Top 10 places you’re most likely to pass your bike test…

PASSING your bike test should really come down to the simple ability to handle a motorcycle and understand how to use the roads. But unsurprisingly there’s actually a vast difference from area to area in percentages of students who actually pass their tests.

Fortunately, the Government publishes all the data for us to sift through, so we can bring a definitive list of which test centres are the happiest to hand out passes. Not to mention those that are the toughest to ride away from with your L-plates ripped up.

We’re specifically looking at the Module 2, on-road riding section of the test here. For reference, the national average is a 71% pass rate, with 33,554 Module 2 tests passed from 47,256 attempted.

First up, here are the top 10 places with highest pass rates.

1: Lerwick: 95.8% pass rate

Moving to the Shetland Island might be a bit of an extreme measure to take to ensure you pass your test. For most people we’d suggest that trying a bit harder is probably easier than upping sticks and heading for the most northerly point of the British Isles. But if you happen to live there already, you’re in luck – the Lerwick test centre had the highest pass rate in the UK in 2017/18. Admittedly, only 24 people took tests there, but 23 passed. If you’re the one who didn’t pass, you have our commiserations…

 2: Peterhead: 92.3% pass rate

Peterhead isn’t quite as far to travel as Lerwick. It might be in Aberdeenshire, but at least it’s on the same land mass as most of us. Just 17 people took there Module 2 tests there in 2017/18, and 16 of them passed to give a 92.3% pass rate. That’s a pretty good average.

3: Heysham: 87.3% pass rate

Heading further south, the pass rate in Heysham, Lancashire, is still pretty impressive at 87.3%. Unlike the first two on our list, there are actually quite a few tests here – of a total of 79 during 2017/18, 69 riders ripped up their L plates afterwards.

4: Macclesfield: 87.1% pass rate

Hot on Heysham’s heels in fourth we have Macclesfield in Cheshire. From 225 tests, there were 196 passes in the 2017/18 period we’re looking at here. Presumably bike training in the area is pretty outstanding.

5: Swindon: 86.7% pass rate

We swoop down to Swindon, Wiltshire, for number five on the list, the first test centre from the south of the country to appear here. Again, it’s well up in the 80-percent-plus pass rate, with 447 passes from 550 tests.

6: Merthyr Tydfil: 85.4% pass rate

Welsh roads are often praised as being some of the best biking routes in the land, so no doubt the people of Merthr Tydfil have plenty of incentive to learn to ride well. And with 146 passes from 171 tests, most of them breezed through.

7: Dundee: 84.5% pass rate

Back up to Scotland again for number seven on the list, with Dundee achieving an impressive 279 passes from 330 tests.

8: Lee-On-The-Solent: 84.4% pass rate

Our most southerly entry, Lee-On-The-Solent, comes in at number eight with an impressive 84.4% pass rate. It’s not from a shortage of candidates, either. In total, some 957 people took their module 2 tests in 2017/18 and 808 of them passed.

9: Grimsby Coldwater: 84.3% pass rate

From 172 candidates, there were 145 passes at Grimsby’s Coldwater test centre. That puts it in ninth place, but its 84.3% pass rate is just 0.2% from seventh placed Dundee.

10: Livingston: 83.7% pass rate

If you’re anywhere near Edinburgh, it might be worth heading to the Livingston test centre, where there’s an 83.7% pass rate for the 2017/18 period. That’s from just 98 tests, which saw 82 people passing.

And the 10 worst pass rates:

1: Glasgow (Shieldhall): 50.4% pass rate

If you got the impression from our top 10 that everywhere gave 80% plus of their candidates a pass, you couldn’t be more wrong. Glasgow’s Shieldhall test centre only handed out a pass certificate to a fraction over half its candidates in 2017/18. Of 867 module 2 tests, only 437 passed.

2: Enfield (Innovation Business Park): 54.9% pass rate

Masses of people take their tests in Enfield. But of the 2641 module 2s taken in 2017/18, only 1450 resulted in a pass. Harsh.

3: Uxbridge (London): 56.8% pass rate

From 1459 candidates there were just 829 passes in 2017/18 at the Uxbridge test centre. So if you failed there, you’re by no means alone.

4: Aylesbury: 59.9% pass rate

At least we’re edging further above a 50/50 chance of passing now, but at 59.9% the pass rate in Aylesbury is pretty low. That’s 203 passes from 339 candidates.

5: Gloucester: 62.6% pass rate

Nudging above a 60% pass rate now, Gloucester is still clearly a tough place to take your test. From 632 tests there were only 390 passes.

6: Erith (London): 62.6% pass rate

The same 62.6% pass rate as Gloucester, but Erith sees a lot more tests. There were 904 of them in 2017/18, and only 566 passed.

7: Cardington: 63.1% pass rate

Cardington, near Bedford, offered only a 63.1% pass rate in the most recent year’s figures. That leaves you a 36.9% chance of failure. Not good odds.

8: Basildon: 63.5% pass rate

There were 1001 tests in Basidon last year. But with just 636 passes the overall success rate was a lowly 63.5% in the Module 2, on-road part of the test.

9: Newport (Gwent): 63.7% pass rate

With 551 tests and 351 passes, the hit rate at Newport isn’t too good. Might be worth seeing if there’s another nearby test centre to have a go at…

10: Darlington: 64.4% pass rate

We’re edging nearer the national average, 71% pass rate now, but Darlington’s 64.4% is still below the norm. It was reached with 428 passes from 665 tests.