Yep, remember you have 7 days to remedy failing items (provided the MOT station don't deem it dangerous to drive) so you have a little fallback anyway. Make sure you book it in for your free retest before you leave though, some are sneaky f**k*rs and "cant fit you in til next week" if you leave it a few days, so they can charge for a full retest rather than the free partial.
I take mine to a known and trusted tester too. I had mine and the missus's car to MOT in the space of a month, so took them both to the same place, and asked to wait whilst he did it. Its a small garage so the waiting area is inside the main workshop. I was chatting to him whilst he did it, and the second time round I did everything inside the car whilst he did the checks outside. I've built a rapport with him now and he's good as gold so I've been going back to him for years! He tells me what could need doing in preparation for the next year, as I do most of the work myself anyway. Never had a major failing item either.
