How to pass a driving test without lessons

My son passed his practical test today with 1 minor, he is a natural but this was his 4th test!

I wouldn’t call that luck.

And yes knowing the roads the test is on help with stress/not being flustered. It doesn’t mean you can’t do it you haven’t been on those roads before.
The OP dd has been driving in many places, many she didn’t know before. I’m not sure thats going to be her biggest problem.

That’s great - sounds as though your DS was lucky. Many people fail not because they are incompetent drivers but because they are nervous and flustered by strange road layouts in unfamiliar places. Why would you not practice those?

I disagree,
dc1 had a crap instructor who didn’t take him on those routes. He still passed the test.
And yes it meant he did a ‘mistake’ on a roundabout - didn’t know he was supposed to go in that inside lane to get where he wanted. He ended up having to take the previous exit. It was FINE. Stressful for him but fine. Not even a minor.

That doesn’t matter - you need to do the routes they do on the test. Practice the confusing roundabouts, the bits where you have to be in a specific lane, the one way systems etc.

She should be fine but I'd recommend she watches some videos on YouTube too. Conquer Driving is a good channel. She should also watch videos of test routes from your centre. It would be good if she could set up a sat nav, but if this isn't possible, they will ask her to follow signs for her independent driving (such as 'follow signs to X').

Good luck to her! I'm currently learning to drive and it's such a palaver arranging everything. I totally feel your pain with instructors not even responding.

Just read your replies OP & noticed in one of the threads someone mentioned "show me, tell me". If you haven't already, just Google it. They're a set of questions that require you to show the examiner something (where the oil fill point is for instance) or tell them something (how you'd check your light were working for example).

There was recently a news article about a lad who taught himself to drive using YouTube & passed his test first time. It's absolutely not impossible to pass driving test without lessons.

Good luck to your daughter!!

Op says she’s driven to other end of country on holiday and back using only A roads and regularly driving around their city.

Not rtft but in case noone else has mentioned, reversing around a corner isn't a thing anymore. Reverse/parallel park, reverse/forward bay parking, pull up on the right & reverse 2 car lengths are the current manoeuvres.

Biggest thing for most learners is mirrors! Plus, 4/5 point check when pulling away (3 mirrors, plus over the shoulder for blind spot, can't remember the 5th thing, but it's less important).

Well she’s going to need experience of driving on more than just the one route if she wants to pass her test. You need to take her out driving around the test area and practice and test routes.

Congrats on getting a test for two months time! The waiting list where I live, home counties, is at least 8 months unless you want to pay about £500 to use one of those 3rd party pimps!
The Government keep saying they're going to rectify the problem, but when I looked at becoming a test examiner (I'm recently retired), there are never any vacancies.

The things that really helped my son outside of me & his Dad taking him out were the things that have changed since we took our tests. Handbrake at junctions, auto hand brake, feeding the wheel, following signs, reading sat nav - & the tips on the test routes. The instructor pointed out places where people have been caught out, missed speed limit sign etc. No reason you can’t pass without lessons though - practice driving from the test centre in all directions so that she’s familiar with the roads in the area :-)

The things that really helped my son outside of me & his Dad taking him out were the things that have changed since we took our tests. Handbrake at junctions, auto hand brake, feeding the wheel - & the tips on the test routes. The instructor pointed out places where people have been caught out, missed speed limit sign etc. No

The test format has changed significantly since you took yours.

Oh clearly yes, sorry I didn’t have the super power to read you mind. So you’ve also practiced all other manoeuvres, all sat nav procedures (well we know you’ve not done that), you know about pulling up on the opposite side of the road, reversing 2 car lengths, show me tell me, and the other long list? ….

You need to make sure the car she will be using meets the standards too
www.gov.uk/driving-test/using-your-own-car

Hi OP, I took my test a few years ago mid-Covid (ahem four times...). A large part of the test, around 20 mins, will be spent following a route that the examiner puts into a Satnav. Around 1 in 5 tests are spent following road signs instead - two of my tests were! So, it's absolutely worth practising following a Satnav around some of the test routes, and also getting your daughter to "follow signs to X until I instruct you otherwise". I think in my tests the Satnav/road sign navigation was the first half of the test, up to the point we did the manoeuvre, and then they directed me back to the test centre.
As someone with too much experience of driving tests, the things I slipped up on were twice driving into side roads too quickly, and once mounting the kerb trying to clear a path for a lorry!
I'd really recommend Driving School TV on YouTube, he's great at explaining manoeuvres and test technique.

You can with a qualified driving instructor. Not sure when it changed. My dd went on motorway each week with her instructor as it was quickest way to test route. Obviously when out with me she didn’t.

You can't go on a motorway at all as a learner

You can’t take your daughter on a motorway, she needs an instructor to do that, so make sure she knows all the signs and practises on dual carriageways. Apart from that, everything that everyone else says. Make sure she drives multiple routes, on every type of road. Manouveres. Reverse parks. Parallel parks. Three point turns. Reverses around corners. Mirror checking. Rush hour traffic. School pick up times. Road works. Country lanes. Roundabouts. Etc etc

I'm learning at the minute, they don't teach 3 point turns or reverse around a corner anymore. She will need to park in a bay, reverse park in a bay, reverse parallel park, definitely observations need to be really obvious, 6 point check before moving off ect, mirror signal manoeuvre, follow a satnav and confidently drive at speed. It would be best to get a couple of lessons of you can to learn what the examiner will be looking for.

And if you have it, the driving test website decides you're a bot and blocks you:

Dear customer.Thank you for your email. If you have Testi installed on any device in your household you will be blocked with the error 15 message.
This is because your IP address will know that a device in your household has testi installed, meaning no matter what browser or device you use you will be blocked.
Delete the testi app and clear all search history, cache and cookies off your devices and the error 15 message should be fixed.

Doesn't manage to block the actual bots though

They can be required to follow sat nav instructions in their test. So instead of the examiner saying 'Turn left' it would be following a series of instructions on the sat nav. I'd agree with others that unless you have experience of teaching you are very likely not teaching her everything she needs to know to pass. I would be researching a lot exactly what is required. As others have said, there's stuff like, 'show me how you'd check the oil' 'show me how you open the petrol cap' etc. And a hell of a lot more observations than any regular driver does (constantly and obviously checking mirrors and blind spot). I'm sure it's possible without lessons but only if you teach to the test not just rely on, 'she's a good driver'. I've been driving 30 years and pretty sure I wouldn't pass a driving test lol.

There is an app you can download, it’s about £16 and that gives all the cancellations so you can check early each morning