TfL's web page counts seven stages. Its 2022 booklet numbers them a little differently, but the steps are the same, and Stages 2 to 5 carry the same numbers everywhere. Here they are in the order you meet them, for the All London (green badge) Knowledge. The Suburban Knowledge skips the first two; see green or yellow badge.
Before you start: the introductory talk
Once TfL accepts your application it sends you the Blue Book and a booklet of advice, and invites you to a talk of about an hour with a Knowledge examiner. You cannot progress until you have attended it.
Stage 1: the self-assessment
After the first five lists of the Blue Book, its first 80 runs, you take a self-assessment within six months of starting. It is set out like the written exam, and you mark your own paper with an examiner in the room. It is compulsory, but no record of your score is kept: it tells you how you are doing before you learn the other 240 runs.
Stage 2: the written exam
With all 320 runs learned, you sit a multiple-choice exam. It has two parts:
- five routes, where you pick the shortest legal one of three, worth 10 marks each;
- 25 points, where you pick the right location of six, worth 2 marks each.
The pass mark is 60 out of 100. Reverse runs are not asked. You must sit it within two years of starting the Knowledge, and you pay the £225 fee each time you sit. You can re-sit as often as you like, but you must wait longer after each fail and after a low score:
| Failed attempt | Scored 30 to 59 | Scored under 30 |
|---|---|---|
| First | Re-sit when you like | 6 months |
| Second | 3 months | 9 months |
| Third | 6 months | 12 months |
| Fourth or later | 12 months | 12 months |
Stages 3, 4 and 5: the appearances
Appearances are one-to-one oral exams with an examiner. Each asks up to four runs, each marked out of ten, and you need 12 points from your grades to move up a stage. Candidates name the stages after the gap between appearances:
| Stage | Known as | About every | What it asks | Time limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 56s | 56 days | Major places on and near the Blue Book runs. You may correct a mistake. | 3 years |
| 4 | 28s | 28 days | Runs linked and combined, with road closures and more than one drop. | 2 years |
| 5 | 21s | 21 days | Anywhere in the six miles, including new and topical places. | 1 year |
If you run out of time on a stage, you meet an examiner and may go back to an easier one. Four D grades on a stage mean starting that stage again. How appearances are marked has the detail.
Stage 6: the final exam
About six weeks after your last Stage 5 appearance, you take one more exam, on the suburban routes in the back of the Blue Book. TfL's web page says there are 25 of them and its 2022 booklet says 27; check the Blue Book you are given. You are asked five, at least one starting or ending at Heathrow, and you name every road and every change of direction. To pass you must answer all five well.
You must sit it within six months of finishing Stage 5. Fail it three times, or leave it longer than six months, and your Stage 3 to 5 knowledge is assessed again.
Stage 7: the licence
Last, you apply for the licence itself: a further enhanced DBS check, the DBS Update Service, the SERU assessment and TfL's final checks. A Knowledge examiner gives you your badge and licence at a pre-licensing talk.
Questions about this
- How long does the Knowledge take?
- How many runs are in the Blue Book?
- Is the Knowledge self-assessment compulsory?
- What is the Knowledge written exam?
- What happens if I fail the Knowledge written exam?
- Do I need a moped to do the Knowledge?
- How long do you have for each stage of the Knowledge?
- Where are Knowledge appearances held?
- What happens if I miss a Knowledge appearance?