Driving examiners are only allowed to pass a certain number of pupils per week.

This is just not true. Perhaps this myth originates with those embarrassed by failure trying to come up with a convincing reason for family and friends. If you are up to driving test standard you will pass. It's not meant to be easy, and the fact is that over 50% of candidates are just not up to the standard required. Driving examiners don't fail you: you fail yourself.

Driving examiners enjoy failing learner drivers.

Examiners are professionals: their personal feelings do not enter into their assessment of you. An unusual number of passes or failures would be investigated. It's easier for an examiner to give good news rather than bad, and a pass means less paperwork for them.

There's an examiner who has tested me at the same test centre several times and failed me because he does not like me.

It would be easy to blame a personality clash for failure, but again, driving examiners are professionals. Personal feelings or prejudices are irrelevant. An examiner whose work record showed an inclination to fail, for example women or a particular ethnic group, would soon be spotted. We would all like to blame someone else for our mistakes. The only way you will eventually pass is if you take responsibility for your performance and work hard to correct your faults.

Delaying the learning and taking the test until you are older.

There's no time to lose: younger candidates outperform their seniors in passing the test. The DSA says a pupil needs 2 hours driving tuition for every year of life.

My father tells me he took only 8 hours of driving tuition and passed first time.

This may have been possible in the dim & distant past. The test has grown to match the changing conditions on the roads. There is an ever larger number of cars, more complicated traffic conditions and signs and routes to follow. There is now also the theory test, reverse parking manoeuvres and the show and tell section. The Driving Standards Agency estimates that a new learner driver needs a minimum of 45 hours professional training with a further 22 hours of private practice.

If you stall the car, you will fail.

Stalling happens. If it happens in a dangerous situation, say, on a roundabout, you could be in trouble. If it happens on a normal stretch of road, the important thing is how you deal with it.

Driving Schools make you take more lessons than you really need.

It is not in any schools best interests to have lots of learners taking lesson after lesson with no end result. We want our former pupils to spread the word about their success! We give you advice, and if you want an independent rough guide: you are ready to take your test if you can drive for an hour without the verbal aid or assistance of your instructor. The DSA says that most people fail simply because they take the test before they are ready.

The minimum age for driving is going up to 18.

It is true that recently a government task force recommended that learning should begin at 17 and the driving test taken at 18. However, for the age to change, it would require an Act of Parliament, which takes at least 2-3 years to become law. So, no need to worry about this for a while.