Loughborough Driving Test Centre
The Loughborough driving test centre is located in Station Boulevard, England (LE11 1FJ). Below are the official pass-rate statistics, multi-year trend, demographic breakdown, and how this centre compares against the UK average and its neighbours, all drawn from the DVSA quarterly statistical release.
Pass vs fail at a glance
40.1K passed, 42.9K failed, 83.0K total
How Loughborough compares
Loughborough has a slightly tougher pass rate than the UK average. Routes here may be more demanding than rural centres.
Where Loughborough ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Most common faults at this centre
The fault categories most frequently recorded against learners on test. Knowing them lets you target practice on the things examiners are most likely to penalise.
- 1Junctions - observation10
- 2Mirrors - change direction9
- 3Move off - safely8
- 4Junctions - turning right7
- 5Response to signs - traffic lights6
Per-centre fault breakdowns are derived from the DVSA national fault distribution applied to centre-level test outcomes.
Pass rate by demographic
Estimated wait time and demand
Wait times at Loughborough have been lengthening as demand outpaces examiner capacity. Booking requires patience: learners booking at Loughborough typically wait around 20 weeks from booking to test day.
Wait time is estimated from regional demand patterns reported in the National Audit Office investigation into car driving test waiting times (Dec 2024) and the DVSA Despatch blog updates, combined with this centre's test volume. Real availability fluctuates with examiner staffing and cancellations, always check the official DVSA booking service for live slots.
Centre details
Address
Source: DVSA find a driving test centre (Open Government Licence v3.0), captured 2026-05-12.
Tests offered at Loughborough
- 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 LE11 1JP, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
If you've got a test booked at LE11 1FJ, that's Loughborough in Station Boulevard, Leicestershire. Examiners use a small set of fixed routes built around the roads immediately surrounding the centre. Loughborough runs at high cadence: 83.0K tests across 2017-18-2024-25 put it among the busier DVSA centres in the country. The headline numbers carry weight because the sample carries weight.
Rank: #283 of 323. Pass rate: 43.7%. UK average: 48.7%. That's a bottom quartile centre by the DVSA's own published figures. First-attempt figure: 43.6%. UK first-attempt average: 49%. Loughborough runs 5.4 points behind, candidates who succeed here on the first try are usually the ones who've driven the local routes specifically.
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 Loughborough
- Loughborough is in the lower tier of pass rates nationally. That isn't an indictment of the examiners, it reflects road layout, traffic density, and route mix. Prepare specifically for the centre, not generically.
- Volume at Loughborough 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.
- If you can, take at least one lesson with an instructor who specifically works the Loughborough routes. Local instructors know which junctions are the centre's hardest and will drill them.
- Don't pay third-party sites for booking access at Loughborough. Use gov.uk/book-driving-test directly; cancellations show up on the same booking flow.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Loughborough
Ten minutes early is the right target at Loughborough. Parking differs between DVSA centres, so it pays to scout the route on the DVSA centre finder (postcode LE11 1FJ) the day before. This centre sees very high demand, modelled at roughly 20 weeks to a slot; booking well ahead and watching for cancellations both help. Bring the provisional photocard licence, the examiner checks for it first, and make sure your car is roadworthy with L plates and a working interior mirror. If Nottingham (Chilwell) is fully booked, Loughborough is the next closest centre, roughly 9 miles away.
The practical lasts about 40 minutes and uses the standard DVSA format nationwide. After an eyesight check at 20 metres and one show-me and one tell-me question, the examiner sits in for the drive. Roughly 20 minutes of that is independent driving, either following a sat nav set by the examiner or following road signs, and you will complete one of four set manoeuvres; about one in three tests includes 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 recent DVSA marking, the fault logged most often at this centre is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
You will know the result before you leave Loughborough. The examiner explains the faults marked on your DL25 feedback form and, if you have passed, takes the provisional licence so a full one can be posted out. The pass standard is fixed nationally, 15 driving faults maximum and zero serious or dangerous faults, and 43.7% of candidates here meet it under current DVSA marking.
Frequently asked questions
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Is Loughborough an easy or hard test centre?
How does Loughborough 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.
Edited by Vikas. DVSA data period: 2024-25.