Northampton Driving Test Centre
At Northampton, 50.4% of candidates pass, one of the 323 test centres we rank from the DVSA data. Below you will find the full pass-rate history, the demographic split, the official DVSA waiting time and a comparison with the nearest centres.
DVSA data last updated September 2026
Northampton sits in the bottom half of car pass rates nationally (Bottom 49%, rank #166 of 323). The strongest car alternative nearby is Wellingborough, about 10.0 miles away.
Pass vs fail at a glance
All-time 74.6K passed, 79.3K failed, 153.9K total
How Northampton compares
The 1.7-point edge at Northampton (ranked 166 of 323 in its category) is real but small; local route familiarity moves your odds more than the venue does.
Where Northampton ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Northampton ends the series about where it started, yet the spread between 2017-18 (51.2%) and 2020-21 (38.5%) runs to 12.7 points; read a single year here with caution.
Pass rate by demographic
Waiting time at Northampton
The headline figure for reaching 10% availability is 24 weeks, but the typical (median) learner who took their test at Northampton in August 2026 had waited 7.9 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 Northampton
- car
- ADI part 2
- 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 NN5 7QA, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Northampton: a DVSA car test centre in Northampton, West Northamptonshire. Local routes, local traffic patterns, no national standard for what "harder" or "easier" looks like beyond what the numbers below show. By volume, Northampton is at the upper end of the DVSA's network. With 153.9K tests across 2017-18-2024-25, the figures on this page are about as statistically settled as DVSA data gets.
The lower half of the UK by pass rate: Northampton ranks #166 of 323 car centres at 50.4%, 1.7 points above the national figure of 48.7%. First-attempt pass rate: 50.8%, against the UK figure of 49%. Effectively level, the gap between candidates who pass first time at Northampton and those who pass first time nationally is preparation, not the centre.
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 Northampton
- Centre difficulty is roughly average at Northampton. The same fault categories that fail candidates nationally (junctions, mirrors, observation) are what fail candidates here, in similar proportions.
- Northampton 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.
- Practising the roads around the centre is the preparation that most reliably pays off. Most ADI instructors in Northampton will know the road types and junctions learners commonly meet near the centre.
- 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 Northampton 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.
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.
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 Northampton 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.
Observation, anticipation, concentration and avoiding distractions at the wheel. 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 Northampton
Arrive at Northampton 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 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 Wellingborough is fully booked, Northampton is the next closest centre, roughly 10 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 Northampton. 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; 50.4% of candidates here manage it on the current marking.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Northampton?
Is Northampton an easy or hard test centre?
How does Northampton compare to the UK average?
How many driving tests does Northampton record?
Which driving test centres are near Northampton?
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How long is the wait for a driving test at Northampton?
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.