Detail
The road test in Dubai
The federal regulation marks every item, movement and signal in the test and fails anyone who does not reach 75% of the total. It also lists circumstances that fail a candidate regardless of the score. This page sets out both, and is honest about the one thing the regulation does not state: what the total is.
These figures are Dubai’s
Driving licences in the UAE are issued emirate by emirate under one federal regulation. The classes, the minimum ages and the way the tests are marked are federal and the same everywhere. The question counts, the pass mark and every fee on this page are the Roads and Transport Authority’s, which examines and licenses in DUBAI — if you are testing in another emirate, the federal half still applies to you and the figures do not.
How it is marked
Every item is scored, and 75% of the total passes
This half IS in the federal regulation, and applies in every emirate.
The regulation gives each item of the test — each manoeuvre and each signal — a mark matching how well the candidate performs it, and fails anyone who does not reach 75% of the total of those marks.
What the total is, the regulation does not say. It says each item carries “a certain mark” without setting a scale, and the test itself runs to a plan the licensing authority draws up — a plan whose own last item is “any other test the authority decides to introduce”. So 75% is a real, sourced threshold and the number of marks it represents is not fixed by law. Anyone quoting you a points total for the UAE road test is quoting something the regulation does not contain.
The regulation sets no duration for the road test either, and RTA does not publish one.
How you fail regardless of score
A separate rule that no percentage saves you from
You can clear the threshold and still fail on any one of these.
Alongside the marking rule, the regulation fails a candidate outright in three circumstances: causing an actual danger to yourself or others; causing a potential danger to yourself or others; and being spared either of those only because the examiner stepped in, by word or by hand, during the test.
It then spells out what counts as a potential danger, in 6 listed instances: touching the marked boundaries or barriers with any part of the vehicle or its wheels; the vehicle moving off out of control; a gear-change error; failing to stop or park where told; disobeying traffic signs and signals; and, for a motorcycle candidate, putting a foot to the ground while riding.
That list is the reason a road test can end early with a good score behind it. It is also the part of the rule most worth reading before the day.
Before, and after
Training, and what happens when you fail
You may only learn to drive under a learner permit issued by the licensing authority, and only from someone the authority has authorised to teach. The permit runs for three months and can be renewed; you must carry it while training, and nobody but the trainee and the instructor may be in the vehicle.
The three months is how long the permit lasts, not how long you must train. The federal regulation sets no minimum number of lessons or hours of practical training before the test at all.
If you fail, the examination committee sets a later date and the regulation fixes no minimum wait; you may also ask to be retested by a different committee. RTA adds an operational condition of its own in Dubai: four training sessions after each failed road test before the next one. Nothing caps how many attempts you may make.
What each attempt costs is on the classes-and-fees page.
Next step
Licence classes, ages and what the tests cost
Which licence you need is federal and the same in every emirate; what it costs is not. This page lists the eight licence types and their minimum ages from the federal regulation, then the fees RTA publishes for Dubai — and says plainly that the regulation itself fixes no amount at all.
Notice