The theory guide, the app, and a mock practical with a different instructor
Theory and mock tests
Help with the theory test from the first lesson: the guide on this website, the app with the DVSA question bank and hazard perception clips, your instructor checking your scores, and, before the practical is booked, a 40-minute mock test with a different instructor marked on the examiner's sheet.
The theory test fails more people than it should because they revise the wrong way: reading the Highway Code instead of practising the question bank and the hazard clips. The guide on this website is the method our students use, it takes about three weeks of twenty minutes a day, and your instructor checks your mock scores each lesson so the test is booked when you are at 90%, not at 60% and hoping.
The theory test is fifty multiple-choice questions (43 to pass) and fourteen hazard perception clips (44 out of 75 to pass), taken on a computer at the Cardiff test centre on Newport Road. The questions come from a published bank of about 700, so practising the bank is practising the test. The app we recommend has the official bank and the official clips, costs a few pounds, and shows your scores by topic; your instructor looks at those scores and tells you when to book. The guide page has the three-week plan, the topics people get wrong, and how hazard perception is scored, which is the part nobody explains.
Before the practical test is booked, you do a mock: forty minutes with a different instructor who has not taught you, marked on the DVSA examiner's sheet, including the sat-nav section and the manoeuvre, without hints. It is £76 as a two-hour lesson (the mock and a debrief) and included in every intensive course. If the mock says you are ready, the test is booked. If it does not, the sheet is the plan for the next few lessons, which is a great deal cheaper than a failed test.
What is included
- The three-week theory plan on this website
- The app with the official question bank and clips
- Scores checked by your instructor each lesson
- Booked when you are at 90%, not before
- A 40-minute mock practical with a different instructor
- The examiner's sheet as the next plan
What it costs
Theory help is included in lessons. The DVSA theory test fee is £23, paid to them. A mock practical test is £76 for two hours, or included in every intensive course. The prices page has every price, the blocks, the DVSA fees and the pass rate by quarter. No booking fee, no fuel surcharge, no extra for automatic.
Questions about theory and mocks
How long does the theory certificate last?
Two years from the pass date. If you have not passed the practical by then you take the theory again, which is why we do not book the theory until lessons have started.
Can I take the theory in Welsh?
Yes, and in a few other languages, and with voiceover or extra time if you have a reading difficulty, which you ask for when you book. The guide page explains how.
Book the introductory two hours. £60, from your door.
The controls on a quiet road, moving off and stopping, and enough driving to see how you take to it, with the instructor who covers your area. At the end you get a written plan and an honest estimate of the hours. Book with the form or ring the office, Monday to Saturday 8 to 7.