy.
And don’t suddenly become silent just because you’re taking a driving test.
Examiners will often try to put you at ease by making ordinary conversation.
They might ask whether you’ve travelled far to get to Sevenoaks.
Don’t just say:
“Yes.”
Tell them where you’ve come from.
They might ask what you’d normally be doing if you weren’t taking your driving test.
Don’t just say:
“School.”
Tell them what you’re studying.
Perhaps you’re hoping to go to university next year. Tell them where you’re hoping to go or what you’d like to study.
If you’re working, tell them what you do.
The conversation may naturally go somewhere from there.
Obviously, you don’t need to spend the entire test talking. If you’re approaching a complicated roundabout or something requires your full concentration, stop talking and concentrate on driving.
And some people genuinely prefer silence. If that’s you, that’s absolutely fine.
But if you’re normally a conversational person, don’t suddenly become a different person because an examiner is sitting beside you.
You can ask the examiner questions as well
You don’t necessarily have to wait for the examiner to initiate every conversation.
If you’re driving along a relatively straightforward section of road and you notice yourself disappearing into your own thoughts, ask them something.
Keep it light.
Driving tests probably aren’t the ideal environment to start discussing politics, religion or anything particularly personal.
But you could ask:
“How long have you been an examiner?”
“What’s the best part of being an examiner?”
“Have you had a good day today?”
They may have been asked the same question 500 times.
It doesn’t matter.
The purpose of the conversation isn’t to obtain fascinating insights into the life of a driving examiner.
It’s to move the conversation from inside your head to outside your head.
Keep your attention outside the windscreen
This is one of the most important ideas in this entire article.
Anxiety encourages internal conversation.
You start monitoring yourself.
How am I doing?
Am I nervous?
Did I do that properly?
Have I failed?
But none of those questions helps you deal with the road ahead.
A much more useful question is:
What’s happening now?
What’s the car ahead doing?
Where’s that pedestrian going?
What’s the speed limit?
What might happen at that junction?
Where’s my next potential hazard?
This is very similar to the principle behind mindfulness: rather than becoming consumed by thoughts about what has happened or what might happen, bring your attention back to what’s happening right now.
For a learner driver, you don’t need to make that complicated.
Look outside the windscreen and drive what’s in front of you.
Never decide you’ve failed your own driving test
This deserves a section of its own because I’ve seen it happen so many times.
You make a mistake.
You immediately think:
I’ve failed.
Your heart rate increases.
You start thinking about what happened.
You notice the examiner writing something down.
Now you’re certain you’ve failed.
You stop properly concentrating on what’s happening ahead.
And then you make another mistake.
The irony is that the original mistake may not have failed your test at all.
The DVSA specifically tells candidates to continue if they make a mistake because it may not affect the result if it isn’t serious.
And don’t try to interpret everything the examiner does.
Examiners make notes throughout the test for a variety of reasons. Seeing them touch their tablet or write something down doesn’t mean you’ve just failed.
So remember this:
Never assess your own driving test while you’re taking it. That’s the examiner’s job.
Your job is to drive the car.
Whatever happened 30 seconds ago has happened.
You can’t change it.
But you have complete control over what you do for the next 30 seconds.
Consider having the radio on
Another technique you might consider is having the radio playing quietly.
I don’t use this particularly often, but I have found it helpful for some people.
Again, the value is partly psychological. Quiet background sound can give your brain something external to listen to rather than allowing anxious internal chatter to fill every silence.
There are a couple of important caveats.
Keep the volume low enough that you can clearly hear the examiner and the satnav.
And I’d avoid anything particularly fast or aggressive if you know it changes the way you drive.
Something familiar and relatively relaxed is ideal. BBC Radio 1 or Radio 2 are a couple of my favourites.
But this isn’t something I’d suddenly introduce on test day if you’ve always driven in silence.
The recurring principle is familiarity.
Breathing techniques can help – but practise them beforehand
There is good evidence that controlled breathing can help people manage feelings of stress and anxiety.
But once again, I wouldn’t wait until you’re sitting outside the test centre to discover a breathing exercise on your phone.
If breathing techniques help you, practise them beforehand.
Use them before a mock test.
Use them when you encounter a stressful driving situation during a lesson.
Find something simple that works for you.
The objective isn’t to perform some elaborate ritual immediately before your examiner arrives.
It’s to have another familiar tool available if you notice your nerves beginning to increase.
Don’t be anxious about being anxious
Perhaps the biggest misconception about driving-test nerves is the idea that you need to feel completely calm.
You don’t.
You might feel butterflies in your stomach.
Your heart might beat a little faster.
You might feel unusually alert.
You might not have slept quite as well as usual.
None of those things means you’re going to fail.
In fact, some nervous energy can help you concentrate.
The objective isn’t:
nervous → calm.
It’s:
nervous → focused.
That’s an important distinction.
Don’t become nervous about the fact that you’re nervous.
Recognise the feeling, accept that it’s perfectly normal and direct that extra alertness towards what’s happening on the road.
Reframe what you’re actually doing
Finally, think about what a driving test actually is.
It’s very easy to turn it into an enormous event:
I HAVE TO PASS MY DRIVING TEST TODAY.
That creates a huge amount of pressure.
Try reframing it.
You’re simply going for a drive with someone you’ve never met before and demonstrating that you’re capable of driving safely and independently.
That’s it.
You don’t need to impress them.
You don’t need to produce the best drive of your life.
And you certainly don’t need to produce a perfect drive.
You’re demonstrating that you’re sufficiently safe and competent to be allowed to continue driving without an instructor sitting beside you.
If you’ve prepared properly, you’ve already demonstrated that ability many times before.
Today you’re simply demonstrating it to someone else.
My advice for driving-test nerves
If I could reduce everything in this article to one principle, it would be this:
Don’t try to eliminate your nerves. Prepare yourself so well that your nerves don’t control your driving.
That preparation begins weeks before the test.
Get plenty of varied driving experience.
Become genuinely independent.
Take realistic mock tests repeatedly so that being assessed no longer feels unusual.
In the days before your test, get sensible sleep.
The evening before, forget about driving and do something you enjoy.
On test morning, keep your routine normal. Don’t overload yourself with caffeine and don’t experiment with medication, supplements or supposed miracle remedies.
Arrive early enough to have a proper warm-up, but don’t spend ages sitting nervously in the test centre waiting room.
And when you meet the examiner, remember that they’re another human being.
Talk to them if conversation helps you.
If you make a mistake, forget it and continue driving.
Don’t watch their tablet.
Don’t try to calculate whether you’re passing.
Don’t replay the previous junction.
Keep the conversation outside your head rather than inside it.
Look through the windscreen.
Ask yourself what’s happening now.
And drive.
Because if you’ve prepared properly, you’re not trying to prove that you can suddenly drive well for 35 minutes.
You’re simply demonstrating the standard of driving that has already become normal for you.