Two test centres in the same city, run by the same agency under the same rules, can pass very different shares of the candidates who book them. The Western Australian freedom of information release 2026-0140, checked on 27 August 2026, puts Midland at 28.3% and Cannington at 56.4% across a dataset of 244,557 assessments at 22 centres. That is a 28 point gap.
What the national picture looks like
Before comparing centres it helps to see the states. Western Australia's practical driving assessment passed 42.3% across those 244,557 assessments. New South Wales driving tests pass around 56% statewide. Queensland's Q-SAFE practical passes around 61%. Victoria's drive test passed 72.2% across 492,504 tests between January 2024 and April 2026 under freedom of information. Tasmania sits around 86%, and that last one is the site's only pass rate with no publisher named against it. The rest were checked on 27 August 2026.
A learner in Hobart and a learner in Perth are sitting tests with roughly double the difference in outcome, which is a strange fact for a country with substantially harmonised road rules. Within a single state, the centre level gaps can be nearly as large.
What actually causes the gap
The first cause is the roads. A test route through dense multi lane traffic with complex intersections, heavy pedestrian movement and difficult merges asks more of a candidate than a route through quieter suburban streets. Centres do not choose their surroundings.
The second is who books there. Centres near driving schools, near universities, or in areas where learners have less access to a supervising driver see different candidate populations. A centre's pass rate is as much a measurement of its intake as of its difficulty.
The third is capacity and waiting. Long waits change behaviour: candidates book earlier in their preparation to secure a slot, and turn up less ready. The New South Wales testing backlog was covered by the ABC in August 2025, and Queensland publishes booking wait times by location as open data, which is one of the few places this effect can be looked at directly.
Examiner variation is the explanation people reach for first and the one with the least support. Examiners work to a documented assessment standard with defined critical errors. A 28 point spread is far too large to be personality.
How to use the numbers
Use them to choose where to practise, not just where to book. If a centre's routes involve multi lane roundabouts and heavy merges, that is what you should have been driving for weeks beforehand. Preparing for the route is legitimate. It is also what the test is asking about.
Where you have a genuine choice between centres and the difference is large, taking the number into account is reasonable. Just be honest about the trade: a centre an hour away that passes ten points more may cost you an unfamiliar drive on the morning of the test, and unfamiliarity is one of the things that produces critical errors.
Do not treat a pass rate as a probability that applies to you. It describes a population. A prepared candidate at a hard centre passes far more often than an unprepared one at an easy centre, and the Victorian attempt data makes the point cleanly: first attempts pass 74.2% and fifth attempts 51.7%, from the same freedom of information release. Preparation moves your number much further than location does.
How this guide is kept honest
Every figure above names the agency or dataset it came from and the date it was checked. Where a number has not been confirmed against an agency or an open dataset, the guide says it is being verified rather than filling the gap. Licensing rules change, so check the agency page before you pay for anything or book a test.
Last reviewed .