3 quick questions about UK practical driving test

[anthonyk]

Hello, This is my first post here. I'm learning to drive a car in my 40s and would be grateful if someone could help with 3 quick questions about the practical test.

1) Does the examiner ask any questions other than the "show me/tell me" ones to do with checking the oil and lights etc.?

(The reason I ask is that the DSA books on the practical test contain a lot of material that is tested in the theory test, and some that is to do with 'eco-driving' and so on. Might they ask you about any of this, or indeed about anything else, during the practical test? Or are they solely interested in a) the "show me/tell me" stuff and b) how well you can drive in practice and follow their practical intructions?)

2) Do slots for tests appear and disappear at the test-booking website all the time?

(The reason I ask is that I desperately want to take my practical test in good time for Christmas, but the earliest available times at my preferred two test centres start at 5 Jan, apart from last-minute ones in the next few days. And the latter are unsuitable because I'm not quite ready to take the test yet. So is it sensible to wait for a slot to appear that's in my desired period, say 10-20 Dec? Or should I just give up and book for Jan? And is there a time of day when there tend to be more slots available, after a lot of cancellations come in or are processed?)

3) Is it going to be all right to leave an empty topbox on my car during my test?

(The reason I ask is that one of the DSA books says cars used in tests shouldn't be "loaded". Unfortunately the box has got to be on the car for the drive I'm going to do on the day following the test, assuming I pass. A health problem makes me unable to lift it on and off - although it doesn't interfere with my driving - and I won't have anyone to help me.)

Sorry if these sound like silly questions, but I'd appreciate advice on them!

Thanks!

Anthony

Edited by anthonyk on Wednesday 12th November 11:33

[JakeT]

Here's what happened with me.

1. No. Show me tell me. The Eco driving is based on how you drive.

2. Yes. They will appear and disappear as they're booked and cancelled.

3. I think it will be fine. But there's the rules and regs regarding the car. If in doubt call your test centre and ask them.

[thelawnet]

When I did my driving test 10 years ago, I wrote a little program that scanned for new test slots every 5 minutes. Bagged me a near-dated slot in under a day, otherwise it would have meant waiting 3 months.

[anthonyk]

JakeT said:

Here's what happened with me.

1. No. Show me tell me. The Eco driving is based on how you drive.

2. Yes. They will appear and disappear as they're booked and cancelled.

3. I think it will be fine. But there's the rules and regs regarding the car. If in doubt call your test centre and ask them.

Many thanks for this info, JakeT!

thelawnet said:

When I did my driving test 10 years ago, I wrote a little program that scanned for new test slots every 5 minutes. Bagged me a near-dated slot in under a day, otherwise it would have meant waiting 3 months.

Sounds brilliant, thelawnet. I played around with that sort of thing several years ago, albeit only with HTML to do deep-linking. Some of the free website-monitoring progs seem to have problems dealing with https. But there's a commercial company charging £18 to get people earlier tests. I don't know whether they have any competitors!

Edit: actually there seem to be several companies offering this service. No wonder all the near dates that reappear keep disappearing so quickly!

Edited by anthonyk on Wednesday 12th November 16:11

[DervHead]

thelawnet said:

When I did my driving test 10 years ago, I wrote a little program that scanned for new test slots every 5 minutes. Bagged me a near-dated slot in under a day, otherwise it would have meant waiting 3 months.

That rings a bell... Did you used to be on 2Pass by any chance?

OP are you learning with an ADI? They'd be able to help with all these questions and more. If not, as above check with the TC. Good luck.

[anthonyk]

DervHead said:

OP are you learning with an ADI? They'd be able to help with all these questions and more. If not, as above check with the TC. Good luck.

Thanks Yes, I'm learning with an ADI. I'm in a 3-day gap between my first lesson and when it will start getting very intensive. A suitable date came up, I texted him to ask whether it would be OK with him, he texted me back to say yes and then by the time I went back to the DVSA website someone else had snapped it up.

[thelawnet]

DervHead said:

That rings a bell... Did you used to be on 2Pass by any chance?

Don't think so.

Basically what happened was this: I bought a £600 intensive driving course including short-dated test. This turned out to be in Colindale, which is a horrid place to drive. I lived in Uxbridge, which is on the edge of nice quiet places.

Anyway, I failed my test in Colindale, said 'f*** this' (because the intensive driving people would have probably booked me into some even sh*ttier area on my retest), and knocked up a quick program (took under an hour to write) to scan for a test in nearby quiet, leafy Pinner, and then flash it up in front of me when it found it (so I just needed to enter my card details, etc., - didn't bother coding that part). Test slot found in short order, and passed.

In those days nobody had captchas, I'm not sure if the DVLA now use them, but if they do it would obviously make it more difficult to code.

Otherwise you could just spend a few hours/days reloading the DVLA website for slots manually. If you could be bothered.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

anthonyk said:

I'm learning to drive a car in my 40s

Top man. It's far harder to learn as you get older, so respect!

[aka_kerrly]

Can't really offer much in the way of advice but good luck. My mum really struggled learning to drive in her 40s even though she has held a bike licence since she was a teenager.

That and I read TOPBOX as TOOLBOX and was wondering WTF, why would you need a tool box (loaded or unloaded) to do your test.