How To Pass The Australian Driving Test

Whether you want to drive for work or leisure, the dreaded driving test is the final hurdle to finally getting your hands on a driving licence and enjoying freely cruising down the road. However, there are some who get discouraged when they fail one or more times and feel as if the test is just too difficult.

The good news is that passing the Australian driving test isn’t really that hard. In fact, you can even pass the driving test on your first try as long as you prepare well and have the proper foundation of safe driving practices.

If you’re ready to take the driving test, make sure to prepare the requirements and book a schedule in advance. The driving test takes about 30 to 45 minutes to complete all parts.

No matter which state and at what age you take the driving assessment, the passing score is 90 per cent. It might sound like the bar is set too high, but don’t forget that while driving a vehicle is one of the most fun and convenient activities you can do, it can also be one of the most dangerous if done irresponsibly.

To pass your driving test, you need to take note of the assessment criteria and the scores you need to achieve.

How to pass the driving test on your first try

There really is no secret trick to acing the driving test – practicing correct driving techniques and upholding Australian road safety guidelines from the start of your learning journey is the best way to do it.

Still, here are a few tips you may want to keep in mind to help you get through the test and increase the probability of passing on the first try:

Practice… a lot
Before you even book a driving test, be sure to practice as much as you can at different times and weather conditions. Treat every practice as if it’s the practical driving test and, on the day of the test, just do as you practiced.

When you finally choose a test centre for the driving test, don’t rush to take the test right away. Give yourself a few days to practice driving around the centre to familiarise yourself with the area and find potential driving challenges you may tackle during the test.

Stay calm
Panicking never helped with anything, and it can even make learner drivers prone to making mistakes. Even if you do make a mistake, don’t assume the worst and just move on to the next task. Unless you caused a collision or injured a pedestrian, assuming the worst of every mistake would drain you mentally and may cause more mistakes.

Remember: Before you turn that ignition on, take a few deep breaths to calm down and clear your mind. If you practiced a lot and developed good driving behaviours, the skills you honed won’t betray you.

Focus
A lot of unexpected things can happen on the road no matter how ordinary or mundane the day is, so it’s important to stay focused especially when you’re behind the wheel.

When you have a calm and focused energy while driving, it becomes easier to perceive potential hazards and respond appropriately to them.

Be observant and alert
Driving is essentially multitasking since you need to stay aware of your surroundings while the many components of a vehicle. Hence, observation and alertness are the keys to potential hazard response.

That is, you should be able to sense potential hazards with even quick glances to your mirrors and stay alert enough to figure out how to lower the risk of getting into an accident.  Always perform observation checks before doing a manoeuvre.

Better safe than sorry
During the test, your driving and parking skills are being tested — the testing officer is not allowed to coach you or explain how to do a manoeuvre that you’re supposed to do. However, if you’re confused with an instruction, do not hesitate to clarify with the assessment officer for your own sake as well as for the safety of other road users.

What score do I need to pass the driving test?

Simply put, you need to score at least 90 per cent and avoid making errors in judgment during the test in order to gain you provisional P1 licence. Specifically, you can only pass the Australian driving test if you achieve the following:

• 90 per cent score
• Up to 3 non-critical errors
• Zero critical error

That is, even with a near perfect mark, you may still fail the driving test if you commit more than three (3) non-critical errors or even just a single critical error.

What are non-critical errors?
Non-critical errors or fail (F) items refer to small mistakes that don’t pose an immediate danger, such parking too close to the kerb or having a poor steering technique due to wrong hand position on the steering wheel.

Minor mistakes like these are still forgivable since they are not illegal, but if you accumulate one too many minor mistakes, it comes across as a failure to acquire the basic knowledge and skills to drive on Australian roads.

What are critical errors?
Critical errors, also referred to as immediate fail (IF) or automatic fail items, are mistakes that are deemed dangerous or unsafe for public. For instance, consistently violating traffic signs and disobeying road markings, deliberately not listening to the examiner’s directions, or doing any manoeuvre that forces another vehicle or person to take evasive action.

You will also receive a failure mark if the testing officer was forced to intervene or provide instruction at any part of the test because you’re supposed to know how to drive already. Receiving help or advice from a third party at any time during the test will also result in failure.

Why you might fail the driving test

Even when a person is brimming with confidence that they’ve got the knowledge and skills to get through the driving test, there is still the possibility of failure. Aside from the objective mistakes or score sheet-based errors that examinees make, there are other factors that may usually lead to failure.

Being too nervous or overconfident
A person’s mental and emotional state can make even the most prepared falter, and being too nervous about being tested can increase stress, which may render you unable to respond to situations in a timely manner.

Likewise, exuding confidence is good but getting overconfident with your skills can lead to blunders when unforeseen situations arise.

Uncorrected bad driving habits
If you have any bad driving habits that aren’t really illegal but also don’t fall within standards (i.e., braking too hard or too close to the intersection), you may accumulate fail points from them.

Often, failure to successfully acquire a driving licence doesn’t mean something terribly wrong was done, but that the little things that were considered negligible added up because were not corrected. This is why it’s important to learn the correct defensive driving techniques from the beginning.

Consider taking professional driving lessons at a regular driving school or booking a few sessions with experienced driving instructors who can guide you through different driving scenarios while instilling safe driving habits.

What to do if you fail the driving test

If you’re unfortunate enough to fail the test, don’t take the results to heart too much. According to a survey, the average driving test passing rate in Australia is 62 per cent, so you’re definitely not alone.

Instead of further bruising your mentality and ego while thinking badly of your skills, find out which areas you made a mistake in and address them.

Instead of further bruising your mentality and ego while thinking badly of your skills, find out which areas you made a mistake in and address them.

As a rule, driving examiners are only allowed to give you general comments that led to your result so don’t expect them to point out specific events during your test that led to failure. Once you’ve calmed down and cleared your head, try to remember how the test went and find out which actions may have led to your mistakes.

If you fail, keep calm and just continue practicing. You may also consider booking a professional to oversee your driving so that they can point out any bad techniques you unconsciously developed and correct them before your next attempt.

You can retake the test as many times as you need until you pass and you can book a new schedule for the retest right away. However, the states below enforce a cooling off period between tests.

• New South Wales (NSW): 7 days
• Queensland (QLD)
  • First fail:  1 day
  • Second fail: 7 days
  • Third fail & above: 28 days
• South Australia (SA): 14 days

Finally, always remember that a driving licence is a privilege, not something that is owed to you. Driving has accompanying responsibilities that you are obligated to uphold to ensure public safety. Even one mistake can cause fatalities, so always use safe driving techniques and be responsible on the road.

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