My first Group 1 DVLA eye test

[Medric]

Hi,

I joined this community a day ago to find out more about the test that the DVLA have asked me to take because I suffer from Glaucoma in both eyes. There is a lot of useful information here and it was good to read other people's experiences. I was very apprehensive, as so much rides on the outcome of the test, and the info which I found here went some way to lessening this.

I thought I would report my experience which may help others.

I booked my test with Specsavers in Broughton retail Park near Chester. They use Humphrey 740i test equipment. Even though I was 10 minutes early for my appointment I only waited a couple of minutes while they prepared the machine. A brief explanation was given although I was already aware of most of the points from the posts on here.

For the first test I wore my driving glasses, which are varifocals, and I missed four lights and had two false positives. One thing that was new to me was the rule covering false positives. I had seen this number written as 3/10 (for example) and had assumed it meant you were allowed 10 false positives and had got 3. The assistant explained that during the test the gap between the lights is fairly regular apart from 10 of them which will be substantially longer. Most false positives would be made during these gaps. The number of false positives allowed is 10% of these gaps, making only 1 false positive allowed. On my first test I had two so the test wasn't valid. I was shown the chart and noticed that the four lights which I had missed seemed to be near the sides, two on the right and two on the left. During the test I had noticed lights beyond the sides of my glasses so suspected that the ones I had missed were covered by the rims.

For the second test I removed my glasses and although the central orange light was slightly blurred I managed to get all of them without any false positives. I must admit that I was so relieved I almost shed tears.

The Snellen test held no fears for me as I always do well so I see no reason for DVLA to fail me.

One thing I wasn't sure about was that I had read on here that the intensity of all of the lights should be the same, unlike the normal Field of Vison test where brightness varies. When the assistant was explaining things at the start of the test he said that they would vary in intensity. I explained that I had read that they all should be the same, which surprised him. He assured me that the machine was set to DVLA test and that is the only setting he made. During the test I found that central lights seemed brighter than peripheral ones but that could have been due to the angle of view.

Tonight I am a very happy man and would like to thank all the contributors whose posts helped me with my fears.

Thanks