Taxi Knowledge Test Revision: A 4-Week Council Plan

Good taxi knowledge test revision looks much the same whichever council licenses you. The format changes from place to place, but the work does not: read the council's own rules, revise the Highway Code and the law, learn safeguarding and equality, learn the area, practise fares if they are tested, then sit timed mocks until you are well above the pass mark. This guide turns that into a four-week plan you can start today.

If you haven't yet checked what your council's test looks like, start with our council taxi knowledge test hub. It compares the format, pass rule, fee and retake rule for 15 councils. UK Driver Licence Prep is an independent study aid, not part of any council, and we can't promise anyone a pass. What we can show you is a revision method that doesn't leave gaps.

Step one: know exactly what you are revising for

Many drivers revise for "the knowledge test" in general and then find their council tests something they skipped. Before you plan a single day, find these five facts on your council's licensing pages or by asking the licensing team:

Question to answer	Why it matters for revision
How many questions, and how long?	Sets your pace in mocks
What is the pass mark?	Sets your target score
Is there a minimum in each section?	One weak section can fail you on its own
Are there questions you must get right?	These topics need 100%, not 80%
Is there a local area or route section?	Decides how much map work you need

The differences are large. When we checked in October 2026, Birmingham's private hire test had 18 questions and Liverpool's had 110. Cambridge, Oxford and Sheffield needed 80% in every section, Sevenoaks needed 100% on its compulsory questions, and Stroud set separate minimums for law and the Highway Code. Kirklees has no local topography test at all. Your revision plan has to fit your own test, not someone else's.

Key fact: Look for the per-section rule before the overall pass mark. A high total won't save you if one section is below the line.

What almost every council tests

The detail varies, but the core is shared. Councils license drivers under the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 (hackney carriages) and Part II of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 (private hire), and must be satisfied you are a "fit and proper" person, which means safe, honest and competent to carry the public. The knowledge test is part of that judgement, so it checks the same broad areas everywhere:

Area	What to revise	Where to start
Council policy and conditions	Badges, plates, reporting deadlines, dress, conduct, vehicle rules	Your council's policy document
Law	Hackney carriage vs private hire, plying for hire, licensing offences	Plying for hire
Highway Code and signs	Rules for drivers, stopping, signs and markings	Highway Code for taxi drivers
Safeguarding	Signs of exploitation, what to do, who to call	Safeguarding questions
Equality and disability	Wheelchair users, assistance dogs, exemptions	Equality Act for taxi drivers
Local area and routes	Stations, hospitals, hotels, main roads	Your council's page and a map
Fares and numeracy	Reading a fare table, extras, change	Your council's fare table
Customer service	Lost property, complaints, difficult passengers	Your council's conditions

The free council exam guide and the law and policy note cover the shared core in plain English.

Before week 1: take a free diagnostic

Every council we cover has its own free diagnostic: 20 questions in that council's style (18 for Birmingham), each with an explanation. Pick your council from the practice hub and take it before you read anything. For example, Wolverhampton applicants can start with the Wolverhampton diagnostic and Sheffield applicants with the Sheffield diagnostic.

Write down your score for each topic. That tells you where your four weeks should go. A driver who already knows the Highway Code well but has never read the council's conditions needs a different plan from someone new to UK roads.

The four-week taxi knowledge test revision plan

Plan for about an hour a day on weekdays and a longer session at the weekend. If your test is sooner, squeeze the same steps into fewer days rather than dropping one.

Week	Main focus	Practice
1	Council policy, licence conditions and the law	Diagnostic, then local policy and law topic practice
2	Highway Code, road signs, safeguarding and equality	Highway Code, signs, safeguarding and equality topic practice
3	Local area, routes and fares	Local area, route planning and fares topic practice; map work every day
4	Full mocks under the timer and weak sections	Free mock 1, then further mocks; error log review

Week 1: the council's own rules

Download your council's taxi and private hire licensing policy and the driver licence conditions. These are the documents most drivers skip, and they are where many local questions come from.

Read them with a pen and pull out:

• Every deadline. How many days to report a change of address, a conviction, an accident or a medical condition. Councils set different limits, so learn your council's figures, not a number from a forum.
• Every "must not". Smoking, eating, using a phone, refusing a fare, plying for hire in a private hire car.
• What you must carry or display. Badge, plates, door signs, fare card, receipts.
• What changes between hackney and private hire. If you aren't sure of the difference, read our private hire vs hackney carriage comparison first.

Then practise the local policy and law topics on your council's route. On Wolverhampton's route, for example, use local policy practice and law practice.

Week 2: Highway Code, safeguarding and equality

These topics are shared by almost every council, so the revision is the same everywhere.

For the Highway Code, work from the official Highway Code on GOV.UK and the DfT's Know Your Traffic Signs. Focus on the hierarchy of road users, stopping distances, junctions, signals, parking and road markings. Many experienced drivers lose marks here because they drive by habit and haven't read the code since their driving test.

For safeguarding, learn the warning signs of child sexual exploitation, county lines and abuse of vulnerable adults, and, more importantly, what a driver should do: report concerns, call 999 if someone is in immediate danger, and not confront anyone. The DfT's statutory taxi and private hire vehicle standards explain why councils put so much weight on this.

For equality, be exact about wheelchair users, assistance dogs and medical exemptions. Questions often offer a nearly-right answer, such as refusing a dog because of a religious belief or allergy without an exemption certificate.

Exam tip: Most knowledge test questions about safeguarding are not "what is this?" but "what should you do?". Revise the actions, not just the definitions.

Week 3: the area, routes and fares

If your council tests local knowledge, this is often the largest section. Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham's hackney test lean heavily on places and routes. A few minutes a day for three weeks works better than one long session.

A method that works:

1. Build a list of places. Railway and bus stations, hospitals, police stations, the council offices, large hotels, universities, shopping centres, sports grounds and main landmarks. Many councils publish a list or example paper: use it.
2. Learn the main roads first. Ring roads and main routes in and out of the centre. Once these are fixed, places hang off them.
3. Test yourself both ways. Name the road a place is on, then name the places on a road.
4. Practise routes on a map. Councils that test routes usually want the shortest legal route, not the quickest. Birmingham, Nottingham and Sheffield all say so in their guidance.

If your council tests fares, practise the sums until they are boring. Here is a worked example using a made-up tariff, so you can see the method. Your council's real fare table will have different numbers.

Example tariff (not a real council's)	Amount
Starting charge, first 1/4 mile	£3.00
Each further 1/8 mile	£0.20
Waiting time, per minute	£0.30
Extra passenger	£0.50 each

A journey of 2 1/4 miles with 3 minutes waiting and 2 extra passengers:

1. First 1/4 mile: £3.00.
2. Remaining 2 miles = 16 eighths of a mile. 16 × £0.20 = £3.20.
3. Waiting: 3 × £0.30 = £0.90.
4. Extra passengers: 2 × £0.50 = £1.00.
5. Total: £3.00 + £3.20 + £0.90 + £1.00 = £8.10. Change from a £10 note: £1.90.

Write out each step on paper the first few times. In the test, most fare errors come from forgetting the first part of the distance is already covered by the starting charge.

Take your council's free diagnostic now

If you haven't done it yet, stop here and take your council's free diagnostic from the practice hub. It has 20 questions (18 for Birmingham) and shows which of the areas above are already strong and which need your time. The plan works much better when you know which week to spend longest on.

Week 4: full mocks and weak sections

In the final week, sit full mocks in your council's format, with the timer on and nothing else open. Every council route has a free mock 1. For example: Wolverhampton mock 1 (28 questions, 45 minutes in our mock), Liverpool mock 1 (110 questions; 120 minutes in our mock) or Sheffield mock 1 (40 questions, 60 minutes, 80% in each section). Where a council doesn't publish its time limit, our mock uses a stated assumption, and each council page says which.

After each mock, mark your score by section, not just overall. If one section is below your council's per-section rule, spend the next day on that section only.

Keep an error log

Every wrong answer in practice gets one line in a notebook: the topic, what you chose, why it was wrong, and the correct rule in your own words. After a week, you will see whether you are losing marks because you don't know a rule, because you misread the question, or because two options looked alike. Each needs a different fix:

• Didn't know it: re-read the source and do that topic's practice again.
• Misread it: slow down and underline key words such as "not", "must" and "first".
• Two options looked alike: compare them side by side and write down what makes one wrong.

Read your error log every morning in week 4. It is the most personal revision material you will have.

When are you ready to book?

Use the readiness rule from our app: three full mocks in a row at 85% or more, and above your council's per-section minimum in every section. That margin covers nerves and questions worded in a way you haven't seen.

Your mock results	What to do
Three in a row at 85%+, every section above the line	Book or sit as planned
Overall fine, one section weak	Spend two or three days on that section, then retest
Below the pass mark overall	Move the test if you can; repeat weeks 1 to 3 on your weakest areas

Retake rules vary. When we checked, Wolverhampton allowed three sittings before a 12-month wait, Cambridge three attempts in 12 months and York up to six tests, while others charge the full fee for every attempt. Check your council's rule before you book, so a rushed attempt doesn't cost you more than money.

What printed and free materials can and can't do

Every council route has a free printable sheet of questions with an answer key, for example the Wolverhampton print sheet, which you can print or save as a PDF for revision away from a screen. It is useful for the bus or a break at work.

Be careful with anything online that claims to be the real test paper. Councils don't publish their live question banks, so a "real questions PDF" is either old, copied without permission, or made up. Our taxi knowledge test questions and answers page explains which councils publish official sample material and how questions are usually asked.

Free practice and Pro

You can follow most of this plan for free. For every council we cover, the free tools are a diagnostic, a full mock 1 in that council's format, a 20-question quick practice with explanations, the free study notes and the printable sheet.

Week 4 is where one mock usually isn't enough. Pro unlocks mocks 2 to 10, practice by section and every study note for all 15 councils and the TfL tests. Council banks hold between 2,217 and 2,314 questions each, with about 2,000 shared core questions and the rest written for that council's policy, fares and area. Prices include VAT and you can cancel any time:

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

For a four-week plan, the monthly plan usually fits best. See pricing. Pro gives you more practice in your council's format with an explanation for every answer. It doesn't contain the council's real questions and can't guarantee a pass; the revision above is what gets you there.

Start today: open your council's page from the hub, take the free diagnostic, and download your council's licensing policy.