Avanquest All-In-One Driving Test 2008/09 review

The modern UK driving test can be an intimidating bridge to cross on the road to adulthood, and if you've waited until later in life you'll be painfully reminded of that adage about old dogs and tricks.

The Driving Standards Agency publishes interactive DVD-ROMs to give you some basic training, but they conspicuously fail to harness the interactive learning potential of the PC. We tested two alternatives, from Focus Multimedia and Avanquest Software.

Avanquest's All-In-One Driving Test has seven tools to help you prepare for the theory, hazard perception and practical parts of your test. First up, a searchable Highway Code makes it easy to browse the rules of the road, while the road signs and signals section explains the basic theory of road signs and presents all the ones you can find on UK roads (except the ones your friendly local authority has hurriedly improvised).

Before getting stuck into the nitty gritty of urban speed limits and Pelican crossings, All-In-One Driving first explains the theory exam process. Knowing what to expect at the test centre should help keep your mind focused. You can study and be tested on real driving test theory questions by category, and take six mock exams to make sure there are no potholes in your knowledge.

A 20 lesson learning plan helps you gen up before each of your real world lessons. The maneouvres you'll need to master and the situations you may encounter are rendered using short, simple animations. More ambitious production would have helped here, or maybe some simple videos instead. You do get videos to prepare you for the Show Me and Tell Me section of the practical test, as well as some advice on what the practical examiner will be looking for on the day.

All-In-One Driving test is cheap and contains all the information you need to prepare for your driving test, but doesn't always communicate it very well.