March 28, 2023
Of the 66,000 testers in the UK (2022 figure) this year, 25,000 have left their annual assessment until March, the last month of the compliance year. Given the importance of the DVSA obligation for the yearly training and assessment, why do so many testers put this off until the last minute?
38% of testers, more than one in every three, routinely leave their annual assessment until the very last minute. March is markedly the busiest month for assessment submissions, with many postponing the assessment until the last week and even the last day of the training year.
Here in the MOT Juice office, during previous years, before our process was fully automated, we would provide support all evening on the 31st March deadline to help last-minute stragglers requiring resit links to get their successful results submitted to the DVSA before the 23:59 deadline.
Comparing this year’s last-minute cohort to previous years, we see an increasing number of testers completing the annual assessment before the last month of the training year. Last year 28,000 testers were still to complete their assessments as we entered March. In 2021, 31,000 of you left your annual assessments until the final two weeks of the compliance year. That is some impressive mass procrastination!! So what is it that makes testers put off completing the annual assessment?
Whilst many testers feel anxious about the annual assessment, even when they are high performing and confident in the practical aspects of their role, some allow this fear or anxiety to affect their motivation to complete the assessment in good time.
Putting the assessment off until the last minute is often the worst strategy in this scenario. If you recognise this anxiety or fear of failure inside yourself, a better approach is to face the problem head-on. Leave yourself plenty of time so you don’t feel rushed. Taking time will allow you to feel well prepared and have plenty of opportunity to take any required resits to get the desired result.
MOT Juice can help reduce your anxiety and challenging feelings. Our free mock exam simulates exam conditions helping you feel more at ease with the exam format. We carefully curate the questions in the mock to represent the current syllabus, so you can identify gaps in your understanding and build confidence ahead of the final assessment. The mock is free for any tester who wants to use it. You can take it unlimited times on any device at any time. Simply taking the mock also provides one certified hour of annual training to help you fulfil your training obligations. Plus, if you are a new Lite customer, an additional free hour of annual training will be made available to you. You can access the mock exam for the current year here. Share it with your colleagues and co-workers and spread the good news throughout the industry.
In today’s fast-paced and demanding society, many of us struggle with overwhelming feelings and challenges regarding time management and task prioritisation. We’re all spinning so many plates in many different spheres of life; inevitably, some will fall and smash.
At MOT Juice, our mission is to help you meet your compliance obligations in the most stress-free way possible. We split all of our training down into bite-sized, manageable chunks. Our CPD offering, for example, in which the DVSA require a three-hour investment each year on top of the three hours of annual training, is provided in 15-minute chunks each month over twelve months. Testers find this helps reduce overwhelm and supports them in meeting their obligations with minimal consistent monthly effort.
Research shows a higher than national average amount of MOT testers have dyslexia. The current format of the annual assessment is more challenging for those suffering from specific learning differences. At MOT Juice, we are passionate about increasing the accessibility of learning resources and reference material. For this reason, we are mindful of producing as much of our content as possible in video format, making it easier to consume, more accessible to more of the market, and with better long-term retention outcomes.
Where the annual assessment is in an open-book format, we provide highly user-friendly versions of the MOT testing guide and inspection manuals for you to reference during the exam. These reference materials allow fast search functionality, which the DVSA versions do not. Search for any term in the bar at the top and skip through all instances of that term quickly to find the answer you are looking for. Many testers find this very useful during the time-restricted assessment.
Additionally, we have introduced a new accessibility panel on these free resources which allows you to mix and match different formatting options to optimise accessibility according to your preferences. These options include various contrast options, dyslexia font options, increased font sizes, greater spacing and a firm favourite, the reading guide, which highlights the line you are on as you scroll up and down the documents. Many testers report that these tools have transformed their confidence in accurately accessing the information required to complete the test successfully within the given time frame.
Testers cannot avoid the DVSA compliance obligations that come with their role. Completing these within the given timeframe is essential to keeping our jobs. As with most adulting responsibilities, we feel much better when we get these out of the way and in the bag in good time, rather than fretting over them for months giving time for the anxiety to build within us.
Thankfully, MOT Juice is here to support you in fulfilling these responsibilities as easily as possible, keeping stress and anxiety to a minimum. We all have challenging aspects to our jobs. Those who achieve their goals with the least stress enlist help to make overcoming those challenges more manageable. Reach out for help. We are here for you.
