Master "Pull Up on the Right" in 90 Seconds With Essex & Suffolk Instructors
Yes, the DVSA tests a pull up on the right and reverse. To pass, you must show excellent observation, accurate positioning close to the kerb and controlled reversing for around two car lengths. Get the effective observations wrong or mount the pavement, and you're looking at a serious fault. Everything else about this manoeuvre is detail; observation and control are the two things the examiner is actually marking.
Key Points:
- Accurate observations are critical and must be performed with effective blindspot checks, not just a mirror glance, before moving and reversing.
- Practising the full sequence repeatedly, especially the blindspot checks, until it becomes automatic significantly reduces test failure rates.
- Proper control involves reversing slowly and straight, maintaining consistent kerb distance, and using static features as a fixed reference point.
- The manoeuvre is most likely to fail due to poor observation, mounting the kerb, or misjudging traffic gaps, all of which can be fixed with targeted drills.
- Pulling up on the right is appropriate in specific real-life scenarios like blocked left kerbs or parked vehicles, but always obey safety rules and check for cyclists.
Table of Contents
- What do examiners look for during pull up on right and reverse?
- How do you perform the pull-up-on-the-right manoeuvre?
- What faults cause a fail, and how do you fix them?
- Is it ever right to pull up on the right in real life?
- How can you practise this manoeuvre until it becomes second nature?
- How we teach pull up on the right at Costello's Driving School
- The manoeuvre that separates readiness from luck
- Book instructor-led practice for this manoeuvre
- Sources
- FAQ
What do examiners look for during pull up on right and reverse?
The examiner is watching five things at once: your observation (including blind spots), your control of the car, your positioning against the kerb, your signalling, and your judgement of gaps in traffic. None of these are optional extras. Miss one and it shows up on the mark sheet.
Observation carries the most weight. Before you cross to the right, before you reverse, and before you move off again, you need a proper look over your shoulder rather than a quick glance at the mirror. DVSA Despatch has written specifically about why examiners test this, framing it as a check on real observational habits rather than a memorised routine.
The line between a minor fault and a serious one is usually about consequence, not effort. Drifting six inches from the kerb while reversing is a minor. Reversing into the road because you didn't check your right shoulder is a serious fault, because it put you or someone else at risk. That distinction runs through the whole test.
One detail catches learners out every year: the examiner gives the instruction while you're still driving normally, not after you've already pulled over somewhere convenient. According to guidance on how driving test instructions are delivered, you'll be told something like "pull up on the right just after the next junction" while the car is moving, and you need to plan and execute the whole thing in real traffic conditions.
What the examiner is actually scoring:
- Blind spot checks before crossing, before reversing, and before rejoining traffic
- Smooth, controlled steering with no harsh corrections
- Kerb positioning that stays consistent throughout the reverse
- Signal use that's timely and cancelled appropriately
- Gap selection that doesn't force other drivers to brake or swerve
Official DVSA fault categories confirm that poor observation, mounting the kerb, and misjudging oncoming traffic are the three faults examiners record most often on this manoeuvre.
How do you perform the pull-up-on-the-right manoeuvre?
Treat this as a fixed sequence, not a set of loose ideas. Practise it in the same order every single time until it's automatic.
- Mirror, signal, move. As soon as the examiner gives the instruction, check your interior and right door mirrors, signal right, and make sure its safe before you begin to move across.
- Cross only when the gap is genuinely safe. Don't cross because a gap "should" be enough. Wait until you're certain, then move across smoothly, keeping your speed steady.
- Stop parallel to the kerb, roughly 20 to 30 cm away. Too close and you risk clipping the kerb; too far out and you're blocking more of the road than necessary. Learner-facing guidance on this manoeuvre treats that 20 to 30 cm gap as the practical target examiners are comfortable with.
- Secure the car. Handbrake on (or auto hold engaged if you're driving an automatic), and select neutral if you're in a manual. Don't skip this before you start looking round.
- Look right over your left and right shoulders before reversing. This is the single check examiners flag most often when it's missing. - Effective all round observation is A MUST before the csar begins to move.
- Reverse slowly and dead straight , correcting with small steering movements rather than big ones. Keep your speed at walking pace throughout.
- Pick a fixed kerb feature as your distance marker and stop level with it. A lamp post, a drain cover, a driveway edge, anything static works. The DVSA's own description of the manoeuvre confirms the expected distance is roughly two car lengths.
- Secure the car again , then perform a full 360-degree sweep, starting with the right rear blind spot, then working round through your mirrors to the left side and finally forward.
- Signal if it's needed, then move off only when you're certain it's clear. Don't rush this final check because you feel like the manoeuvre is "basically done."
Pro Tip: Pick your kerb reference point the moment you stop, not halfway through the reverse. Glancing around mid manoeuvre looking for a marker is exactly the kind of hesitation that costs marks.
The whole sequence tends to run for less than two minutes on test, and practitioner guidance puts the actual manoeuvre itself at around 90 seconds once you're moving. That's not much time to fix a mistake, which is exactly why the order of checks matters more than speed.
What faults cause a fail, and how do you fix them?
Three faults account for most fails on this manoeuvre, and all three are avoidable with the right drills.
Missing a blind spot check before reversing or moving off is the single most common immediate fail. A mirror glance doesn't count; the examiner wants to see your head turn to ensure you've assessed the whole area completely. Instructor training resources flag this as the leading cause of test failure on this manoeuvre, often because pupils rehearse the steering and forget the observation under pressure.
Mounting the pavement happens almost always because the car isn't kept dead straight during the reverse, or because oversteering was used to correct a small drift and overcorrected the other way.
Misjudging oncoming traffic shows up either when crossing to the right initially or when rejoining after the reverse. Both moments require the same discipline: wait for a gap you're certain about, not one that "might" work.
Minor faults cluster too. Drift away from the kerb, a slight kerb touch, and a signal cancelled a beat too late can each be recorded as minors individually, but three or four of them together on the same manoeuvre often tips the whole thing into a serious fault. The DVSA doesn't just count faults in isolation; it looks at the pattern.
Fixes that actually work in lessons:
- Shoulder-check repetition drills, done stationary first, then moving, until the head turn becomes reflexive rather than deliberate.
- Slow, straight reversing practice using minimal steering input, ideally on a quiet road with no pressure to rush.
- The fixed-reference two-car-length drill, reversing to the same marker repeatedly until distance judgement becomes instinctive.
Guidance on common fail patterns links most of these failures back to one root cause: too few repetitions before test day, not a lack of understanding.
Is it ever right to pull up on the right in real life?
Left-side stopping is still the default and always should be your first instinct once you've passed.
However, pulling up on the right is genuinely the sensible choice in several everyday UK situations, and the test exists partly because DVSA Despatch is explicit that this is real-world driving, not an artificial exam exercise.
Situations where the right-hand side is the only sensible option:
- Double yellow lines running along the entire left-hand kerb
- A Blue Badge parking bay positioned on the right side of the road
- Driveways or dropped kerbs on the left that you'd otherwise block
- Parked vehicles or roadworks occupying the whole left kerb
Even then, a few safety points don't change. Never stop somewhere that forces other drivers to swerve around you. Watch carefully for cyclists filtering past on the offside as you cross and as you reverse; instructor resources highlight this specifically as an overlooked risk. And never stop across a driveway entrance or close enough to a junction to obstruct visibility for other road users.
How can you practise this manoeuvre until it becomes second nature?
Repetition beats theory here, every time. Learners who read about the steps but only try them two or three times before test day are the ones who freeze when the examiner actually gives the instruction.
A session built around this manoeuvre should run in stages:
- Warm up on a quiet road with no traffic pressure, just to get the steering feel and kerb distance right.
- Run 8 to 12 full repetitions of the complete sequence, from the initial instruction through to rejoining traffic. This is the range that practitioner data links to a meaningful drop in cold-test failures.
- Move to busier roads once the sequence is smooth, so you're practising the observation and gap judgement under genuine pressure, not just the steering.
- Finish with a consolidation run on a road that resembles an actual test route, ideally with your instructor giving the instruction cold, the same way an examiner would.
Specific drills worth repeating on their own, outside the full sequence:
- The right-shoulder habit drill. Stop the car, then simply practise the shoulder check in isolation, dozens of times, until it's not something you have to consciously remember.
- The fixed kerb-feature reference. One instructor tip that works reliably: pick a lamp post, drain cover, or similar static object and reverse to it at walking pace every time, building spatial judgement without ever measuring distance with a tape.
- Slow-straight reversing with a second pair of eyes. Have your instructor watch from outside the car occasionally, so you get feedback on drift you might not notice from the driver's seat.
Pro Tip: Ask yourself three questions every time you finish a repetition: did I check my right shoulder before reversing, did I stay straight, and did I do the full 360-degree sweep before moving off? If you can't answer yes to all three, do it again before moving on.
If you're still hesitating on the shoulder checks or drifting off the kerb line after a full practice block, it's worth booking a focused lesson with a driving instructor rather than pushing straight into a test. A pattern that hasn't cleared up after 8 to 12 repetitions rarely fixes itself under exam pressure.
How we teach pull up on the right at Costello's Driving School
Costello's Driving School has been teaching this manoeuvre across Essex and Suffolk since it was introduced into the practical driving test and the pattern with pupils rarely changes: the steering and positioning come quickly, but the blind spot check under pressure takes deliberate practice to master especially whilst the car is moving.
Our DVSA-approved instructors know the local test routes around Chelmsford, Colchester, Hornchurch, Ipswich, and Brentwood well enough to know exactly where examiners tend to ask for this manoeuvre, which means practice sessions can mirror the real thing closely rather than guessing at a generic road layout.
The pupils who struggle most aren't the ones who don't understand the steps. They're the ones who've only tried the manoeuvre a handful of times before test day. Once someone's done it twelve times on a real road, with real traffic gaps to judge, the hesitation disappears. It becomes something they do, not something they're thinking through.
Lessons run in manual or automatic dual-control cars, with weekend availability for learners juggling work or study around their practice.
The manoeuvre that separates readiness from luck
Most driving guides treat pull up on the right as a checklist to memorise: cross, stop, reverse, check, go. That framing misses the point. The DVSA didn't design this manoeuvre to test whether you can follow steps; it designed it to test whether your observation habits hold up when you're not being prompted through them. That's a much harder thing to fake on the day.
The conventional advice, "practise it a few times before your test", genuinely undersells what's needed. A handful of attempts teaches you the sequence. It doesn't teach your head to turn automatically before you reverse, and that automatic response is precisely what separates a pass from a serious fault here. Volume and repetition matter more than most learners are told.
If you take one thing from this guide, prioritise the blindspot check above everything else. Get that reflexive, and the steering, positioning and gap judgement tend to follow because you're no longer thinking about the checklist. You're just driving, which is exactly what the examiner wants to see.
— Dean
Book instructor-led practice for this manoeuvre
Reading the steps gets you halfway there; the shoulder-check reflex and kerb judgement only come from doing it, repeatedly, with someone watching who knows exactly what an examiner is looking for. Costello's Driving School gives you that in dual-control manual or automatic cars, with instructors who know the local test routes around Essex, Suffolk and East London well enough to practise this manoeuvre on roads that resemble the real thing.
Whether you need a handful of focused sessions on this one manoeuvre or a full run at your test, our driving lessons fit around weekends and busy schedules. If you're closer to test day than you'd like and need faster progress, the Guaranteed Pass course concentrates the same drills, shoulder checks, kerb references, straight reversing, into an intensive block designed to get you test ready sooner. Book a lesson and put the reverse-right routine into practice on a real road, not just on paper.
Sources
FAQ
Can you pull up on the right during your driving test?
Yes. It's one of the manoeuvres the DVSA may ask you to perform, and it involves reversing roughly two car lengths before rejoining traffic safely.
Is there anywhere in the UK that drives on the right?
No, the whole of the UK drives on the left. Pulling up on the right refers to stopping on the opposite side of the road from your normal driving position, not a different driving system.
How do you pull up on the right for the driving test?
Signal and check your shoulder before crossing when the gap is safe, stop parallel to the kerb around 20 to 30 cm away, secure the car, then reverse slowly and straight for about two car lengths using a fixed kerb feature as your marker, checking constantly before you move off again.
What are the driving test rules for 2026?
The core practical test structure, including this manoeuvre, hasn't changed; the DVSA continues to assess observation, control and positioning the same way it has for several years. Always check gov.uk directly before your test date for any updates specific to your booking.
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