Bishops Stortford Driving Test Centre
Bishops Stortford in Hockerill records a 50.4% pass rate against a UK average of 48.7%, with a median wait of 10.4 weeks. This page covers the multi-year trend, the first-time and gender pass rates, and a like-for-like comparison with other centres.
DVSA data last updated September 2026
Bishops Stortford sits in the bottom half of car pass rates nationally (Bottom 49%, rank #167 of 323). The strongest car alternative nearby is Enfield (Innova Business Park), about 15.7 miles away.
Pass vs fail at a glance
All-time 53.4K passed, 61.0K failed, 114.5K total
How Bishops Stortford compares
The 1.7-point edge at Bishops Stortford (ranked 167 of 323 in its category) is real but small; local route familiarity moves your odds more than the venue does.
Where Bishops Stortford ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
The direction of travel here is upward: Bishops Stortford has added 5.7 points since 2017-18, from 44.7% to 50.4%, with its strongest year at 50.6% in 2022-23.
Pass rate by demographic
Waiting time at Bishops Stortford
The headline figure for reaching 10% availability is 24 weeks, but the typical (median) learner who took their test at Bishops Stortford in August 2026 had waited 10.4 weeks from booking to test day.
Official DVSA data, August 2026. The median is the time between booking and taking the test; for live availability use the DVSA booking service.
Centre details
Address
Source: DVSA find a driving test centre (Open Government Licence v3.0), captured 2026-05-12.
Tests offered at Bishops Stortford
- car
- ADI part 3
Accessibility & facilities
Parking and toilet details aren't included in DVSA's published feed. For the current on-site facilities, check the DVSA find a driving test centre tool with postcode CM23 3JQ, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Bishops Stortford sits in Hockerill, Hertfordshire, just inside the CM23 2TD postcode. It's a DVSA-run car test centre, and the routes from here work outward into the streets and arterial roads that learners from Hockerill tend to know already. By volume, Bishops Stortford is at the upper end of the DVSA's network. With 114.5K tests across 2017-18-2024-25, the figures on this page are about as statistically settled as DVSA data gets.
50.4% at Bishops Stortford, against a UK car average of 48.7%. That puts the centre 1.7 points above the national figure and ranks it #167 of 323 car centres in the DVSA's network. The first-time pass figure here is 49.4%, which lines up almost exactly with the UK average of 49%. If you're a first-timer, the centre is neither lucky nor unlucky ground, it's average.
All figures shown are aggregated from the DVSA quarterly statistical release covering the most recent reporting periods available. Pass-rate calculations exclude tests cancelled by the candidate or examiner. Sample sizes and methodology are described in the source attribution at the foot of this page.
What learners should know about Bishops Stortford
- Centre difficulty is roughly average at Bishops Stortford. The same fault categories that fail candidates nationally (junctions, mirrors, observation) are what fail candidates here, in similar proportions.
- Bishops Stortford is a high-volume centre. Booking pressure is real, check the DVSA booking service daily for earlier slots rather than relying on the headline available date.
- If you can, take at least one lesson with an instructor who specifically works the Bishops Stortford area. Local instructors know which nearby junctions are demanding and will drill them.
- The only legitimate booking route is gov.uk. Anything calling itself a "test booking concierge" is reselling the same slots at a markup, the slots aren't theirs to control.
Whether you pass at Bishops Stortford is not decided by the centre. It is decided by the 15 things an examiner can mark you on, and control, steering is one of the ones that ends attempts early.
A fair amount of what goes wrong is settled before the engine starts: the documents, the car, the 2 vehicle safety questions and whichever habit you have not drilled, control, steering being a common one. Working through it as a list beats remembering it in the car park.
Look further ahead. Practise pull-push on a quiet residential loop with a continuous commentary. never steer while stationary; always inch forward first. Free to use, no sign up. Everything for the day itself is on the practical test hub.
Other test centres nearby
You cannot book a practical test at Bishops Stortford until you hold a theory pass, and it has to still be valid on the day you sit it. Nationally 44.8% of candidates pass the theory.
Sign shapes and colours, road markings and what each one tells you to do. All 14 DVSA topics are free to practise, with no sign up. See the theory pass rate by centre or the full practice hub.
On the day at Bishops Stortford
Give yourself ten minutes in hand when you head to Bishops Stortford, and look up where to park beforehand, facilities differ from one DVSA site to the next. The DVSA centre finder (postcode CM23 2TD) shows the exact location. This is a very high-demand centre, modelled at roughly 18 to 22 weeks to a slot, so book as far ahead as you can and keep an eye on cancellations. You must have your provisional photocard licence on you, plus a car with L plates and a working interior mirror for the examiner. If Loughton (London) is fully booked, Bishops Stortford is the next closest centre, roughly 16 miles away.
Once underway the test takes around 40 minutes and is the same wherever you sit it. The examiner verifies your eyesight at 20 metres, puts one tell-me question to you, then accompanies the drive and asks one show-me question while you are driving. About 20 minutes is independent driving, sat nav or road signs to a named destination, with one of the set manoeuvres and an emergency stop on roughly one test in seven. The drive works through whatever mix of urban and outlying roads sits within about a twenty-minute radius, and at a centre this busy that usually means heavier traffic to read. Across DVSA marking nationally, the fault recorded most often on car tests is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
There is no wait for the verdict, the examiner delivers it at the centre. They go over each fault recorded, hand you the DL25 feedback form, and on a pass retain your provisional licence so the full version arrives by post. To pass you need no more than 15 driving faults and not a single serious or dangerous one; 50.4% of candidates at Bishops Stortford currently clear that.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Bishops Stortford?
Is Bishops Stortford an easy or hard test centre?
How does Bishops Stortford compare to the UK average?
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Data: DVSA quarterly statistical release, released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRates.uk aggregates DVSA centre-level totals across reporting periods.
DVSA data period: 2024-25.