Figures show that nearly 300 people took their driving test for the tenth time in 2011 and only 88 of them passed. The traditional advice “if at first you don’t succeed try again” does not seem to ring true for some drivers. The pass rate falls the more times candidates sit their test. Just over a third of people taking their test for the sixth time were successful and for people who kept going it just got worse.
The Driving Standards Agency revealed that a 26-year-old woman had failed her theory test on 90 occasions. It is estimated that the unnamed woman spent nearly £2,800 on the exams. Details disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act showed that a man in the Midlands had failed the practical test 36 times.
Andrew Howard, the AA’s head of road safety, said there were two probable reasons why the test appeared to become harder after several attempts. The first was that people were likely to be more nervous. The second was that the financial cost of learning meant people took fewer lessons as time went by, making them more rusty on test day.
There have been many changes to the UK driving test and it does appear to be substantially more difficult these days than thirty years ago perhaps this is the reason for the high rate of failure or is it the fact that some people are just not meant to be behind the wheel.