How the driving test in the UK has changed since 1990: Today’s it’s …

If ever I need a little reminder of how the years are passing me by, all I need do is consider how long ago it was I passed my driving test.

Last week marked the 33rd anniversary. Gulp.

Driving tests used to be far simpler back in the day

When I see how much the driving test has changed from that sunny morning in 1990 to today there’s a rather large part of me which feels those of my generation got off rather lightly.

For those booking up – and having to pay – for the theory test today, it will come as a painful revelation that those of us of a certain age didn’t have to do any of that.

Instead, after completing the practical test, the driving test examiner posed a mere handful of questions as we sat in the car park of the test centre.

Yes, you still had to swot up on the Highway Code, but it was very much the luck of the draw as to what you got asked and, for that matter, how long the examiner could be bothered to sit there with you. In my case, it felt like five minutes tops.

Hazard perception videos? Nope. Independent driving? Nope – you simply went exactly where the driving instructor told you. No more, no less. Apparently, a sat-nav can direct you around the houses now for 20 minutes to give you a chance to encounter some ‘real-life’ driving situations. In my day, you simply followed a well-worn route which every learner driver both knew and had practised in the weeks leading up to the big day.

Once upon a time, all elements of getting the rights to a full licence could be achieved on one day

Multiple-choice questions? Nah.

I’ve also discovered that today there’s a ‘show me, tell me’ section of the practical test – where, during the test, the examiner asks you to demonstrate or explain various aspects of the car and its workings.

I’ll be honest – and I’m not proud of this – if I’d been asked how to check engine oil levels when I was 17, I would have been guessing. Back in those days, I thought a dipstick was an insult.

I knew how to put petrol in, how to open the bonnet and where the water went for the windscreen. That. sadly, was about the sum total of my mechanical knowledge. And, in truth, it hasn’t improved greatly since.

No, back in my day, the test was simple. I booked mine up before I’d even had my first lesson so I had something to aim for. You mailed off your test fee and forms and a few weeks later got a date back through the post.

Is there anything more nerve-wracking than your driving test when you’re a youngster?

Then it was simply a case of being ready for the day itself.

You had to read a number plate from across the car park to prove you could see and then off you went for what, at that point in my life, was the most nerve-wracking drive of my life.

On a bright summer’s morning, I set off onto the streets of Ashford with only a stern-looking test examiner for company.

Three-point turns were performed. Hill-starts mastered. Reversing around a corner? Tick. Waiting nervously for the tell-tale sign of the examiner turning his head to look behind before slapping the dashboard and ordering you to do an emergency stop without stalling? Done. A rather sharp bit of braking as a traffic line turned red just as I was approaching which I feared had scuppered my hopes of success? Oh yes.

A quick in-car quiz later and I was told I’d passed. And off I went. As happy, as they say, as Larry (whoever he may be).

You can tell this is a posed stock image – does anyone look this relaxed on a driving test?

Did I immediately go out and drive like a buffoon having had such a straightforward passage to full driver status?

Well, fortunately (for me at least), a friend of mine had passed his test a few months earlier – thus becoming the first of my close friends to have a full licence. He’d taken me and three mates out days after his success and drove, frankly, like a maniac. Up until, that is, we were in Folkestone, no more than half an hour into our outing, and he drove head-first into a ‘No Entry’ sign. Well, at least he had heeded its instruction.

No one was hurt, the sign remained upright, but his precious car had a huge dent in the front.

The lesson was clear…drive carefully because were I to damage my car, I had nowhere near the means to repair it and certainly could afford nothing other than third-party insurance. I’ve driven pretty conservatively ever since. My mate never drove anything other than sensibly from the day he found himself with some explaining to do.

But despite all the extra hoops learner drivers today need to leap through in pursuit of getting the freedom of the road, has anything really changed?

Are people any safer on the roads today?

In my opinion, there seem to be as many young idiot drivers as there always used to be.

Many still approach their driving test with the same mindset they do a speed camera once they’ve passed; they toe the line to ensure they don’t come a cropper, but the second they’re out of its sight, the foot hits the proverbial floor.

It was always the way then and remains so today. Human nature, I suppose. Or that glorious sensation you only have as a youngster; of immortality.

But at least they know what a dipstick is and where to find it.