Buxton Driving Test Centre
Buxton in Buxton currently passes 57% of tests, 8.3 points above the UK average of 48.7%. The sections below cover the year-by-year trend, who passes most often, how long learners wait, and how it stacks up against neighbouring centres.
DVSA data last updated September 2026
Buxton sits in the top half of car pass rates nationally (Top 26%, rank #84 of 323). No nearby car centre currently posts a higher pass rate.
Pass vs fail at a glance
All-time 39.2K passed, 34.3K failed, 73.4K total
How Buxton compares
The 8.3-point advantage at Buxton (ranked 84 of 323 in its category) is worth having but not decisive; a well-prepared candidate passes at either kind of centre.
Where Buxton ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Buxton has climbed 7.4 points across the series, 49.6% in 2017-18 to 57% now; the weakest year on record was 46.4% in 2021-22.
Pass rate by demographic
Waiting time at Buxton
The headline figure for reaching 10% availability is 24 weeks, but the typical (median) learner who took their test at Buxton in August 2026 had waited 15 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 Buxton
- 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 SK17 9DS, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Of the DVSA car centres across England, Buxton is the one covering Buxton, East Midlands and the surrounding SK17 6BZ area. The routes are built around the roads the centre's examiners can reach inside the test's time budget. If you're cross-checking this pass rate against other sources, the sample size matters. 73.4K tests over 2017-18-2024-25 is large enough that any rounding you see between sites is just rounding, not disagreement on the underlying data.
If you've been told Buxton is "an easy centre" or "a hard one", the data won't fully back that. 57% is 8.3 points clear of the UK car average of 48.7%, which is rank #84 out of 323. The DVSA's first-attempt figure for Buxton sits at 58%, 9 points clear of the 49% UK average. The gap is wide enough to matter when you're deciding which local centre to book.
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 Buxton
- Buxton passes higher than the UK average, but the marking sheet is identical to every other DVSA centre. The bias is in the local road mix (less traffic, simpler junction geometry); the standard is national.
- 58% of first-timers pass at Buxton, so the centre is on the forgiving side. If your instructor is signing you off as test-ready, your own preparation matters far more than the venue.
- Volume at Buxton 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.
- Practising the roads around the centre is the preparation that most reliably pays off. Most ADI instructors in Buxton will know the road types and junctions learners commonly meet near the centre.
- If you missed the earlier slots at Buxton, cancellations appear on the official DVSA booking service throughout the day. Check at off-peak times (early morning, late evening) for the best chance of catching one.
Whether you pass at Buxton is not decided by the centre. It is decided by the 15 things an examiner can mark you on, and junctions, observation 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.
Full head turn at every junction. Hold the look until you have processed both directions. Time the look so it gives usable information for the move you are about to make. 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 Buxton 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.
Lane discipline, speed limits, the hard shoulder and smart-motorway signals. 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 Buxton
Arrive at Buxton with about ten minutes to spare and know your parking options in advance, they vary site to site across the DVSA network. The DVSA centre finder (postcode SK17 6BZ) maps the centre and its surroundings. With high demand and waits near 16 to 20 weeks, take any earlier slot the booking service offers rather than holding out. Don't set off without your provisional photocard licence; the test cannot start without it, and your car needs L plates and a working interior mirror. If Macclesfield is fully booked, Buxton is the next closest centre, roughly 9 miles away.
Plan for a drive of roughly 40 minutes, identical in structure to every other DVSA centre. First comes the 20-metre eyesight check and a tell-me vehicle-safety question, then the examiner joins you for the road section, with one show-me question while you drive. About 20 minutes is independent driving by sat nav or by following signs to a named target, you tackle one of four set manoeuvres, and around one in seven candidates get 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 Buxton. 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; 57% of candidates here manage it on the current marking.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Buxton?
Is Buxton an easy or hard test centre?
How does Buxton compare to the UK average?
How many driving tests does Buxton record?
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How long is the wait for a driving test at Buxton?
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.