Show me, tell me questions
There are 21 vehicle safety questions in the car pool: 14 tell me and 7 show me. You get asked 2 on the day, one of each. The trainer below draws that exact pair, gives you the published answer for the tell me, and keeps a note of the ones you want to revise.
Question wording and the tell me answers are reproduced from the car show me, tell me vehicle safety questions on gov.uk, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by DVSA.
How the two questions are asked
The tell me question comes first, at the side of the road, before you drive anywhere. You describe the check out loud. You do not have to perform it, apart from the three that start by opening the bonnet, and even then you point at the dipstick or the reservoir and explain the check rather than carrying it out.
The show me question comes later, while you are driving. The examiner asks it and you carry it out when the road is quiet enough to do it safely. That is the whole difference: one is spoken at a standstill, the other is done at the wheel.
The same 21 questions apply whether your car is manual or automatic. The pool has been stable since the test changed in December 2017.
Getting both wrong is one fault, not two
Get one wrong or both wrong and it counts as one driving fault, not two. One wrong and both wrong carry the same cost: 1 driving fault. Plenty of sites state that two wrong answers means two faults. That is simply not how it is marked, and believing it makes the safety questions feel far more decisive than they are.
One driving fault out of an allowance of 15 is not what fails people. The real risk sits in the show me question, because it happens on the move. You fail if your driving becomes dangerous or potentially dangerous while you answer the show me question. Drifting towards the kerb while you hunt for the rear demister button is the failure mode to train out, which is why it is worth finding every control by feel before test day.
If the road is busy when the question comes, you are allowed to wait. Answering when it is safe is part of the answer.
Why there are no answers for the show me questions
DVSA publishes answers for the 14 tell me questions only. The 7 show me questions have none, because the examiner marks what you do with the control rather than what you say about it. Any site quoting a word for word answer for a show me question has invented it. What you practise instead is the action itself, in your own car, until the wipers, the demisters, the dipped beam, the horn and the side window all come to hand without a glance down.
Where to go next
Not booked the practical yet? Compare waiting times by centre first, then work back from the date you can actually get.
Question wording and the tell me answers are reproduced from the car show me, tell me vehicle safety questions published on gov.uk, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This site is independent. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by DVSA.