Why a warm-up matters
Most people fail their road test in the first three minutes. The car feels different, the seat is wrong, the mirrors are off, and you've never started a drive while a stranger watched. A 20-minute warm-up costs you nothing and makes the first three minutes feel like the hundredth.
Five minutes — get the cabin right
- ·Seat: knees slightly bent at full pedal press, hands at 9 and 3 with elbows soft.
- ·Mirrors: side mirrors angled so you can just barely see the back corner of the car when you lean. Centre mirror frames the rear window.
- ·Wheel: top of the wheel level with your shoulders, not your forehead.
- ·Steering column tilt and reach: comfortable, no straining for the wheel.
Ten minutes — drive a familiar loop
Pick a 10-minute loop near home. The point is not to practise — it's to remind your body that driving is a thing you know how to do. Hit one stop sign, one signalled left, one parallel-park-style pull-over.
Talk yourself through every check out loud. Mirror, shoulder, signal. The examiner wants to see those checks, not infer them.
Five minutes — at the test centre
- ·Park nose-out so the car is ready to drive.
- ·Walk a slow lap around it — tires, lights, cracked windscreen. Examiners do this and it's one less thing to think about.
- ·Sit in the driver's seat and breathe slowly for 90 seconds. No phone. No music. No last-minute flashcards.
- ·When the examiner approaches, smile and say good morning. The first impression sets the next 25 minutes.