Practise using the current assessment format with online, hybrid or face-to-face training. Take full mock tests online with your route plans marked by a trainer, join a small group in Acton, or combine both to suit your schedule.
The free mock gives you one route planning question and ten multiple choice questions, timed and marked the way the real assessment is marked. No payment.
Practise online
Practise at home on our route planning map, in exam conditions and against the clock. Your multiple choice score comes back straight away. Your route plans are marked by hand by one of our trainers.
One route planning question and ten multiple choice questions. Give us an email address and it opens straight away.
Three route plans and 22 multiple choice questions, 100 marks, the same shape and the same clock as the real assessment.
A trainer marks your routes out of 22 each and tells you exactly which marks you lost and why, within 2 working days.
1 route plan and 10 questions in one paper
Email address only. No card details.
£45 for 14 days. 3 route plans and 22 questions per paper, 100 marks, 70 minutes.
Login emailed as soon as you pay.
£60 if you come back again. Thursdays and Saturdays, 11am to 5pm, in Acton.
Or call 020 3642 8555
Route planning is 66 of the 100 marks and there is more than one right answer, so a trainer marks it by hand. You get your marks and written feedback within 2 working days, sent by WhatsApp, text message or email, whichever you ask for.
Important: the format has changed
The assessment no longer uses the London A to Z street atlas. You now work from a topographical reference map with its own set of symbols and a key that explains them. If you prepare using the old A to Z, you are practising the wrong thing. Our training is built around the current map and the current computer-based test.
The assessment
It is a computer-based test. You need to be comfortable using a mouse. It checks that you can plan a direct route and read a map correctly. Here is what comes up.
There are three route questions: a short route, a short route with a road closure, and a long route. Read each one carefully. You lose marks if you:
Scoring
The assessment is scored out of 100 and you have 70 minutes. Route planning carries two thirds of the marks, so that is where the pass is won or lost.
| Section | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Route planning, at 22 marks each | 3 | 66 |
| Multiple choice | 22 | 34 |
| Total, in 70 minutes | 25 | 100 |
Full marks on every multiple choice question is still only 34. Nobody passes this assessment without planning routes properly, and that is not something you can learn by watching a video.
Our training
Get six hours of hands on Topographical training in a small group at our Acton centre, every Thursdays and Saturdays, 11am to 5pm. You will plan real routes with a trainer beside you using the current map, with practical guidance throughout the session.
We plan real routes together, short, long, and with road closures, and show you how to find the most direct one and avoid losing marks on turns.
We work through practice multiple choice questions on map symbols, streets, road numbers, places and directions, so the format feels familiar.
You learn the symbols and how to use the reference key quickly, which is where a lot of people lose easy marks under time pressure.
Book your place
Six hours, 11am to 5pm, in a small group at our Acton centre. Message us on WhatsApp to check the next available date and reserve your place.
Or call 020 3642 8555
Almost every private hire driver has to pass both. Buy them together for £69 instead of £85, on one login.