Wick Driving Test Centre
Wick in Wick records a 56.9% pass rate against a UK average of 48.7%, with a median wait of 11.4 weeks. This page covers the multi-year trend, the first-time and gender pass rates, and a like-for-like comparison with other centres.
DVSA data last updated September 2026
Wick sits in the top half of car pass rates nationally (Top 26%, rank #85 of 323). The strongest car alternative nearby is Golspie, about 45.7 miles away.
Pass vs fail at a glance
All-time 2.0K passed, 1.6K failed, 3.6K total
How Wick compares
Wick runs 8.2 points ahead of the national average, ranked 85 of 323 in its category. Margins in this range usually track route difficulty: fewer multi-lane roundabouts and less dense traffic.
Where Wick ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
The longer arc at Wick points down: 58.4% in 2017-18 against 53.8% now, a 4.6-point slide, though 2019-20 showed what the routes allow at 62.1%.
Pass rate by demographic
Waiting time at Wick
The headline figure for reaching 10% availability is 17.4 weeks, but the typical (median) learner who took their test at Wick in August 2026 had waited 11.4 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 Wick
- car
- motorcycle module 1 (off-road)
- motorcycle module 2 (on-road)
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 KW1 4QS, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Wick: a DVSA car test centre in Wick, Highland. Local routes, local traffic patterns, no national standard for what "harder" or "easier" looks like beyond what the numbers below show. Volume here sits at 3.6K over 2017-18-2024-25. That's the territory where a noisy quarter can shift the rate by two or three percentage points, so read the trend chart in context rather than reacting to any single bar.
The upper half of the UK by pass rate: Wick ranks #85 of 323 car centres at 56.9%, 8.2 points clear of the national figure of 48.7%. First-time pass rate: 56.6%. UK average: 49%. Wick is 7.6 points to the good on first attempts, a meaningful gap, not a rounding artefact.
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 Wick
- Wick 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.
- 56.6% of first-timers pass at Wick, 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.
- Practising the roads around the centre is the preparation that most reliably pays off. Most ADI instructors in Wick 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 Wick is not decided by the centre. It is decided by the 15 things an examiner can mark you on, and response, traffic signs is one of the ones that ends attempts early.
Take response, traffic signs. Pre-test route familiarity not built. Eyes fixed too close in. Sign-blindness from over-focusing on the road surface. Most of the argument about what is a minor and what is a serious comes down to cases like that one, so it is worth knowing which side of the line yours falls on before an examiner decides it for you.
Drive your local test routes specifically scanning for signs. Have the instructor cover unusual signs on country roads (national speed limit on single carriageway = 60 mph, not 70). 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 Wick 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.
What to do at the scene, first aid basics and breakdown procedure. 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 Wick
Arrive at Wick 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 KW1 4NB) maps the centre and its surroundings. Waits here run around 4 to 7 weeks at low demand, so you can usually pick a date without a long wait. 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 Thurso is fully booked, Wick is the next closest centre, roughly 19 miles away.
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 tell-me question, after which the examiner rides along for the drive and asks one show-me question on the move. 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-seven chance of an emergency stop. The drive covers the local mix of road types within roughly a twenty-minute radius of the centre. Across DVSA marking nationally, the fault recorded most often on car tests is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
Results come immediately on return to the centre. The examiner talks you through any faults marked, prints the DL25 feedback form, and (if you passed) takes your provisional licence so the full one can be issued by post. A pass needs no more than 15 driving faults and zero serious or dangerous faults, the standard 56.9% of candidates at Wick meet under current DVSA marking.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Wick?
Is Wick an easy or hard test centre?
How does Wick 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.