r/LearnerDriverUK

I have been a serial lurker on this subreddit for a while, and i passed yesterday in my very 1st attempt, I am 32 years old and moved to UK 4 years ago, i have never driven in my life before learning to drive here ( so you can imagine the nerves) . Ofcourse, i did eat a banana!
My examiner was such a sweet guy, he spoke to me through the test - Mostly about Scotland ( He was scottish) , honestly that kept my nerves to minimum. I absolutely enjoyed my exam drive.
Good luck to anyone doing their driving test soon!

Hi all, I have my first test this week.

If I pass, do they take a photo for my license at the centre? The reason I ask is my provisional license was renewed in 2024 and I like the photo - but I’ve recently developed alopecia and have just shaved my head, so I’m wondering if they’ll ask me to update it? I don’t really want to.

I’m aware this is a frivolous request, but I’m also heavily pregnant and relatively self conscious about my looks at the moment because of it, so I’ll at least put some makeup on if that’s the case 😅

Thanks all - and please wish me luck!

Absolutely gutted, great drive then 10 mins away from the centre I was at a roundabout, person across from me went and was going straight on so I thought great there’s my blocker and just as I went, the person next to me flew out which the person across had to emergency stop and before I braked the examiner beat me to it.
I think what makes it worse is I got zero driving faults. Even when I knew it was game over I didn’t let it snowball despite tears rolling down my face lols.
I’ve had a good ol’ pity party, tomorrows a new day and suppose just look for cancellations!

Hi guys,

So I'm applying for my provisional license for the second time. The first time I did 5 years ago, I told them about my mental health (severe depression) and my GP filled out the required form, stating that they didn't believe I was fit to drive (ticked the box on the questionnaire that said my mental state was so severe/unstable to make driving dangerous) so my application was denied.

It's been 5 years since then and I want to apply again. My depression is only mild now (scored as mild when I last interacted with my doctor a couple of weeks ago). On the application it asks "**Do you have or have you ever had any of the following health conditions?**" One of the boxes is "***Serious psychiatric illness or mental illness***". Do I tick this box even though it's been years and my depression is only scored as mild now? If I select this, on the next page when confirming all of my details, when it comes to health, it says "**have**" but the worst of it was years ago. My mental illness isn't super serious anymore. I wouldn't say my depression would make me an unfit driver at all. I'm so looking forward to start driving and getting on with my life. I don't want to have to wait 3 years to apply again if it gets rejected but I'm also scared of that £1,000 fine. What would you do? Thanks!

So, for context so far I've had 28hrs of driving lessons and my test is mid November. Today I was learning how to parellel park and started to go through a test route. So the lesson was just learning how to do parellel parking and being a bit more independent with my driving as my instructor says I'm always waiting for her to tell me what to do (which is true). She always says I need to work on my planning and preperating and do more mirrors/indicating work.

Today at the end of the lesson, she said that there are a lot of gaps in my driving and she feels as if I've somehow regressed these past few lessons but shes not sure if its because it's started to get dark quicker and I'm now driving in the dark which I'm completely new to or if her methods are not working for me anymore. She said for example I'm not turning into smaller roads properly, not assessing the situation beforehand, I'm waiting for her to tell me what to do ect and she also said she thinks I should reschedule my test date and hearing that just made me feel overwhelemd and I basically ended up crying right infront of her lol. Should I just do my test anyways and if I fail then so be it? I just want to completely give up at the moment

My post a couple of weeks ago gained a lot of traction due to the nature of my fail. If you commented I just want to say thank you for all the words of encouragement! I didn’t let it put me off, I spent A LOT of time finding an earlier test and this morning I passed with 0 minors! I couldn’t believe it. I’m so happy. I know passing a driving test not that much of a milestone to most but today is genuinely one of the best days of my life.

I failed for the first time month ago and managed to pass this time, I was so nervous for the first time and had lots of mistakes.

But for the second time, slept early, cut off coffee in the morning, Rescue Remedy, had breakfast. It helped me a lot. I still got nervous, but it was not so high like the first time.

https://preview.redd.it/5b73l4w1ztth1.png?width=491&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6e672fefc477b4b3ab39d12e2f5f136f0ec2f84

https://preview.redd.it/2sjsqswqytth1.png?width=527&format=png&auto=webp&s=186927c08ff86e34669f78b1a3d2b54aa23b8054

Good luck for anyone, keep trying!