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Towards your CPD: The L-test
Stress: It’s the
failure box the
DVSA has left
off the DL25
Simon Elstow thinks it’s
time the driver training and
testing sector takes a long,
hard look at the current
L-test and asks, is it still
fit for purpose?
This is a two-part editorial. In this
issue I want to look at what the
current L-test really does. In Part
2, I want to see if the L-test
supports client-centred learning and ask
the big question, is the L-Test still fit for
purpose?
The following is a criticism of the
L-Test. Throughout I hope, dear reader,
you will see evidence of my humility
about the brave examiners and DVSA
who have to deliver it.
What is the L-Test’s true aim?
Many years ago I sat with John Cullen,
then the DSA’s Assistant Chief Driving
Examiner. I remember how open and
friendly he was. He told me a story of
two tests he observed. One was at
Bettyhill, in the north of Scotland. It
involved a left reverse on the beach,
where the examiner drew an ‘L’ in the
About the author
18
sand with his shoe, so he could
check if the candidate had gone
over the line – genius!
After a drive into the countryside, on a
single track road, and no traffic at all, the
candidate didn’t slow down in response
to a sheep which looked like it might
cross the road. Under the line on the
DL25 which then read ‘Anticipating the
actions of pedestrians/cyclists/drivers’;
the examiner crossed out the word
pedestrian, wrote ‘sheep’ and failed the
candidate.
The second was overseas. While on a
world cruise, John Cullen stopped at Fiji
and asked if he could sit in on a driving
test. The test wound its way around the
island and on returning the examiner
said that unfortunately they had not
passed on this occasion, because
“nothing had happened that sufficiently
challenged” the candidate.
Are we looking for a fail or assessing a
pass? One thing is for sure: if you have a
pedantic test you will get a pedantic
result.
Does the L-Test assess a person to drive
for the real world?
Real world driving is complex. There is
vehicle control, anticipating to blend in
Simon started teaching learners in 1988. He was an instructor trainer for BSM, a
fleet trainer at Drive & Survive plc and training manager for the Institute of
Advanced Motorists. He sat on the DVSA steering group for CPD and was
recently a consultant for ROSPA. He has returned to teaching learners and is a
Porsche Driving Consultant at the company’s experience centre at Silverstone.
Simon holds an MSc in Coaching, a 7307 Teacher’s Certificate and has been a
Grade A (previously Grade 6) instructor for the whole of his professional career.
His passion is Continuing Professional Development – making things better.
with other road users, managing your
journeys and applying emotional
intelligence to driving.
Tricky, that last one. In driving we
might say emotional intelligence is being
aware of your own ‘agendas’ and that
other road users have theirs. And it
means managing the risks of both. So
not just one thing then! This list of skills
is my derivation of the GDE (Goals for
Driver Education) hierarchy; the
European standard, via Finland, Michon
and Maslow.
Can a 38-minute test assess all of this?
I ask my clients what they think
passing the test means, as opposed to
when they are ‘on their own’. One said;
“The test is showing you can control
your vehicle, and driving after your test is
about controlling yourself”. As Gregor
Bartl (an Austrian traffic psychologist)
put it, “The test shows you can, not that
you will”.
It’s important, I think, to make a
distinction between what experience is
and what skills are. I put this as a
question to my clients. One said: “Skills
are things you learn to do, but
experience is learning from different
situations you come across”.
But the L-Test can’t mandate for
experience. The traffic conditions can
mean that the candidate isn’t ‘challenged’
(as in Fiji). It’s too dependent on luck –
what if those sheep hadn’t been there
that day? (as in Bettyhill).
To what extent does the test marking
sheet DL25 reflect reality?
All this test malarkey might pass as
okay if the test criteria was easy to
NEWSLINK n JANUARY 2021