How many faults are you allowed on a driving test?

Up to 15 driving faults — the ones people call minors — and no serious or dangerous faults at all. 16 driving faults is a fail, and so is a single serious fault even if it is the only mark on the sheet.

What is the difference between a minor and a major on a driving test?

DVSA calls them driving, serious and dangerous faults. A driving fault is not potentially dangerous on its own. A serious fault is something potentially dangerous. A dangerous fault involves actual danger to you, the examiner, the public or property. Serious and dangerous faults are what people mean by "majors", and either one fails the test.

Can minors turn into a major?

Yes, and this is the part people miss. DVSA’s wording is that a driving fault is not potentially dangerous "but if you keep making the same fault, it could become a serious fault". Repeating one mistake is treated as a habit rather than a slip, and a habit is what gets upgraded.

What is the most common reason for failing a driving test?

Not looking properly at junctions — observation — has been the single most common serious fault for years, ahead of mirrors on changing direction and steering control. Almost all of the top reasons are observation faults rather than car-handling ones.

Do you fail for stalling?

Not usually. A stall on its own is normally a driving fault or nothing at all. It becomes serious if it happens somewhere that puts you or others at risk — stalling across a junction or on a roundabout — or if you keep doing it, at which point it is a pattern.

Driving Test Faults Explained — Minors, Majors and the 15 Fault Rule

Everything on the test comes down to one sheet, the DL25, and three categories of mark. Learners talk about minors and majors; DVSA does not use either word. Knowing what the examiner is actually recording, and when a small thing turns into a big one, is worth more than any amount of guessing at what they want to see.

The three kinds of fault

Fault	DVSA's definition	Allowed
Driving fault "minor"	"Not potentially dangerous, but if you keep making the same fault, it could become a serious fault"	Up to 15
Serious fault "major"	"Something potentially dangerous"	0
Dangerous fault "major"	"Involves actual danger to you, the examiner, the public or property"	0

Definitions quoted from GOV.UK.

To pass you need no more than 15 driving faults and no serious or dangerous faults. There is no partial credit and no discretion: one serious fault on an otherwise clean sheet is a fail, and 16 driving faults is a fail even if every one of them was trivial.

The difference between potentially dangerous and actually dangerous

Serious and dangerous faults have the same consequence, so the distinction rarely matters to the result. It matters for understanding what happened.

A serious fault is one where the potential for harm was there — pulling out of a junction without checking properly when nothing happened to be coming. A dangerous fault is one where harm actually became live: another driver braked, a pedestrian stepped back, the examiner touched the wheel or the dual controls. The same action can be either, depending on what else was on the road at the time. This is why two people can do the same thing and get different marks, and it is not inconsistency.

How minors become majors

The upgrade rule is the one that catches people out. A single missed mirror check is a driving fault. The same missed check four times, in the same circumstances, is no longer a slip — it is how you drive, and DVSA's own wording is explicit that repeating a fault can make it serious.

Practically, this means your fault count is not a budget of 15 free mistakes. Fifteen different small faults is a pass. Four instances of one fault can be a fail well before you reach fifteen. If you notice yourself making the same error twice, treat the third as the one that ends the test.

The faults that end most tests

The list barely changes year to year, and it is dominated by observation rather than car control:

Junctions — observation. Not looking properly before emerging. The single most common serious fault by a wide margin, and the one most often described afterwards as "I did look".
Mirrors — change of direction. Signalling or moving before checking, particularly when changing lanes or pulling out around a parked car.
Junctions — turning right. Positioning and observation when crossing oncoming traffic.
Steering control. Usually clipping a kerb during a manoeuvre, or drifting wide on a bend.
Response to traffic lights. Moving off on a filter that is not yours, or hesitating so long that you block others.
Move off — safely. Pulling away without the final shoulder check.

Five of those six are about looking, not about driving. That is the useful conclusion: most people who fail can already control a car perfectly well.

What is not a fault

Taking a wrong turn. DVSA is explicit that the examiner will not give you a fault for going the wrong way. The test is not a navigation exercise — see independent driving.
Being slow, within reason. Undue hesitation is a fault; driving carefully is not.
A single stall in a safe place. Restart calmly and carry on.
Asking the examiner to repeat something. Costs nothing.
Getting a show me or tell me question wrong. One driving fault, no more — the full list is here.

Reading the sheet afterwards

Whatever the result, the examiner gives you the marking sheet and talks you through it. Two questions are worth asking while you have them: which fault was the serious one and what exactly triggered it, and which driving faults were closest to being upgraded. The second question is the one nobody asks and the one that tells you what to practise.

About 49.9% of car tests in Great Britain end in a fail, so this is an ordinary conversation rather than a post-mortem. What to do if you fail covers the days after, and how to pass first time covers the weeks before.

Driving test faults explained