How to Pass the Australian Driving Test: Assessment Criteria

So you’ve held your driving learner’s permit long enough and logged enough hours of supervised driving, and you think you’re ready to drive on your own. Under Australia’s Graduated Licensing System (GLS), your next step is to acquire a provisional P1 licence.

Before you get your hands on your provisional P1 licence, however, you first need to convince a qualified assessor that you are worthy of driving on Australian roads by yourself by taking the practical driving test.

During the on-road driving test, the examiner will evaluate your readiness for a provisional P1 licence according to set criteria that every driver should master. These also happen to be the core of safe driving practices, so you’ve got nothing to worry about if you have a good foundation.

Assessment Criteria

During the practical driving exam for provisional P1 licence, the assessor will observe your skills and behaviour before, during, and after the driving test. 

To put it simply, the on-road exam is a means to assess how competent and responsible you are when it comes to operating a motor vehicle, as well as ensuring that it is safe for use. This includes whether you obey traffic rules, respect and share the road with fellow motorists and pedestrians, and predict and respond to potential hazards.

To do this, the assessor will assess how well you do in five areas, and your success or failure depends on how well you’re able to demonstrate your competence in them.

Key assessment areas

You’ll be able to figure out what areas to concentrate on by learning how to read the Australian on-road driving test scoresheet that assessors use. The driving test score sheet identifies five key areas that are essential to safety driving practices. These are:

• Speed management (S)
• Road positioning (P)
• Decision-making (D)
• Hazard response (H)
• Vehicle control (C)

Speed management (S)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the risk of fatal car crash increases by 4 per cent for every 1 per cent increase in mean speed, and fatality risk to car occupants is already at 85 per cent upon reaching 65 km/hr. Hence, managing your driving speed is important in order to avoid preventable accidents.

Always make sure to drive within the legal speed limits and adjust your maximum speed according to the weather conditions (i.e., drive slower when it rains or snows). Likewise, don’t forget to keep a minimum safe distance from surrounding cars, especially when you switch lanes, since this manoeuvre involves other assessment criteria and may warrant minus points if done carelessly.

Road Positioning (P)

This refers to how you position your vehicle when you drive. Among other things, the examiner will observe whether you stay within your lane as you cruise or if you ignore road markings and take up other lanes, as well as your vehicle’s positioning at stop signs and when asked to do certain manoeuvres such as parallel parking and 3-point turns.

Make sure to maintain the proper position on the road when you drive, as well as the correct distance to the kerb and road markings when you park.

Decision-making (D)

Driving is not a simple, convenient, and fun activity – it is a continuous decision-making process with lives at stake.

During the test, you need to demonstrate good decision-making skills according to the situation. For instance, a sudden change in weather during the test would require you to lower your speed and be more attentive to your side and rear mirrors before switching lanes due to poorer visibility.

For this, make sure that you’ve had a good rest, stay alert when driving, and avoid panicking when you suddenly encounter less than ideal driving conditions. Practise a lot in different weather conditions so that you can stay calm when you encounter a sudden change in weather on the day of your test.

Hazard response (H)

In this part of the test, the examiner will observe how well you are able to perceive potential hazards while driving and how well you respond to them.

This can be as simple as creating ample distance when another vehicle enters your crash avoidance space to something more serious like how you’d respond in areas where people may potentially cross without warning.

Vehicle control (C)

Having good control over the vehicle to achieve a smooth drive is important so that it doesn’t become a rampaging fatality machine, and these are mostly addressed by basic knowledge that form part of your foundation.

Hence, the examiner will observe the way you prepare and operate your car.

This includes how you position your seat (i.e., whether it’s too far forward or reclining too much), the position of your hands on the wheel, if you fasten your seat belts, how smoothly you operate the brakes and accelerator, and if you make proper use of your turn signals, among others.

Special tips

Even if you do well on the big tasks, sometimes people fail the driving test when the little things accumulate. Consider the tips below to boost your chances of passing:

• Always perform observation checks before following through with any manoeuvre.
• Always signal your intention for at least five seconds before making your move, especially when leaving from a parked position on the kerb.
• Consider booking a session with a professional instructor early on in your learning process so that they can correct any mistakes and prevent bad driving behaviours from persisting.
• Be at the testing site at least 15 minutes early.
• Do not, under any circumstances, drink alcohol the day before your practical exam. No matter what licence level you’re looking to get, your blood alcohol content (BAC) should be zero, and it takes at least 12 hours from your first sip to lower your BAC to near-zero.

In order to pass your driving test without trouble, what you need is to maintain focus during your drive and ensure that you developed good driving behaviours during your learning process.

Why? Because as the adage goes, “practice makes permanent.” Constantly practising safe driving behaviour during your learning process will ingrain those actions into your muscle memory, and it will become your default action should something suddenly happen. On the other hand, cramming in correct driving conduct to address the bad ones just before the test increases the probability that you will slip up when an unforeseen incident happens.

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