The five CSDD driving-test manoeuvres, explained one by one
At the CSDD (Latvia's Road Traffic Safety Directorate) exam you'll perform two special manoeuvres out of five. Which two, you can't know in advance: a computer picks them, along with the car and the inspector. Here is each manoeuvre the way I break it down with my students — what's assessed, where points usually go, and which reference points I teach.
How the two manoeuvres are selected
Since 1 April 2022 the manoeuvres are no longer done on a closed course — they happen during the drive itself, in real traffic, on low-intensity streets. The pool holds five tasks: parallel parking, bay parking perpendicular to the road edge, interval control when approaching an obstacle, turning around to drive in the opposite direction, and precise-stop (emergency) braking. The computer always gives you one parking task — parallel or bay — and one of the remaining three. You never get both parkings in one exam.
The practical takeaway is simple: train all five. One of the two parkings is guaranteed; which of the other three you'll draw is a lottery.
One detail people often miss: you find the spot for the manoeuvre yourself. The inspector says what to do; you choose a suitable place, and the inspector only designates one if you fail to find it. Spotting a legal, convenient place quickly is part of the manoeuvre — and it needs training too.
Parallel parking
The task: using reverse gear, park parallel to the road edge — behind one parked car or between two — then drive out. Both the entry and the exit are graded. Corrective movements are allowed if they help you complete the manoeuvre, but time is limited — count on roughly two minutes, so no dithering.
Typical losses: a gap that's too wide or dangerously narrow, a wheel mounting the kerb, the car left far from the edge, or a manoeuvre done so hesitantly it obstructs traffic.
My reference points. Indicator on, stop beside the car you'll park behind with a 0.5–1 metre gap. Before the exam, set your mirrors so you can see the rear wheel and the kerb — here a mirror is a measuring instrument, not decoration. Control your speed with the clutch: the slower you roll, the more time you have to decide. And don't forget the exit: shoulder check, indicator — people lose points driving out as often as driving in.
Bay parking
Reversing into a space marked perpendicular to the road edge — in a roadside parking area or on adjacent territory — and driving out. If no markings are visible, it's done next to already-parked cars.
According to CSDD data, the parking manoeuvres are among the most frequent reasons for failing, and the bay trips people up more often than the parallel. The cause is usually the same: the candidate turns the wheel by a memorised pattern and stops watching where the car is actually going.
My reference points: reverse in — then you'll exit forwards, with proper visibility. Steer by both mirrors, keeping the gaps on the left and right symmetrical. If you can see the trajectory isn't working, calmly pulling out and going again beats stubbornly cranking the wheel: corrections are allowed.
Interval control at an obstacle
The one manoeuvre that may happen not in traffic but on the CSDD service-centre territory: approaching a ticket-machine mock-up. You must get close enough to reach the button from the driver's seat — without lifting off the seat and without touching anything.
This tests your feel for the car's dimensions. My reference points: approach slowly, track the machine in your left mirror, and stop when it's level with your shoulder. Then handbrake, neutral, window, button — and only then move off calmly.
Turning around
Performed on a narrow, low-traffic road with one lane each way, using reverse gear. Once you get the task, complete the turn before the nearest junction.
Typical losses: obstructing other road users, a wheel or bumper meeting the kerb, fumbling with the gears in the middle of the road.
My reference points: choose the spot yourself, and early — a stretch with clear sight lines, no crest, away from junctions and exits. Three phases — forward, reverse, forward — with a pause and a look both ways before every change of direction. Once you're done, don't crawl: return calmly to the permitted pace; unjustifiably slow driving is a fault too.
Emergency braking
Officially "braking with a precise stop": on a low-traffic road, at the inspector's signal, you must stop the car in the shortest possible distance.
The main mistake is shy braking. The candidate presses gently, "as usual" — but the whole point is to show that in a critical situation you can stop the car at once.
My reference points: on the signal, brake immediately and hard, wheel straight, hands in place. Press the clutch at the very end, just before stopping — not together with the brake. Modern cars with ABS forgive a hard push; don't be afraid of it.
How to train without rote-learning
Recipes like "full lock right, two turns back" work until the first non-standard spot. I teach it differently: understand, through the mirrors, where your wheels and the car's edges are — then any courtyard becomes a training ground. In lessons we do every manoeuvre in different parts of the city, not one memorised location, and we separately train the "find your own spot" skill — at the exam it turns out to matter more than people expect.
And remember: the manoeuvres are only part of the exam. Around them are roughly 40 minutes of driving in real traffic, and the grade — "labi" (good), "pietiekami" (sufficient), or "nepietiekami" (insufficient) — is given for the whole picture. If a manoeuvre goes wrong, the exam continues — don't bury it early. And if it comes to that, a retake is possible from the next working day.
Facts verified in July 2026; the exam procedure changes — check csdd.lv before your attempt.
I've written a separate breakdown of the typical city situations where candidates in Riga lose points; the step-by-step preparation plan is in this article and in the CSDD exam preparation materials. You can drill all five manoeuvres with an instructor at a trial lesson.