The short answer
Changing school is possible shortly before the test, and a passed theory test keeps its full twelve months. What moves is a practical date that has already been set: it runs through the school that registered you, so the new school has to register you again. How quickly depends on the slots available.
The question almost always comes in one of two situations: shortly after a failed practical test, or when no date has materialised for weeks. Both are legitimate reasons. Only the consequences differ.
What survives in any case
Everything substantive. A passed theory test is valid for twelve months from the day you took it, whoever you continue with. Theory lessons attended, practice lessons driven and special drives completed are in the training record and continue to count. Your application at the licensing authority stays in place — only the driving school named in it changes.
What can move
- A practical date already set: the registration for it runs through the school, not through you
- The new school registers you again — when the date then falls depends on available capacity
- In between there is normally an assessment drive, because nobody registers somebody for a test they have not driven with
- So reckon in weeks rather than days if the date was already fixed
When somebody comes to us two weeks before a fixed date and the reason is essentially nerves, we say so: better to drive the test and decide afterwards. Conversely, changing after a failed test is almost always a better moment than before one — there is a pause there anyway, and it can be filled usefully.
The smaller solution hardly anybody thinks of
If the problem is one person rather than the school, changing instructor within the same business is often enough. That is one sentence at the counter, costs nothing, and moves no dates. Ask before you give notice — and if it is refused, you have learned something too.
After a failed test
There is no waiting period that a change would extend. What delays the second attempt is the available slots and the question of how many lessons make sense first — what happens afterwards is set out separately.
How you tell whether a date is right at all is in when you are ready. Everything about the procedure is on the changing school page.
What to take away
Changing school shortly before the test costs you no training, it costs you dates. After a failed test it costs almost nothing — which is why the moment afterwards is the better one.