What is the CBR tussentijdse toets (interim driving test)?

What happens

• It takes 55 minutes in all, like the exam; the drive itself about 35 minutes.
• The examiner checks your ID, your theory result (it must still be valid on the day) and your self-reflection form (Zelfreflectie).
• In the car park you read a number plate from about 25 metres and answer questions about the car.
• You drive mostly on the examiner’s directions and part of the way on your own with a sat-nav. The examiner looks at how you handle the car, look around, give way, overtake, merge, take junctions and roundabouts, and the special manoeuvres.
• Your instructor can ride along if you want.
• Right after the drive, at the exam centre, the examiner tells you how it went: what already goes well, what to improve, and whether you earned the exemption below.

The exemption for the special manoeuvres

• If you do the special manoeuvres (bijzondere verrichtingen, such as parallel parking, turning the car round and reversing) well in the toets, the examiner does not test them again in your next practical exam.
• The exemption lasts until your first practical exam after the toets. If you do not pass that exam, it is gone: in a retake you do the manoeuvres again.
• Earned in a manual car, it counts for both; earned in an automatic, only for an exam in an automatic.
• If you do the toets more than once, only the last result counts.

Who can do it, and when

• You must be at least 16.5 and have passed the theory exam.
• Your driving school books it; you authorise the school for it at the CBR (machtigen).
• The CBR advises doing it between two thirds and three quarters of your lessons.
• It costs €143.50 at the CBR in 2026, the same as the practical exam. Ask your driving school what it charges on top for the car and the instructor.

Is it worth it?

• The CBR says almost half of the candidates (46%) do the toets, and that their pass rate is more than 10 percentage points higher.
• It shows you what the exam feels like, with a real examiner, before the day that counts, and the exemption can make the exam itself shorter on manoeuvres.
• It was paused for about a year to shorten waiting times for the exam, and has been back at all CBR locations since 30 March 2026.

Getting ready for it

The toets is judged like the exam, so the same situations decide it: the car from the right, cyclists in your blind spot, trams, roundabouts. See the practical exam, step by step, every rule, and Voorrah!’s practice exam with the examiner’s directions in Dutch and English.