Pass rates: 50% national, but yours could be 34% or 70%.
DVSA publishes pass rates for every test centre. The gap between the easiest and hardest is huge, and so is the cost difference. A 34% centre means the average learner spends several hundred pounds more in fees and lessons than at a 68% centre.
Who passes? Roughly half of all candidates.
All candidates
50.0%
Male
50.8%
Female
49.1%
Age 17-19
58.3%
Top 10 easiest UK test centres.
The pattern is clear: rural, low-traffic centres, mostly in Scotland but also in remote Wales and small English towns. They are only useful if you can practise on roads similar to the test routes. Tiny island centres with a handful of tests a year are excluded here because their rates swing wildly.
| # | Test centre | Region | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montrose | Scotland | 70.0% |
| 2 | Melton Mowbray | East Midlands | 69.7% |
| 3 | Barrow-in-Furness | North West | 69.6% |
| 4 | Dorchester | South West | 69.0% |
| 5 | Pwllheli | Wales | 68.1% |
| 6 | Lerwick (Shetland) | Scotland | 67.8% |
| 7 | Arbroath | Scotland | 67.4% |
| 8 | Cumnock | Scotland | 67.4% |
| 9 | Stornoway | Scotland | 66.6% |
| 10 | Oban | Scotland | 66.1% |
Top 10 hardest UK test centres.
Mostly urban and major-city centres with complex junctions and dense traffic, now led by the West Midlands rather than London. Lower pass rates do not mean tougher examiners; they mean tougher roads.
| # | Test centre | Region | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wolverhampton | West Midlands | 34.3% |
| 2 | Wednesbury | West Midlands | 35.0% |
| 3 | Barking (Tanner Street) | London | 36.3% |
| 4 | Featherstone | West Midlands | 36.4% |
| 5 | Dunfermline (Vine) | Scotland | 36.4% |
| 6 | Gateshead | North East | 37.5% |
| 7 | Norris Green (Liverpool) | North West | 37.8% |
| 8 | Luton | East | 39.2% |
| 9 | Glasgow (Shieldhall) | Scotland | 39.9% |
| 10 | Chingford (London) | London | 39.9% |
Pass rate → expected attempts → cost.
Expected attempts is just 1 divided by pass rate. Multiply by typical retake cost (£62 test fee + 5-7 hours of extra lessons).
| Centre type | Pass rate | Expected attempts | Test fees | Extra lessons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easiest centres | 70% | 1.43 | £89 | £155 |
| Suburban / coast | 60% | 1.67 | £104 | £241 |
| National average | 50% | 2.00 | £124 | £360 |
| Big-city centre | 40% | 2.50 | £155 | £543 |
| Toughest urban | 34% | 2.94 | £182 | £700 |
Honest answer: usually no.
Your instructor knows local routes. The hour you save on a test fee is often eaten by extra lessons in unfamiliar territory plus travel costs.
Only consider travelling if your local centre is in the bottom 5% and you have someone who can drive you to repeated lessons in the alternative area. Otherwise, focus on preparation: pass rate at a centre where you know the routes is yours to influence; pass rate at a strange centre is largely chance.
Source: DVSA, car practical test pass rates by test centre (table DRT122A) and by gender and age (table DRT121C), 2025-26 financial year (April 2025 to March 2026), published 25 June 2026. Centres with fewer than 300 tests in the year are excluded from the easiest and hardest tables because small samples produce volatile year-to-year rates. Figures cover Great Britain; Northern Ireland tests are run separately by the DVA.