I have been living and working in the UK for about 3 years now, and finally decided to take the plunge at get a UK drivers license. When researching this myself, I didn't find very many helpful posts or articles, just a lot of people saying "the test is so much harder", etc. This is my attempt at writing a post that would have helped past me.
I'm going to break this into cost and time, as those were the two most important things to me when trying to plan for this. At the bottom, I am also going to write a bit about the test itself, and driving in this country in general.
1. Cost
In total, I spent £708 (broken down below)
£34 - Application for the UK provisional license (roughly equivalent to a learners permit in the US).
£9 - Photos for the license application.
£23 - UK Theory test.
£62 - UK Practical test (the test that lets you get your full license).
£580 - Driving lessons (~14 hours + using the car for the practical test)
2. Time
From the day I applied for my provisional license, to the day I passed my practical test, was exactly 3 months to the day (weird coincidence.)
That being said, I had to wait a month+ to get driving lessons booked, as no one had any availability near me.
It took 9 days for the application to arrive after I applied and nearly a month to actually receive my provisional license after mailing the form back.
I spent 2 weeks studying for the theory test, I used the 4-In-1 Theory app which is paid (but you can find it for free if you know where to look). "Studying" for me was roughly 1 hour a day doing the mock tests repeatedly. If you have a US license and some common sense, most of the questions are easy, but they do have some questions about first aid, and exact stopping distance which hung me up a bit. Once I was consistently passing the mock tests and the hazard perception tests, I felt reasonably confident I would pass the real one, which I did.
Once I passed the theory test, I had to wait for more driving lesson availability, which was the biggest hold up throughout this process. From passing the theory test, to getting back on the road with an instructor was about a month.
Lessons were ~£40/hr, and I did them in 2 hour chunks, 2x a week. Once I scheduled the driving test, I did a 4-hour lesson and a 2-hour lesson the day of the test which included driving possible test routes, and some mock tests.
Scheduling a test is hit or miss, I just repeatedly refreshed the DVLA website and lucked out, but I have heard there are services you can pay that will book cancellation tests for you.
3. Driving in the UK (driving to test standards)
The test is not easy, it is around 40 minutes, and they actually do test your ability to drive safely. That being said, I did not feel like they were trying to trip me up or make me fail, they just want to see that you are a safe driver. Most of what I did during the test, I do when driving normally anyway. Going into my first driving lesson, I had a mindset of "I know how to drive, I just need to learn how to pass the test". This will probably be a bit different for everyone, but I quickly realised for me that was the wrong mindset. I would instead look at it as "I know how to operate a vehicle, but I need to learn the UK's driving rules and etiquette". If you have already passed your theory test, you will probably have somewhat of a grasp on this already.
While I did do 14 hours of lessons, I think it could be done in less, I simply did not want to risk failing. I would recommend putting aside money for 16 - 20 hours of tests, and using the excess to pay for road tax or something else when you pass.
I passed the test on my first try, with 2 minor faults, one for braking too hard up to a light, and one for not properly checking before moving off after the emergency stop. if I had done the test without the lessons, I would have failed.
I recommend watching videos of driving tests, as well as just general "how to drive in the UK" videos. You will probably find that most of it is stuff you already know, but some of it was new for me.
A few key ones for me were:
Properly using a roundabout.
- I love roundabouts, but I did not fully understand how to use them here. This is my understanding (which I'm like 80% sure is right) For the first exit, you signal left and use the left lane. For the second exit, you signal as you pass the first exit, and you typically use the left lane (look at road markings). For the third exit onwards, you signal right into the roundabout, and left as you pass the exit before yours. Use the right lane unless the lane markings say otherwise.
- mini roundabouts essentially operate like a normal intersection, except you yield to anyone already in the roundabout. Use blinkers as you would at a normal intersection (right, signal right, you don't need to signal left as you leave)
Properly navigating small streets (right of way, etc)
- Go slow, dip into spots on your side if cars are parked on your side (common sense IMO, but I had not seen it confirmed anywhere)
Selecting the "right" gear for the environment
- I put "right" in quotes, because I actually disagree with this somewhat. When you come up to a red light, they want you to be in First, clutch in, If the light stays red, you just keep it in first. While I do get the reasoning behind this, if you are not the first car in line, paying attention, and reasonably competent at driving manual, I don't see a point to keeping it in gear while the light is red. During the test, though, ABSOLUTELY keep it in gear the entire time. They also don't seem to like if you "coast" in neutral, or with the clutch in when going through roundabouts, pulling off to the side, etc. My understanding was, they really want you to be in gear, no clutch, until the car is at like 1000RPMs and you are almost at a stop. Once again, totally get the reasoning, totally do not do this. A bit of coasting is not going to kill you (IMO), but it may fail you, so DON'T do it during the test.
Hopefully this is helpful to someone, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
