Manoeuvre Lab Get the complete set
Hannah Tolley

For learners who've failed and don't know why

Know What the Examiner Wants to See

Junctions, stalls and manoeuvres, one step at a time. Every DVSA rule comes word for word, with its source. I wrote these books after failing my test three times.

WHAT THE EXAMINER MARKS — Vol. I THE REFERENCE POINT GUIDE — Vol. III MOVE OFF WITHOUT STALLING — Vol. II
$37All three books
Vol. I and II alone: $38Vol. III only comes in the set
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Three books, the same steps in each

Vol. I and Vol. II come on their own or in the set. Vol. III only comes in the set.

What the Examiner Marks

Vol. I

What the Examiner Marks

The most common test faults, the fix for each, and a calm test-day plan

For the faults that keep turning up on your result: junctions, mirrors, roundabouts and hesitating.

  • 140 pages and 7 chapters, from “What the examiner writes down” to “Hesitation, gaps and cars behind you”.
  • 17 step-by-step instructor methods, each with the DVSA rule it serves, quoted word for word.
  • Chapters include “Looking properly at junctions” and “Roundabouts and mini-roundabouts”, plus Test Day, Minute by Minute and Fix It by Symptom.
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Best value

The Reference Point Guide: all 3 books

The Reference Point Guide: all 3 books

Vol. I is the road and the test. Vol. II is your feet. Vol. III is every manoeuvre, and it only comes here. Each book points you to the others instead of repeating them.

  • What the Examiner Marks: junctions, mirrors, roundabouts, hesitating and test day
  • Move Off Without Stalling: the biting point, hill starts, queues and a different car
  • The Reference Point Guide: which way to turn the wheel, your own reference points and every reversing exercise
$37All three books
Vol. I and II alone: $38Vol. III only comes in the set
Get the complete set
Move Off Without Stalling

Vol. II

Move Off Without Stalling

Clutch control, the biting point and hill starts in any manual car

For the stall at the lights with a queue behind you, and the hill start that rolls back.

  • 140 pages and 8 chapters, from “Why a Car Stalls” to “When It Stalls: the Calm Restart”.
  • 16 step-by-step instructor methods, starting with the pedals and the engine off.
  • Chapters include “Find the Biting Point in Any Car” and “Hill Starts Without Rolling Back”, plus Moving to the Home Car and Fix It by Symptom.
$19Get this book
Hannah Tolley holding The Reference Point Guide in an empty car park early in the morning.

Why I drew it all from above

My first test, March 2013. Hands damp on the wheel, indicator ticking louder than it ought to. I stopped at the give way line, looked right, looked left, and started lifting the clutch while my head was still swinging back. A car had to ease off. Nobody hooted. The examiner just wrote something down, and I knew.

I failed three times, in three different ways. I like to think of it as range. The worst part wasn't failing. It was driving home each time without really knowing why.

A week after the third one, I was eating a sandwich at work and drawing Church Hill on the back of a yard plan. Pat, who ran planning then, tapped the page. Every lorry in our yard did the same steps in the same order, she said, or the yard jammed. So why was I doing it differently every time?

That night I started a spiral notebook. One page per junction or manoeuvre, drawn from above, with the steps down the side. I passed on my fourth go, in November 2014. My niece Maisie says those notebooks were wasted in a kitchen drawer. These three books are what was in them, with what DVSA actually says next to every step.

Same steps. Slow car, look all round.Hannah

How each chapter works

Every chapter in all three books has the same parts, in the same order. You always know where you are.

  1. Why it goes wrong

    What the car is doing and what you're doing, drawn from above. Sometimes I start with one of my own fails.

  2. What DVSA says

    The rule in DVSA's own words, from GOV.UK, the Highway Code or the National standard for driving, with where it comes from. If there's nothing on the point, I say so.

  3. Instructor method

    The steps, numbered. On the road and in every manoeuvre they follow one routine: Mirrors, Signal, Manoeuvre, Position, Speed, Look. It's clearly marked as an instructor's method, not DVSA's. You adjust it to your car.

  4. How you know it's right

    What you can check with the car stopped: where you ended up, the wheels, the gap to the kerb.

  5. Common faults

    The usual mistakes and the fix for each. When the test has a name for it, you get DVSA's name.

  6. Stop · Look · Adjust

    What to do when it goes wrong: stop the car, look all round, put it right slowly.

  7. Take it slower

    First with the car parked and the engine off, then at walking pace, then the whole thing. With a note on seat and mirrors, and one for automatics.

  8. From the passenger seat

    For whoever sits next to you: what to watch, what to say and when. Calm words instead of shouting, and hands off the wheel unless there's danger.

The Reference Point Guide

What's inside Vol. III

Every DVSA reversing exercise, step by step

For the bay park, the parallel park and that moment when you can't tell which way to turn the wheel.

  • 169 pages and 9 chapters, from “Same Steps, Every Manoeuvre” to “Parking After You Pass”.
  • 10 step-by-step instructor methods, and Your Reference Point Sheets to print and fill in for your own car.
  • Chapters include “Which Way to Turn the Wheel”, “Find Your Own Reference Points” and “Parallel Park”, plus Fix It by Symptom and Your 6-Week Plan.
$37All three books
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These books are for you if

  • You've failed once, twice or more, and the result didn't really tell you why.
  • You can drive on lessons, but on the test your nerves take over.
  • You stall at the lights, or roll back on a hill with a queue behind you.
  • You dread the parallel park or the bay park, and you'd like to see what the car is doing from above.
  • You've passed, but you still drive past spaces so you don't have to park.
  • You sit in the passenger seat for a learner and want to help without shouting.

They're not for you if

  • You want a book instead of lessons. Lessons come from a qualified driving instructor. These books are for the practice in between.
  • You want a promise that you'll pass. I can't make one honestly, and nobody else can either.
  • You want one reference point that works in every car. Yours depend on your seat and your car.
  • You want to practise without insurance, L plates or a supervisor who meets the law.
  • You're taking a test outside Great Britain. These books follow the DVSA test and the Highway Code.
Hannah at her kitchen table, drawing a car park from above in her notebook.
Hannah on a quiet sloping street early in the morning, notebook open, looking down the hill.

Meet Hannah Tolley

38, a planner at a distribution centre in Ashbrook. Failed three times, passed on the fourth.

I grew up in Ashbrook, a market town in the East Midlands, and I still live there, by the old canal basin with Ravi. At work I draw dock doors and yard lanes from above all week. I didn't learn to drive until my twenties. When I was 18, Dad took me out on the industrial estate and shouted 'CLUTCH!' so loudly I took both feet off. I didn't drive again for six years.

I'm not a driving instructor and I've never been paid to teach anyone. On Sunday mornings, with Dennis's permission, I sit in the passenger seat of my sister's hatchback in the empty staff car park while my brother Owen and my niece Maisie practise. Their lessons come from qualified instructors. I'm the calm practice afterwards.

Maisie keeps me honest. This March, I gave her my reference point for the bay. She missed four times in four different directions, then put the handbrake on and said, 'Auntie Han, that's where you see it. I sit further forward. I'm not you.' She was right. Your car, your points. That's why Vol. III teaches you to find your own.

Three fails taught me one thing. I didn't need more nerve. I needed to know why each step comes where it does.

Seven days to look them over

Read them for 7 days. If they're not for you, write to me and you get every penny back. You can tell me what didn't work, if you want to. You don't have to. The refund doesn't depend on it.

Questions I get on Sunday mornings

How do I get the books?

They arrive instantly after you pay. Nothing comes in the post. You open them on your phone, tablet or computer, and you can print them at home. If you wanted books on paper, ask for a refund and you'll get it.

Is paying safe?

You pay by card or with PayPal, on the secure payment page. I never see your card details.

Why are the prices in dollars?

The shop that takes the payment charges in US dollars. Your card or PayPal turns that into pounds at their own rate when you pay, and the payment page shows you the final amount before you confirm. It's one payment. Nothing monthly.

What if they're not for me?

Write to me within 7 days and you get your money back. No conditions. You can tell me why if you like, but you don't have to.

Will these get me through my test?

I can't promise that, and I'd be wary of anyone who does. What I can give you is what DVSA says it looks for, in its own words, and the steps to practise it. The test is still you on the day.

Do they replace my driving lessons?

No. Lessons come from a qualified driving instructor. These books are for the practice in between, and for knowing why your instructor asks for what they ask for.

Are you a driving instructor?

No. I plan yards for a living, and I failed my test three times before I passed. So I mark the difference carefully. What DVSA says is quoted word for word with its source. Everything else is labelled as an instructor's method, for you to adjust to your car.

I've just failed again. Which book do I start with?

Look at your result. If it's junctions, mirrors, roundabouts or hesitating, start with Vol. I. If it's your feet, stalling or rolling back, Vol. II. If it's a manoeuvre, Vol. III. Have a cup of tea first.

My instructor tells me what to do but never why. Will this help?

That's exactly the gap I had. Every chapter starts with why it goes wrong, drawn from above, before any steps. Take the page to your next lesson and ask about it.

I'm nervous, but I'm a logical person. I need to understand it first.

Same here. A lot of what I called nerves was a gap in understanding. Once I knew the why, the shaking got smaller. Vol. I has Test Day, Minute by Minute, so the evening before and the morning have a plan. If your anxiety is strong, please talk to your GP.

What do I do when the lane markings on a roundabout are worn away?

On my second test I followed a silver estate into its lane because it looked like it knew. It didn't. Read the sign on the approach and choose your lane before you get there. Vol. I has a whole chapter on roundabouts, worn markings included.

I'm scared of stalling on a hill with someone right behind me.

I rolled back on Church Hill on my third test, so I know that mirror full of grille. Vol. II takes the hill start apart: handbrake on, find the bite, feel the signs, then let it go. The queue can wait.

I learned in my instructor's diesel and now I stall my own car.

In my first week with my own car I stalled three times at the lights outside work, with the night-shift minibus behind me. Every car is different. Vol. II has “Find the Biting Point in Any Car” and a section on Moving to the Home Car, and for anything about your car, its handbook wins.

My dad makes me nervous when he sits next to me. Is there anything for him?

Yes. Every chapter has a part called From the passenger seat, and each book has a section For the Person in the Passenger Seat: what to watch, what to say, and calm words instead of shouting. My own dad shouted 'CLUTCH!' at me once. I wrote those pages with him in mind.

I passed years ago and I've forgotten how to parallel park.

After I passed I spent most of a year driving round town so I wouldn't have to. The last chapter of Vol. III is “Parking After You Pass”: real gaps, and someone waiting behind you.

Do they work if I drive an automatic?

Vol. I and Vol. III do: every chapter has a note for automatics. Vol. II is written for manual cars, but each chapter says which parts still apply in an automatic.

What do I need to practise?

An insured car with L plates, a supervisor who meets the GOV.UK rules, and somewhere quiet and legal, like an empty car park you have permission to use. A few cones or plastic bottles help. So does a pencil.

Same steps, every manoeuvre.

Three books, DVSA's own words with their source next to every rule, and the same steps I use on Sunday mornings in the car park.

$37All three books
Get the complete set
  • Arrives instantly
  • Card · PayPal
  • 7-day money-back guarantee