Bury St Edmunds Driving Test Centre
Bury St Edmunds in Bury St Edmunds, England has a current pass rate of 45.7%, 3 points below the UK average of 48.7%. This page breaks down the multi-year trend, the first-time and gender pass rates, the waiting time and how it compares with the rest of the UK, all from the DVSA quarterly data.
DVSA data last updated September 2026
Bury St Edmunds sits in the bottom quarter of car pass rates nationally (Bottom 20%, rank #260 of 323). The strongest car alternative nearby is Ipswich, about 22.7 miles away.
Pass vs fail at a glance
All-time 42.2K passed, 55.3K failed, 97.6K total
How Bury St Edmunds compares
Bury St Edmunds sits 3 points under the national average, ranked 260 of 323 in its category. Routes here are likely more demanding than at rural centres; extra time on the local roads pays back directly.
Where Bury St Edmunds ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Year-to-year volatility is the story at Bury St Edmunds: 14.9 points separate 2020-21 (53.1%) from 2019-20 (38.2%), even though the endpoints nearly match.
Pass rate by demographic
Waiting time at Bury St Edmunds
The headline figure for reaching 10% availability is 23.4 weeks, but the typical (median) learner who took their test at Bury St Edmunds in August 2026 had waited 11.1 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 Bury St Edmunds
- Car
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 IP33 1TJ, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Bury St Edmunds is the DVSA car test centre in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Examiners drive a mix of the roads immediately surrounding the centre; the DVSA does not publish its test routes. 97.6K tests over 2017-18-2024-25. That's enough volume that the headline pass rate here moves slowly, a single bad quarter shifts it by a fraction of a percentage point rather than visibly.
Rank: #260 of 323. Pass rate: 45.7%. UK average: 48.7%. That's a bottom quartile centre by the DVSA's own published figures. First-attempt pass rate at Bury St Edmunds: 45.2%, against 49% nationally. That's 3.8 points below the UK average. Many candidates need a second go, and local-road familiarity is one of the most consistent things that improves the second attempt.
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 Bury St Edmunds
- Centre difficulty is roughly average at Bury St Edmunds. The same fault categories that fail candidates nationally (junctions, mirrors, observation) are what fail candidates here, in similar proportions.
- Volume at Bury St Edmunds is among the highest in the network. Don't take the first available date on faith, refreshing the DVSA booking page across a few days regularly turns up cancellations.
- Ask any instructor working Bury St Edmunds about the centre's "usual fails", they'll have two or three specific junctions or manoeuvres in mind. Practise those until they're automatic before your date.
- Don't pay third-party sites for booking access at Bury St Edmunds. Use gov.uk/book-driving-test directly; cancellations show up on the same booking flow.
Whether you pass at Bury St Edmunds is not decided by the centre. It is decided by the 15 things an examiner can mark you on, and mirrors, change direction is one of the ones that ends attempts early.
DVSA publishes all 21 vehicle safety questions in advance, 14 tell me and 7 show me. You get 2 of them on the day, one at the roadside and one while you are driving. Get one wrong or both wrong and it counts as one driving fault, not two.
Verbalise MSM out loud on every lane change for two full lessons. Slow down the sequence so each step is deliberate, then speed it back up while keeping the order. 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 Bury St Edmunds 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.
Speed limits, parking, junctions, roundabouts and right of way. 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 Bury St Edmunds
Plan to arrive at Bury St Edmunds about ten minutes before your slot. Parking varies between DVSA centres, so check the route and the surrounding streets on the DVSA centre finder a day or two ahead. With demand running very high here and waits near 18 to 22 weeks, it is worth holding any earlier cancellation slot you are offered. Bring your provisional photocard licence; the examiner will not start without it, and you will need a roadworthy car with L plates and a working interior mirror. If West Wickham (London) is fully booked, Bury St Edmunds is the next closest centre, roughly 18 miles away.
The test runs for around 40 minutes and follows the same DVSA format used at every centre. The examiner checks your eyesight at 20 metres, asks you a tell-me safety question, then sits in for the drive, with one show-me question while you are driving. About 20 minutes of it is independent driving, either following a sat nav the examiner sets up or following road signs to a named place. You will do one of four set manoeuvres, and roughly one in seven candidates is asked to perform an emergency stop. 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.
You find out there and then, back at Bury St Edmunds. The examiner runs through the faults on the DL25 feedback form and, on a pass, keeps your provisional licence so a full licence follows in the post. Clearing the test means staying under 16 driving faults, that is 15 or fewer, with no serious or dangerous fault; 45.7% of candidates here manage it on the current marking.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Bury St Edmunds?
Is Bury St Edmunds an easy or hard test centre?
How does Bury St Edmunds 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.