DVSA publishes car practical test pass rates for every test centre in Great Britain, updated quarterly. The figures below are the most recent full year on record, filtered to centres with at least 500 tests in that period — small centres get excluded here specifically because a handful of results can swing their rate wildly, which would make the ranking misleading rather than useful. Why pass rates vary this much by centre explains the real reasons behind the gap — mostly local road difficulty, not examiner leniency.
National average over the same period: 50.0%.
The 10 hardest centres to pass at
| Rank | Centre | Pass rate | Tests (year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wolverhampton | 34.3% | 11,561 |
| 2 | Wednesbury | 35.0% | 7,508 |
| 3 | Dunfermline (Vine) | 36.4% | 5,529 |
| 4 | Featherstone | 36.4% | 13,193 |
| 5 | Gateshead | 37.5% | 9,512 |
| 6 | Norris Green (Liverpool) | 37.8% | 13,472 |
| 7 | Luton | 39.2% | 7,759 |
| 8 | Chingford (London) | 39.9% | 13,120 |
| 9 | Glasgow (Shieldhall) | 39.9% | 7,019 |
| 10 | Coventry | 40.0% | 13,771 |
The 10 easiest centres to pass at
| Rank | Centre | Pass rate | Tests (year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montrose | 70.0% | 621 |
| 2 | Melton Mowbray | 69.7% | 1,984 |
| 3 | Barrow In Furness | 69.6% | 1,699 |
| 4 | Dorchester | 69.0% | 4,353 |
| 5 | Pwllheli | 68.1% | 737 |
| 6 | Cumnock | 67.4% | 760 |
| 7 | Arbroath | 67.4% | 605 |
| 8 | Kendal (Oxenholme Road) | 65.1% | 2,231 |
| 9 | Tunbridge Wells | 64.5% | 5,726 |
| 10 | Malton | 64.3% | 876 |
A low pass rate isn’t a prediction about you
Every centre above the “hardest” table still passes well over a third of candidates, and pass rate reflects the average candidate’s result against that centre’s local roads — not your individual chances. The most useful response to testing at a tougher centre isn’t worry, it’s preparation: drive the actual roads your test will use before test day.
Find your test centre for its own pass rate alongside free practice routes for the real roads nearby.