By Shola Ogunlokun

On Monday the 4th of October 2010, the Driving Standards Agency (the government appointed body responsible for conducting driving tests in the UK) introduced a 10 minute independent element to all practical tests taken in Great Britain. Following the good feedback received from both candidates and instructors on this new change, and to further enhance the ‘independence’ of candidates in making safety decisions as new drivers, the DSA will be making some changes to the Driving theory test in 2011 and 2012.

The current UK driving theory test is a computer based multiple choice system, and if you are studying for the theory test in the UK, you can either buy books, CD or DVDs or visit online websites where you can practice using the actual question bank that you might get on the day of your test. The DSA has said that this is no longer a good way of testing candidate’s knowledge of the highway code and the theory needed to be a safe driver since it is possible to memorise the answers to questions without fully understanding the underlying principles, so there will be a 2 step change over 2011 and 2012. The DSA effectively will be withdrawing the act of publishing the questions and answers that are used on the actual theory test.

In September 2011 the DSA will publish new training materials for the theory test using typical questions similar to what a candidate might get, but none of the actual questions or their corresponding answers will be made available to the public. This change will coincide with the introduction of more challenging case study questions to the theory test. If you plan to take the theory test after the 1st of January 2012 then you should be using these new study materials.

The major change occurs on the 1st of January 2012 when a new theory test will be introduced in the UK, this will still be computer based, but none of the questions and the presented answers would have been available to the public, so candidates would need to have thoroughly studied the highway code and used the new study materials that were first published in September 2011 to prepare if they want to have a good chance of passing.

The DSA is planning that this new change will complement independent driving on the test, and make safer drivers from the test candidates who will have demonstrated a better understanding of both the theory underlying the practical driving skills required to pass the current UK driving test.