Manoeuvres

There are a number of key manoeuvres that you can be testing on during your practice driving test. Some manoeuvres are less likely to be part of a test, or may not be included at all, but it's common for instructors to teach you these as many have particular car movements that are useful to know.

Manoeuvres include reversing straight, reversing left and right – typically, around a corner – parking into a bay, parallel parking and Pulling up on the right-hand side of a road.

Straight Reverse

Reversing is a common technique, often used as part of a three-point turn or when parallel parking. It involves the use of your mirrors and turning to look through your rear window. The complexity comes from limited visibility and the unfamiliar movement when turning the steering wheel as you move in the opposite direction.

How to Practice:

Cul de sacs, quiet streets, industrial parks and quiet areas of shopping centre car parks are good spots to get used to the new movement, aiming to keep the vehicle parallel with the side of the road in your mirrors.

Left Reverse

The left reverse involves reversing the vehicle left around a corner. Reversing around a corner is no longer part of the practical test, but is a complex, multi-staged manoeuvre that is good to learn for those rare cases where it can be useful to you.

How to Practice:

Quiet residential areas are perfect, as there are often many junctions where you can take the time to pull up and prepare before committing to the reverse.

Right Reverse

Reversing the vehicle right around a corner is basically the same challenge as the left reverse, but in this case your mirror is on your side of the vehicle, rather than using the passenger side mirror.

How to Practice:

Continue to use residential areas that have low traffic volumes. Any reverse should use slow and deliberate movements, so you want to avoid feeling rushed.

Parking in a Bay

Parking in a bay is often done at the start or end of your driving test, performing in the test centre car park. You'll be looking to show you can accurately park within the parking bay lanes, keep a steady speed and smooth movements, as well as ensuring you are fully aware of any surrounding hazards by using your mirrors and looking around in blind spots.

How to Practice:

Empty areas of retail park car parks are great places to practice, as you'll often find many spaces side by side where there are no cars parked. This lets you worry less about your accuracy as you start learning to park in bays.

Parallel Parking

Parallel parking is a great skill to possess when you are out on the road yourself after passing your test, especially if you commute by car to work or use a vehicle as part of your job. It allows yous to make use of open spaces between other vehicles, that would be otherwise a pain to park in, if driving in forward.

How to Practice:

Once your instructor thinks you're ready, you can drive around residential areas looking for reasonable spaces between two parked vehicles. Alternatively, you can get two cones and place them in a quiet area of a car park, and use those as your reference for other vehicles.

Pull up on the right and reverse

This is the latest addition to the practical driving test. It's also one of the more controversial techniques, as many instructors regard it as a fairly dangerous manoeuvre, as reported by The Telegraph. The DVSA have stated, though, that manoeuvres like this prepare drivers for real world situations.

The manoeuvre involves the driver crossing traffic on the right hand side of the road, to stop by the curbside, reverse approximately two car lengths parallel with the pavement, then moving off to rejoin traffic.

As you can probably already imagine, this is a complex skill with many moving parts, requiring constant checking of mirrors and blind spots at every stage and signaling before moving.

How to Practice:

Start by using quiet streets where there is less or no oncoming traffic and build up confidence before trying to manoeuvre with vehicles moving in the opposite direction. Let your instructor guide you on this one.