In Serbia, a candidate may drive the category they are training for only under the supervision of a driving instructor. That rule, in article 217 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety, means your lessons at a driving school are the only practice you get before the exam, so it pays to plan them carefully.
This guide explains how training and the practical exam work, who examines you, and how to use your lessons to be ready for both parts of the exam.
How training works
Training takes place at an authorised driving school, in its own or leased vehicles. A category B training car has dual foot controls and a manual gearbox, and an instructor trains one candidate per lesson hour. Practical lessons start once you have passed the theory exam.
How the practical exam works
The practical exam has two parts: driving on a prepared training ground (poligon) and driving in traffic on public roads. The driving school organises the exam, and you are examined by a two-member commission: a police-officer examiner and an examiner from the driving school. Both must give you a positive grade. The towns where exams are held must meet set conditions and are approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the proposal of the local government.
We have not found an official list of exam routes for Serbia, so the useful preparation is knowing the roads around the place where your school's exams start: its busiest junctions, its roundabouts, the roads out of town and the places where the speed limit changes.
A lesson plan that works
- Master the manual gearbox early. Smooth clutch control, hill starts and stopping without stalling make both parts of the exam easier.
- Keep the poligon sharp. The training-ground part comes first on exam day, so keep practising its manoeuvres right up to the end of your course.
- Move to the exam area. Later lessons should take you to the roads around the place where your exam starts, at the time of day your exam is likely to be.
- Preview before you drive. Look at the route at home before the lesson, so lesson time goes on driving rather than on finding your way.
- Finish with mock exams. In the last lessons, ask your instructor to give directions only, the way an examiner would, and talk the drive through afterwards.
- Keep a short note. After each lesson, write down one thing that went well and one thing to work on next time.
Common mistakes on the exam drive
- Roundabouts. Choose your lane early, give way to traffic already on the roundabout and signal clearly before your exit.
- Priority at junctions. Check the signs at every junction, and look again for trams in Belgrade, buses, cyclists and pedestrians.
- Speed changes. Watch for the signs at the start and end of built-up areas and be at the new speed as you pass them.
- Hesitation. Waiting too long when it is safe to go holds up traffic. Knowing the roads helps you judge gaps with confidence.
SteerClear practice routes in Serbia
SteerClear has around 900 practice routes around 135 locations in towns across Serbia, including Beograd-Novi Beograd, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac and Subotica. A typical route is about 15 km and takes just over half an hour. These are practice routes on the roads around each location, not the route an examiner will choose on the day.
Bring SteerClear to your lessons
Pick your exam centre in the SteerClear app and preview its routes at home, so you know where the tricky junctions and speed changes are before you get in the car. At the start of a lesson, show your instructor the route you would like to drive and drive it together, with turn-by-turn navigation and live scoring. The score after each drive shows you both what improved and what to work on in the next lesson, and Mac, your AI driving coach, helps you decide what to practise next.
Find your centre among the 135 on the Serbia exam centres page, read the Serbian practical driving test guide, and download SteerClear to plan your next lesson.