Manoeuvres

What does ‘Manoeuvres’ assess?

When you go for your practical driving assessment you will have to do two exercises. Each exercise will combine low speed manoeuvres into an everyday driving situation. We have given these exercises names such as 'Stopping for Shopping' and 'I've Left Something Behind'.

So that you don't get any surprises during the assessment, you should try various combinations of manoeuvres to build your own practice exercises. The manoeuvres which will be included in the two exercises will come from a set of ten manoeuvres. You can use the same manoeuvres to devise your own practice exercises. The ten manoeuvres are listed below.

Manoeuvre	Diagram
1. Drive forward into a driveway on the right, then reverse and change direction.
2. Reverse into a driveway and then drive forward to go back along the street in the opposite direction.
3. Drive forward into a driveway on the left then reverse out to change direction.
4. Drive forward into a driveway on the left, reverse back to leave in the same direction as you started.
5. Complete a U-turn.
6. Complete a U-turn at a roundabout.
7. Complete a reverse parallel park.
8. Complete a forward angle park.
9. Complete a reverse angle park.
10. Complete a three-point turn.  Note: A three-point turn is not generally considered an appropriate manoeuvre if another manoeuvre, such as a driveway turn or U-turn, is available

By practising different combinations of manoeuvres, you will become comfortable with all of the possible combinations which you could be asked to complete during your assessment.

Try various combinations of manoeuvres in different locations. Go into car parks and practice both forward and reverse angle parking next to other vehicles. Get the feel for driving around the car parks in shopping centres.

Check the results of your practice exercises

Each exercise in the assessment will combine two manoeuvres. During your practice sessions, your supervisor should mark you on your flow, movement and path during each manoeuvre. If you complete all aspects of both manoeuvres well, you supervisor will give you six marks.

During the each exercise your supervisor should also mark you on look behind and signal. You will get two additional marks if you complete these elements well.

Your supervisor should use the table below to score your performance during the practice exercises. Your supervisor should tick the box next to each assessment item if you perform the task correctly.

First manoeuvre	Flow	Movement	Path
Second manoeuvre	Flow	Movement	Path
During whole task	Look Behind	Signal

When you can score at least five marks, you will be near to the standard required to pass the practical driving assessment.

You can find a quick guide to scoring the assessment items here.

Use the following exercise practice forms to record your performance. There are also some blank exercises where you can try your own combinations of manoeuvres.

After completing a practice exercise, consider how you felt about your performance. Were you able to:

• do it without asking any questions?
• do it without having to think really hard about it?
• complete low speed manoeuvres while chatting to your supervisor at the same time?

Ask your supervisor to consider how they felt while you were doing the practice exercise. Did they:

• feel comfortable while you did the exercises?
• stay quiet without giving any help?
• feel happy about staying quiet while you were driving?