Anyone due to take their first driving test in the new format, a bit of advice.
- make sure you can handle roundabouts and multi-lane junctions competently when following satnav instructions
- make sure you can do it on roundabouts and junctions you may not have driven on before
The satnav gives instructions differently from the verbal instructions your instructor or an examiner might have previously given. Whereas you might previously have been asked to “turn right, third exit, follow the signs towards Nottingham [or whatever], the satnav will say something like “go around the roundabout, third exit, A52 [or whatever]”.
Although the examiner might give some limited guidance in some situations, you need to be able to use the satnav display and any road signs to work out where you want to go. In a way, you have got to construct the old-style instruction in your head from the new-style one.
All the manoeuvres (edit: a reader points out that the reverse bay park is still done only at the test centre) can now be done away from the test centre, and that means the test can travel further before having to head back. Some of the routes are MUCH longer than any of the ones from pre-December 2016. Consequently, if your instructor doesn’t know about them, you may not have driven on many of the roads and roundabouts.
The new test is actually easier than the old one if you look at it objectively. However, the details above mean that SOME people will inevitably find it harder.
I’m going to do another article about the satnav, and I’ll add a link to it on this one once I’ve written it. Here it is.