The DL25 driving test report

The driving test report is what the examiner marks during a car driving test. One thing to be clear about before anything else: examiners now record the test digitally on a tablet. The paper DL25 is their contingency form if the tablet fails — and, more usefully for you, it is the form DVSA publishes specifically so that instructors can run mock tests on it. Your pupil does not walk away holding a marked sheet either; they choose to receive an end-of-test summary by email or by post.

Knowing the categories well still does two jobs: you can teach to the standard rather than to a guess, and you can turn a test debrief into real learning. (Form and marking detail from DVSA, Crown copyright, reproduced under the Open Government Licence — the official form is linked above.)

How faults are recorded

Most markable items can be marked three ways:

• Driving fault (a "minor") — tallied in the round box. Not dangerous in itself, but a repeated fault becomes a serious one.
• Serious fault (S) — something that is potentially dangerous or that entails a breach of the law. Both limbs count, and the second one is the one pupils never expect: an illegal act can be serious even where nothing was coming. There is more on how examiners make that call in how examiners decide what to mark.
• Dangerous fault (D) — actual danger to the pupil, examiner, public or property.

Not every item carries all three. Eyesight can only be marked as a serious fault — there is no driving-fault or dangerous option against it. Eco-safe driving is recorded but sits outside the pass/fail criteria altogether.

Up to 15 driving faults still passes. One serious or one dangerous fault fails, however well the rest of the drive went. That maths is worth teaching explicitly: a pupil collecting repeated small faults in one category is walking toward a serious, and that is the coaching conversation to have early.

The marking categories

Learning these headings pays off — they give you precise language for feedback and a ready-made lesson checklist.

Before the drive: eyesight test, then the vehicle safety show me / tell me questions.

Controls and handling: accelerator, clutch, gears, footbrake, parking brake, steering, plus precautions and ancillary controls.

Moving away: safety and control. Controlled stop.

Manoeuvres — one of reverse/right, reverse park (road), reverse park (car park) or forward park — each marked for control and observation.

Use of mirrors — checked separately for signalling, changing direction and changing speed. Signals — necessary, correctly, and timed.

Junctions — approach speed, observation, turning right, turning left, and cutting corners.

Judgement — overtaking, meeting traffic, and crossing traffic.

Positioning — normal driving and lane discipline; plus pedestrian crossings, position at normal stops, clearance to obstructions, following distance, use of speed, and awareness and planning.

Progress — appropriate speed and undue hesitation. Progress is marked in both directions: too slow is a fault too.

Response to signs and signals — traffic signs, road markings, traffic lights, traffic controllers, and other road users.

Completion records — separate from the fault categories, the examiner also notes that certain exercises were carried out: a normal stop, an angled start, and a hill start or designated stop.

The examiner also records ETA (examiner takes action — physical or verbal) and ECO (eco-safe driving: control and planning). Alongside the marking itself, the report captures the route number, whether independent driving used a sat nav or traffic signs, the weather conditions, and the written fault descriptions — the part your pupil will actually read afterwards, in the summary they receive after the test.

Using it in a debrief

The form is a coaching tool, not just a verdict. After a test — or after a mock using the same sheet — work through it the way you would any debrief: name what was marked, ask the pupil what they remember of that moment, analyse the cause together, then agree the fix. Patterns matter more than totals: three faults under "junctions — observation" is a single habit to work on, not three separate problems.

Running mock tests on a real DL25 also removes a surprise on the day — the pupil has seen the sheet, knows the categories, and understands that fifteen minors is a pass.