SERU Revision: A 7-Day Plan Before Your TfL Test

Your SERU is booked and you have about a week left. This guide is a SERU revision plan for exactly that week: what to revise on each of the seven days, how to use mock tests without wasting them, and what to do on the morning of the test. It assumes you have already read the PHV Driver's Handbook at least once. If you haven't started yet, a week is tight, and our three-week plan on the SERU pass rate page is the better place to begin.

UK Driver Licence Prep is an independent study aid. We are not part of TfL, and nobody can promise you a pass. What a good last week does is turn what you have read into marks.

What you are revising for

Before you plan the week, be clear about the target. The SERU (Safety, Equality and Regulatory Understanding) assessment is a computer-based test at TfL's Driver Assessment Centre at 14 Pier Walk, North Greenwich. It is based on the PHV Driver's Handbook, which has ten sections.

TfL hasn't published the question count or pass mark for the private hire SERU. Most candidates report 36 questions and a 60% pass mark, which matches what TfL published for the taxi SERU in TPH Notice 06/25 and described as similar. TfL's On Route magazine said sessions last 50 minutes, including a short video. Full details are on our SERU test format page.

Item	What to expect
Questions	Not published by TfL; most candidates report 36
Pass mark	Not published; most candidates report 60% (22 of 36)
Session	About 50 minutes including a short video
Question styles	Single-answer, select-all, short reading passages, fill in missing words from a list
Fee	£40, re-sit £30 (from 9 March 2026, TPH Notice 05/26)
Where	TfL Driver Assessment Centre, 14 Pier Walk, London SE10 0ES

Key fact: Questions are picked from all ten handbook sections, so your last week must touch every section, even the ones you feel safe on.

The handbook sections at a glance

Use this table as your revision checklist. Each section has a matching free or Pro practice set, so you can test a section the same day you revise it.

#	Handbook section	Practice link
1	Driver licensing	Licensing practice
2	PHV requirements	PHV requirements practice
3	PHV journeys	Journeys practice
4	Staying safe	Staying safe practice
5	Driver behaviour	Driver behaviour practice
6	Driving and parking in London	Driving and parking practice
7	Safer driving	Safer driving practice
8	Equality and disability	Equality practice
9	Safeguarding	Safeguarding practice
10	Ridesharing	Ridesharing practice

The free SERU exam guide and the driver licensing note are good companions to the handbook for days 1 and 2.

Day 0: find out where you stand

Before Day 1, take the free SERU diagnostic. It has 20 questions from across the handbook. Don't revise for it. The point is an honest starting score.

When you finish, sort the sections into three groups:

• Red: you got most questions wrong or guessed.
• Amber: you got some right but weren't sure why.
• Green: you got them right and could explain the answer.

Your week below gives extra time to red sections. If almost everything is red, think hard about moving your booking. A re-sit costs £30 and another trip to Greenwich, and a few more days of study cost far less.

Your 7-day SERU revision plan

Each day has three parts: a short reading block, topic practice, and ten sentence-completion questions. Plan for about 90 minutes a day. If you work full time, split it into two sessions.

Day	Revise	Practice	Daily extra
1	Sections 1 and 2: licensing and PHV requirements	Licensing and PHV requirements sets	10 fill-in-the-blank questions
2	Sections 3 and 10: journeys and ridesharing	Journeys and ridesharing sets	10 fill-in-the-blank questions
3	Sections 4 and 5: staying safe and driver behaviour	Staying safe and driver behaviour sets	10 fill-in-the-blank questions
4	Sections 6 and 7: driving, parking and safer driving	Driving and parking, safer driving sets	10 fill-in-the-blank questions
5	Sections 8 and 9: equality and safeguarding	Equality and safeguarding sets; free mock 1 in the evening	Review every mock mistake
6	Your red sections from the diagnostic and mock	A second full mock under the timer	Error log review
7	Light review only: your error log and numbers sheet	One last mock or none, your choice	Early night

Days 1 to 4: section by section

Read the two sections for the day with a pen. You are not reading for the general idea any more. You are hunting for the details that questions turn on:

• Numbers and deadlines. Write every time limit, age and count on one sheet of paper. For example, drivers granted a licence from 1 July 2024 must report an arrest, charge, caution or conviction within 48 hours. Similar-looking deadlines are a classic source of wrong answers.
• "Must" and "should". A "must" is a legal or licence requirement. A "should" is advice. Options often swap them.
• Who you tell. TfL, the police, your operator, or the passenger. Many questions are really asking who is responsible.

Then do the topic practice for those sections straight away and read the explanation for every question, including the ones you got right. A correct guess teaches you nothing unless you check why it was correct.

Day 5: equality, safeguarding and your first full mock

Equality and safeguarding are worth leaving until the middle of the week because they need judgement as well as facts. In equality, be exact about assistance dogs, wheelchair users and medical exemptions. In safeguarding, the marks are usually lost on what you do next, not on spotting the problem. If you haven't completed TfL's free online Safeguarding Awareness course, do it today. TfL expects it before the SERU, and it helps with these questions. Our safeguarding questions guide and Equality Act guide explain the rules in plain English.

In the evening, sit the free SERU mock 1 in one go, with the timer on and your phone in another room. Our mocks use 36 questions in 50 minutes with a pass line of 22, to match what candidates report.

Day 6: fix, don't cram

Day 6 is for your weak spots, not for new reading. Open your error log (see below), pick the three sections where you lost the most marks, and re-read only the pages behind those mistakes. Then take a second full mock. Our SERU mock test guide explains how to review a mock properly, which matters more than the score itself.

Day 7: light review and rest

On the last day, read your numbers sheet and your error log twice, and stop there. Tired drivers misread questions, and a misread question is a lost mark even when you know the rule. If you want one last mock, do it in the morning, not late at night.

Take the free diagnostic before you plan anything

If you only do one thing today, take the free SERU diagnostic. It has 20 questions and shows each answer with an explanation. Your score decides how you use the week: mostly correct means you can follow the plan above as written; mostly wrong means you need more than seven days, and it is better to know that now than at Pier Walk.

Sentence completion: ten a day

The fill-in-the-blank questions give you a short text with gaps and a list of words. You choose the right word for each gap. They test English grammar as well as handbook knowledge, and many drivers who know the rules lose marks here.

A quick method that works for most people:

1. Read the whole text first, without filling anything in.
2. For each gap, decide what kind of word fits: a noun, a verb, an adjective. Check whether it should be singular or plural, past or present.
3. Fill the gaps you are sure about first. Each word you use removes one option.
4. Read the finished text once more. If a sentence sounds wrong, it usually is.

Ten a day for the whole week gives you 70 questions of practice in this style. Our SERU fill in the blanks guide goes through the method with worked examples, and the free printable SERU sheet is useful if you want to practise on paper on the bus.

Exam tip: In a select-all question, judge each option on its own as true or false. Don't stop at the first correct one.

Keep a one-page error log

Every time you get a practice question wrong, write one line:

Section	What I chose	Why it was wrong	The rule in my own words
Licensing	7 days	Mixed up two deadlines	Arrests and charges: 48 hours (licence from July 2024)

After two or three days, you will see a pattern. Most drivers find that their mistakes are one of three types: they didn't know the rule, they misread the question, or they fell for an option that was nearly right. Each type has a different fix. Not knowing means re-reading. Misreading means slowing down and underlining key words. Falling for near-misses means comparing options side by side before answering.

Pacing on the day

If your test has 36 questions and the session lasts about 50 minutes including a video, you have a little over a minute per question. Reading passages take longer, so you need to bank time on the quick questions.

• Answer the questions you know straight away.
• If a question takes more than two minutes, choose your best answer, flag it if the system lets you, and move on.
• Leave a few minutes at the end to check flagged questions and anything you answered in a hurry.

Practise this pacing in your Day 5 and Day 6 mocks so it feels normal on the day.

The morning of the test

Bring	Don't bring or do
Original photo ID	Arrive late: you won't be allowed to sit
A payment card (TfL doesn't accept American Express)	Expect to use your phone: it must be switched off
Your booking details	Start new reading on the train

Plan your journey to North Greenwich with time to spare, and read TfL's SERU page once more for any recent changes. On the train, read your numbers sheet, then put it away. Our SERU booking guide covers check-in and results.

If you are also sitting the Topographical test or the speaking and listening test on the same visit, the PCO licence guide shows how the three assessments fit together.

Are you ready to sit it?

Use the same rule as our app: three full mocks in a row at 85% or more. That is well above the reported pass line, and it leaves room for nerves, unfamiliar wording and one bad section.

Your recent mock scores	What to do
Three in a row at 85% or more	Sit the test as booked
Mostly 70% to 84%	Usable, but spend Day 6 and Day 7 on weak sections; consider a few more days
Below 70%	Move your booking if you can and follow a longer plan

If you do fail, you will get a results letter, and TfL can give a breakdown of your results on request. Ask for it. It tells you which areas to fix before your £30 re-sit.

Free practice and Pro

Everything in the 7-day plan up to Day 5 works with free tools: the 20-question diagnostic, full SERU mock 1, a 20-question quick practice with explanations, the free study notes and the printable sheet.

The second half of the week is where most drivers want more papers. Pro unlocks SERU mocks 2 to 10, practice by section for all ten handbook sections, and every study note. One plan covers all 18 tests we offer, including the Topographical, so you don't pay twice if you are sitting both. Prices include VAT and you can cancel any time:

Plan	Price
Weekly	£6.99
Monthly	£11.99
3 months	£22.99

For a one-week revision push, the weekly plan is enough. See pricing for details. Pro gives you more practice in the same format with an explanation for every answer. It doesn't give you the real questions, which TfL doesn't publish, and it can't guarantee a pass. The revision still has to be yours.

Start today with the free SERU diagnostic, then work through the plan one day at a time.