Wanstead DSA

Although I didn't pass today, Michael was a really professional and kind examiner - he guided me through some routes, made small talk and really put my mind at ease, especially after my 1 serious fault. Really great guy.
Apr 24th, 2023

My son passed his test at Wanstead today with two minors. His test time was 9:07am. He could not remember his examiners name but said he was nice and friendly but did not talk much except to give instructions. Examiner brought his own Satnav for the independent driving. There was some traffic even though it was a school holiday and he said the traffic did not really let up. Local roads and then Redbridge Lane West on to A12 and then A406. Roundabouts on his test route were Redbridge, Charlie Brown, Green Man and one other he could not remember (not Gants Hill). He was asked to pull over to the left three times and pull over to the right and reverse was the manoeuvre he had to do. He had to go through speed bollards three times, he had never done this before, no idea why it was done in his test that many times. He also had to go down a lot of narrow side roads which had cars parked on both sides, so practice your meeting situations. Son said he found his route quite hard but luckily he had practiced roundabouts and the local route quite a lot in his last few lessons. There are some videos on YouTube of different routes on driving test from Wanstead, watch some of these to know where to position yourselves at the local roundabouts etc. I can see why Wanstead is classed as a hard area to pass your test but my advice is to keep practicing the main roundabouts as well as the local A roads.
Apr 16th, 2023

Test routes from this test centre may be tricky as there are several big busy roundabouts. Depending on where you join them it may be almost impossible not affecting other road users (therefore failing the test). Hilly are will test your roll control of the car and internal roads will bring you to many meeting situations where you have to know how to behave. Definitely not an easy centre (check pass rates comparison). As for the driving examiner I was lucky to have my test with a man know as Lee. He gave very clear instructions and was helpful giving some important warning such as: counting exits in roundabout, helping with lane on motorway prior to roundabout, observe that was lorry parked on the 'turn-left' lane, and keeping left at traffic lights due to 'turn-right-lane'. Test route: Test centre - Local traffic - Then A2 towards GantsHill - Redbridge Roundabout third exit to Gants Hill - GantHill Roundabout towards South Woodford - Stop at Tesco's parking for front bay parking - Charlie Brown Roundabout first exit towards Snaresbrook - Test Centre. Passed first time. Reason for 3/5 is not related to the test centre itself. DVSA has a huge backlog and took me more than seven months to manage have my first attempt after I tried to book, which is an unbelievably long time.
Mar 20th, 2023

Upon reading the reviews I was very hesitant upon my test date. But I have to say Im very against the bad reviews here. I would like to state! That the examiners are not here to be your friend theyre here to do their job, just like the rest of us. If they dont think youre up to par, you can not argue with them if they have given you a serious then they believe that you are unfit to drive On the other hand I do understand everyones frustrations. With that being said I would like to give a huge shout out to my driving instructor Toafeeq from Abbies driving school. If it wasnt for him I wouldve never passed, he was incredible from the start of my journey to the very end! Around a year ago I didnt even know how to drive let alone turn on a car! I would also like to give a massive shout out to my examiner Lee he wasnt harsh at all, he didnt make me feel on edge, and he allowed me to do what I had to do to feel comfortable whether that meant listen to the radio on low volume or pull down the window, although it was raining I passed my test on the first attempt with 4 minors on the Thursday 9th march 2023 and my test time was at 8:40am I would suggest that if you have failed a test before! Please take your instructor on the test with you. This is what I done just in case I did fail I would know where I went wrong.
Mar 8th, 2023

I passed my test here today it's a good area not too hard to drive Very nice examiners!!! Thanks LEE!
Feb 21st, 2023