Goodmayes Driving Test Centre Pass Rate 2026: 43.7% Explained

#Goodmayes pass rate: the 2024-25 figure

The current Goodmayes pass rate is 43.7% (2024-25), based on 21,961 tests conducted in the London Borough of Redbridge. The first-time pass rate is 41.2%, which is 7.7 points below the national first-attempt figure of 48.9%. The 5-point gap between Goodmayes and the UK average (43.7% vs 48.7%) is substantial but not exceptional by London standards. Inner and east London centres consistently run below the national average, driven by route complexity rather than examiner standards.

#How Goodmayes compares to nearby London centres

Goodmayes sits in the lower half of the London centre ranking. Barnet, north London, runs at 49.9% in 2024-25. Morden reaches 48.8%. Uxbridge, in west London, comes in at 49.6%. Sidcup, at 59.0%, is the highest-performing London centre with comparable volume data. At the bottom of the London table, Chingford sits at 36.5%, and Goodmayes at 43.7% falls between the two extremes, closer to the harder end.

#Why the Goodmayes pass rate is below the national average

Goodmayes is based in the London Borough of Redbridge, in east London. The road network here includes some of the most traffic-dense arterial routes in the capital. Test routes from Goodmayes frequently cover the A12 Eastern Avenue corridor, Eastern Avenue itself, and the network of multi-lane roads that feed into and out of the Ilford and Romford areas. These are high-speed, high-volume roads where lane discipline decisions come quickly, and where hesitation at a multi-lane junction can produce the kind of consequence that escalates a minor fault to a serious one.

• Eastern Avenue (A12): a high-speed urban dual carriageway with frequent exits and lane changes required. Speed discipline at 50 mph and above, combined with dense traffic, creates a high-fault-risk environment.
• Multi-lane roundabouts around Ilford and Romford: correct approach-lane selection requires prior route knowledge; first-time candidates who have not practised the specific roundabouts encounter ambiguous markings under time pressure.
• High pedestrian and cyclist density: Redbridge has a high urban density. Candidates must manage frequent pedestrian crossings, cyclists overtaking on the left, and bus stops with passengers stepping into traffic.
• Bus lanes on arterial roads: Goodmayes routes include active bus lanes with time-restricted operation. Reading and complying with bus lane signs while managing fast-moving traffic generates errors for candidates who rely on following traffic rather than reading signs.
• Complex priority junctions: the residential network around Goodmayes includes many uncontrolled junctions and crossroads where priority is not marked, requiring candidates to apply rules independently rather than following signals.

#Male and female pass rates at Goodmayes

Men pass at 47.7% at Goodmayes (11,791 tests) and women at 39.1% (10,170 tests) in 2024-25. The gender gap is 8.6 percentage points, compared with the national gap of 4.6 points. This wider-than-national gender gap is a pattern shared by most east London centres where route complexity is high: multi-lane arterial roads and complex roundabouts produce more of the hesitation and confidence-related faults that sit at the boundary between minor and serious, and those fault types show larger gender differences than faults on quieter roads.

#Should you book at Goodmayes or travel to a higher-rate centre?

For learners based in east London and Redbridge, Goodmayes is the natural local option. The question of whether to travel depends on the gap to the next available centre and the cost of route preparation. Barnet (49.9%) is a north London alternative, but reaching it from east London means a 45-60 minute journey on busy roads. Sidcup (59.0%) is the strongest London alternative by pass rate but is south-east London, making it impractical for most Goodmayes learners. The practical calculation for most east London candidates is: invest the lesson budget in specific Goodmayes route preparation rather than travel costs to a different centre.

#Sources and further reading

The figures, fees, and procedures referenced in this article are verifiable on the official gov.uk pages below. PassRates.uk is built on the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s open data, published under the Open Government Licence.

• Driving test (gov.uk)
• Driving test fees (gov.uk)
• Driving test and theory test data, cars (gov.uk)
• Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (gov.uk)
• New drivers (gov.uk)
• Open Government Licence v3.0 (nationalarchives.gov.uk)