Penzance Driving Test Centre
The Penzance driving test centre is located in Penzance, England. 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
778 passed, 215 failed, 993 total
How Penzance compares
Penzance performs well above the UK average. Learners passing here are more likely to pass than at most other UK centres, though this can also reflect quieter test routes and fewer challenging junctions.
Where Penzance ranks among 194 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 Penzance have remained broadly stable through recent reporting periods. Booking is comparatively quick: learners booking at Penzance typically wait around 7 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
Tests offered at Penzance
- Motorcycle Module 2
For other test types at this location, search the DVSA centre finder.
Accessibility & facilities
Parking, toilets, and disabled-access details vary by centre. Check the official DVSA find a driving test centre tool, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Where do you actually take your motorcycle module 2 test if you book Penzance? You start in Penzance, Cornwall, and the examiner takes you through whatever mix of urban and outlying roads sits within a roughly twenty-minute drive of the centre. 993 tests across 2012-13-2019-20. That's a small sample, and the single-period rates you'll see in the chart can swing wildly without much underlying change. The multi-year roll-up is the only stable read.
How does Penzance compare nationally? 78.3% pass rate, #41 of 194 motorcycle module 2 centres in the DVSA network, 29.6 points clear of the UK average of 48.7%. The top quarter of the country, in other words. For Penzance the DVSA suppresses first-attempt figures in DRT122C. Smaller centres get rolled up; this is one of them. The overall pass rate above is the only published figure.
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 Penzance
- Above-average pass rate at Penzance doesn't mean above-average ease. The fundamentals examiners mark are the same nationally: junctions, mirrors, observation, signal timing. A 65%+ pass rate means more candidates clear those, not that the bar is lower.
- With 993 tests on record at Penzance, the per-quarter pass rates are noisy. The trend chart on this page is more informative than any specific number from a specific period.
- Practising the test routes is the single thing that most reliably moves a candidate's pass odds. Most ADI instructors in Penzance will have a working knowledge of which routes Penzance uses.
- Book through the official DVSA service (gov.uk/book-driving-test). Third-party "fast-track" sites charge a premium for the same booking; the DVSA's own cancellation feed is free.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Penzance
Ten minutes early is the right target at Penzance. Parking differs between DVSA centres, so it pays to scout the route on the DVSA centre finder the day before. Demand sits at low with a modelled wait of about 7 weeks, which generally leaves more room to choose a date. 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.
Expect about 40 minutes once you set off, to the same national DVSA script. It opens with an eyesight check at 20 metres and one show-me plus one tell-me question, after which the examiner rides along for the drive. Around 20 minutes of that is independent driving, guided either by a sat nav the examiner provides or by road signs to a named destination, with one of four set manoeuvres and a one-in-three chance of an emergency stop. The drive covers the local mix of road types within roughly a twenty-minute radius of the centre. Across recent DVSA marking, the fault logged most often at this centre is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
The result is given immediately when you get back. Whatever the outcome, the examiner reads through the marked faults and prints your DL25 feedback form; pass and they take the provisional licence to trigger your full one by post. The threshold is the national one, 15 driving faults at most and zero serious or dangerous, which 78.3% of Penzance's candidates reach right now.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Penzance?
Is Penzance an easy or hard test centre?
How does Penzance compare to the UK average?
How many tests are taken at Penzance each year?
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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: 2019-20.