Lochgilphead test centre: 56.4% pass rate, £294 to get through it.

Lochgilphead is a very small centre by DVSA standards: 140 car practical tests in 2025/26, of which 79 were passes, giving 56.4%. At that volume a run of two or three unusual weeks moves the annual figure visibly, so treat the number as a guide to the roads rather than a precise ranking. It sits 86th of 308 nationally and 37th of 67 in Scotland.

That is 6.4 percentage points above the 50.03% recorded across all 317 centres, and 7.1 points above the 49.3% Scotland average. A centre in this band is usually working quieter road layouts with fewer forced lane decisions, not a softer marking standard: the DVSA marking sheet is national.

Turn 56.4% into money. One divided by the pass rate gives 1.77 expected attempts before a first pass, so the average candidate at Lochgilphead pays the £62 weekday DVSA fee about 1.77 times, or £110. Add 0.77 expected retakes at 7 hours of extra tuition each, charged at the Scotland rate of £34 an hour, and the extra lessons come to £184. The test cycle at Lochgilphead is therefore about £294. Testing here therefore saves about £68 against a centre sitting on the 50.03% national average, because the higher pass rate buys back part of an attempt.

A fail at Lochgilphead costs time as well as money. The median wait between booking and testing was 14.3 weeks in July 2026, 2.4 weeks above the 11.9-week national median. At 0.77 expected retakes that is about 11 weeks of additional queueing, and most learners keep paying for an hour or two a month through it. In the same month DVSA offered 54 standard slots inside the booking window here and 0.0% of them were still free to book.

The first-attempt picture is harder here than the headline. 83 candidates sat their first test at Lochgilphead and 46 passed, 55.4%, which is 1.0 points below the all-attempts rate. 0 of those first tests were passed with no driving faults recorded at all, 0.00% of them. Budget for the second booking from the start rather than treating it as the exception.

Since 2021/22 the pass rate at Lochgilphead has fallen by 24.1 points, from 80.5% to 56.4%. Volume has been steady, 123 tests then against 140 now. On the cost model above, that shift alone is worth about £159 to the average candidate.

Male candidates passed at 53.0% and female candidates at 61.4%, a gap of 8.4 points across 83 and 57 tests.

Among centres of a similar size in Scotland, Pitlochry runs 16.9 points higher at 73.3%. On the same arithmetic that is roughly £122 of expected difference. Before moving, price the switch: a new instructor or extra travel for route familiarity typically costs £60 to £120 plus two settling-in lessons, which eats most of a gap under about eight points.