On the day of the test

You should arrive at your test centre at least 20 minutes before the time of your test. Park your car neatly and legally in a marked bay, near the entrance door (Rathgar & Tallaght),in the public car park at Churchtown, or in the parking spaces near the Driving Test Centre sign in Deansgrange It is usual to reverse park so that you are ready to drive forwards when you begin your test.

You should go into the Test Centre waiting room at least 10 minutes before your appointment time, sit down and wait to be called. Make certain you have your driving license and appointment letter with you.

The Driver Tester will:

• Take you into the office and seat you at a desk
• Check your Provisional licence — it must be valid, in your name and for the correct category of vehicle ('B' for a car)
• Ask if your car is roadworthy and that you are insured to drive it — you will be asked to sign a form to this effect
• Ask you some questions on the Rules of the Road and get you to identify some road signs — email for crib sheet
• At your car ask you to explain how you would perform 3 technical checks  - See 'Technical Checks Page'
• Check your Insurance, Tax & NCT (if applicable) discs
• Ensure that you have legal L-plates displayed at the front and rear
      ( A legal 'L' plate is defined as "a rectangular plate or sign bearing the letter ‘L’ not less than fifteen centimetres high in red on a white ground and a border of at least 2 centimetres. i.e. the 'L' plates with all the white cut away are NOT legal)
• Make sure that your stop lights and indicator lights work correctly
• Ask you to demonstrate some secondary controls inside the car  -  e-mail for information
• Ask you to make sure your door is closed properly
• Ask that you check that your seat belt is working properly (tug it until it locks)
• Advise you to follow the road unless you are asked to do something else

You will then be asked to drive off. Your practical test will require you to drive about 5 miles on a variety of roads. You will be required to:

• Drive safely, showing confident, smooth and safe use of all controls
• Perform a hill start
• Complete a turn in the road (Turn your car around to face the opposite direction using forward and reverse gears / 3-point turn)
• Reverse around a corner
• Correctly demonstrate some hand signals — look at these in the 'Rules of the Road'
• Negotiate junctions and crossroads correctly
• Understand traffic lights and use them correctly
• Drive confidently and safely
• Demonstrate that you have a good understanding of the Rules of the Road, and abide by them in your driving

Your driving will be assessed on a number of points including:

• road positioning
• overtaking and passing other vehicles and objects
• anticipation and awareness
• Correctly dealing with 'Hazards'
• use of mirrors and signals
• observation
• progress
• speed
• compliance with traffic lights, road signs and markings
• correct use of the vehicle controls (accelerator, clutch, gears, brakes and steering)
• correct use of secondary controls such as wipers, demisters, etc.

Recent enhancements to the test mean that you should ensure that:

• you must know how to operate the secondary controls
• you should know how to perform some basic technical checks to your vehicle

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