What's a minor fault on your Driving Test? We explain more.

Ah Ha!

There is no such thing as a major fault in how your driving test is scored.

Most instructors will have a conversation with a pupil where the question pops up, 'would that be a major?' What all learners need to understand is that there are 3 different levels of mistake scored when doing your test.

They are:

• Minor Faults

• Serious Faults

• Dangerous Faults

The way it works is dead simple. Avoid Serious and Dangerous Faults. One of either and that's you failed. These are faults of a nature that you put yourself or another road users in an unsafe position with the behaviour you have shown.

It's the Minor Faults that provide the area in which you can work. You have variations on this, and they are as follows:

More than 15 Minor Faults will turn into a Serious Fault and a FAIL.

An Habitual Fault is a little more nuanced. This relates to when the driver makes enough faults of the same type repeatedly and this can be as low as 3 or 4 of the same mistakes. An Habitual Fault can then change to a Serious Fault and a Fail.

There's one last thing to explain too and that is in relation to Dangerous Faults and what constitutes one.

To explain, it's if your examiner takes control of the car for the safety of you, the car, themselves or other road users. Also, if they give you a verbal command or instruction to alter your course of action that would constitute grounds for making a serious fault.

Glad we cleared that up and hope that demystifies the subject for you or your learner driver.