Part 2 is not a harder part 1, it is a different skill
Part 1 asks whether you know that a 45 minute break is due after four and a half hours of driving. Part 2 gives you a driver who has been going since 06:15, tells you he stopped for twenty minutes at 08:40, and asks what he can legally do next.
The rule is the same rule. What has changed is that you now have to read a paragraph, pull three numbers out of it, and notice which of the four plausible answers quietly ignores one of them. That is why drivers who pass part 1 comfortably still come out of part 2 short.
Most of the marks are lost in the scenario, not the rule
The scenarios are written to contain a detail that changes the answer and does not announce itself. A second driver in the cab. A twenty minute stop that does not count as a break in its own right. A start time that puts the weekly rest deadline earlier than it looks.
So read the story twice before the first question and once more before the last one. Answering question four with the numbers you remembered from question one is the costliest habit in this test.
This is why your result is broken down per case study
Part 2 failures cluster, and a total score hides it. Somebody who misreads one scenario loses six or seven marks inside that one story while getting everything else right, and a mark of 37 out of 50 looks like a general weakness when it is actually one paragraph read wrong.
The breakdown here shows both: your score in each scenario, and your score by subject across the paper. If one case study is at two out of seven and everything else is full marks, you do not need more revision, you need to slow down on the reading.
Repeats are counted in scenarios, and that is a deliberate choice
Every free practice tool reports how many questions it has. Almost none report how many of them you will see again, and on this test in particular that number is easy to flatter.
A tool with seven case studies in it hands you the same seven stories every single time. It could still shuffle the questions inside them and claim a respectable question level repeat rate, and the claim would be worthless: the scenario is the thing you learn. Once you have reasoned through a driver with 4 hours 20 on the clock and a delivery 40 minutes away, the second sitting is recall, not practice.
So the figure above the test counts scenarios. There are twenty in the pool against seven in a paper, which puts about two and a half stories back on your second attempt, and the page says so rather than leaving you to work it out.
That figure is measured rather than calculated, which is a smaller point that matters. The textbook arithmetic for it is seven squared over twenty, giving 2.45, and rounding that to a whole number would let the page claim 2. Running the actual draw two hundred times gives 2.6, because the draw deliberately seats every subject before filling the rest and that nudges repeats up. Publishing the lower number would have been the easier thing to do.
Every answer links to the page that decides it
The hours and rest scenarios cite the gov.uk drivers' hours guidance. The road and incident scenarios cite the numbered Highway Code sections. Not a paraphrase, the actual page, on every single question in the review at the end.
That matters more here than on a recall test. When a case study answer surprises you, the useful next step is reading the rule in its own words rather than accepting a one line explanation from a free website, including this one.
Where part 2 sits in the five tests
The full initial Driver CPC is part 1 theory, part 2 case studies, part 3a off road exercises, part 3b on road driving, and part 4 the practical demonstration. Part 4 is the one people are surprised by. Know it exists before you book anything.
Part 2 can be taken before or after part 1. The theory certificate runs for two years from the day you pass the first of them, so a long gap between the theory halves eats into the time you have left for the practical tests.
A second attempt is not a fresh start
Because part 2 is marked per scenario, coming back to it is worth more than re-sitting a paper of loose questions: you already know which of the seven case studies cost you the marks, and that is the one to open first. The per-scenario breakdown is kept between attempts, so you can see whether the weak one moved. Scenarios, marking and results stay on your device, with no account and no limit on attempts.
Common questions
Are these the real Driver CPC case studies?
No, and nobody's are. DVSA does not publish the live ones, and it says the same of its own free practice material: "The questions are not used in the real test, but they are based on the same topics as the test." These scenarios are written round the published rules, and every answer links to the gov.uk page or Highway Code section that decides it so you can check the figure rather than trust it.
What is the real part 2 test?
Seven case studies, each a short story about something you would meet at work, with between 5 and 10 multiple choice questions attached to it. Fifty questions in total, 1 hour 15 minutes, and the pass mark is 40 out of 50. You take it on a computer at a DVSA theory test centre.
How is it different from part 1?
Part 1 asks whether you know a rule. Part 2 asks whether you can apply it to a situation where the numbers are already given to you and the wrong answer looks reasonable. Most of the marks are lost by misreading the scenario rather than by not knowing the rule, which is why people who pass part 1 comfortably still fail this one.
How many scenarios repeat if I sit it twice?
About two and a half of the seven, and the figure is on the page above the test. It is measured by running the draw two hundred times rather than taken off a formula, because the formula gives 2.45 and rounding it would let us print 2. Repeats here are counted in scenarios rather than questions, deliberately: once you have worked out that a driver with 4 hours 20 minutes on the clock cannot make a 40 minute run, you do not reason it again the second time, you remember it. Rotating the questions inside a story you have already solved is not practice, so counting questions would flatter this test badly.
Why does the result break down by case study?
Because part 2 failures cluster. Misread one scenario and you can lose six or seven marks inside it while answering everything else correctly, and a single total score hides that completely. The per case breakdown shows you whether you lost a mark here and there or dropped one whole story.
Can I sit one case study on its own?
Yes. The single case option gives you one scenario with its questions, marked at the same proportion as the full paper, which fits into a break rather than needing an hour and a quarter clear.
Do I need part 1 before part 2?
You need part 1 theory before you can take part 3b, the on road driving test, but you can sit part 2 in either order. The theory certificate lasts two years from the day you pass the first part, and both part 1 and part 2 have to be inside that window along with the practical tests.