Has anyone set up an online ABRSM Music Theory test?

[JudithS]

Hi, my sixteen-year-old is due to do her grade 5 ABRSM Music Theory test, which can now only be done online. Her music theory knowledge is good and she is not worried. However! I, the 'responsible adult' am an IT dunce and the instructions for setting up the exam are gobble-de-gook.

Has anyone here managed this? The instructions go back and forth and the 'helpful' videos repeat themselves, so I don't know what order to do things in.

We are planning for her to do the exam tomorrow (Thursday 1st August) to fit around other family events/holiday and I have spent the past WEEK trying to understand the instructions, but I am getting more and more confused. I am an older parent, we had her late so computers came late into my life and I don't know anyone who could help us (I've tried e-mailing ABRSM to no avail.)

It says do the PSI Bridge Test first to check your computer system is OK.
Then it says create an account and log in.
Then it says start the exam.
THEN it says 'download the PSI software'! Haven't we already done that? How can she start the exam if we haven't already downloaded the software?!

I have many other questions but those are the main ones!
Thanks and sorry if these sound stupid questions but please humour me.

Hopefully my daughter will comprehend the instructions better than I'm doing!

Roll on grade 6, when she can just do the exam in a hall, like normal.

Good luck - I failed utterly and DD couldn't get online at all.

They did however refund the exam fee.

And none of your questions are stupid - their system is beyond painful. To the extent I would rather do Trinity's theory instead.

if you are still reading OP,

DD did her ABRSN Grade1 theory online back in Covid times. Your description sounds familiar. So, it must still be the same setup

I remember the instructions being complicated. Just follow it to the letter. few things I remember, which may or may not be useful to you

you need to close all other applications and browser windows. take a photo of the instructions or write it down and follow it. it should work. they had a chat helpline at that time, that was useful

then there was this thing of you had to rotate the camera around before the test to show no one is around, presumably to help with the answers

and the candidate had to tear a paper at the end

Thanks, OhCrumbsWhereNow! I'm actually relieved to find out it's not just me who thinks it looks complicated. Did your daughter eventually re-take it or sit a different board's exam?

Thanks, nice2BeNice! I have taken notes and now have nearly 4 sides of A4! Hopefully this will work...

No she decided not to bother, she doesn’t do exams in any of her instruments and has a post 16 place at a music college sorted. So she just has a theory tutor long-term so she can work on the bits she actually needs rather than what ABRSM want.

if I was doing it again or if I had a child doing exams that needed the piece of paper I’d be tempted to look at Trinity though.

I tried and failed, as did others at my DCs’ music school, the online instructions are dreadful!

DC was ready for the test but has now forgotten it all. So is doing Trinity exams on their instrument instead!

We did it 3 times online. Painful every time! But we got there. In one case, DC forgot to tear up the sheet of paper at the end in front of the camera.

Every time I had to watch the videos multiple times and declutter the room. We installed the software first, I seem to remember something about either Chrome or Windows Explorer being better. They have to show their passport.
All DCs got Distinctions, the actual content seems to be easier than it used to be, at least that! (Or at least for younger kids who do not write musical notes neatly).

Araminta1003 You probably don't remember but is the 'PSI Bridge System check' different from downloading the PSI software?

Does the child tear up the paper in front of the camera BEFORE they click 'End exam'? It seems unclear to me!

You definitely tear up the paper in front of the camera before ending the test. We had to email in because our 10 year old at the time forgot to do so, despite being told many times in advance (we had to send a photo instead). This was during Covid some time and they had recently introduced the online test.

Clear all your browsing history and cookies etc on whatever browser you use before as well. Click on the 3 dots on right of screen if using Chrome, for example.

From the ABRSM website:
“Before the exam make sure your laptop or computer is compatible with the exam software by carrying out the PSI Bridge system check. We recommend using Google Chrome.”
https://www.abrsm.org/en-gb/music-theory/guidance

I cannot quite remember but I think you first run a system check and then download the software. You are I think checking that your systems can cope with it first.

Completely ignoring the purpose of the thread (😆) but I remember doing my AB theory tests.
Did them in the examinations hall in Oxford, what a spectacular setting for a pre-teen and after being there a few times, O-levels held no fears for me.😁

UPDATE: My daughter has done the exam but what a palaver! It took over an hour to get started: Downloading the software went nothing like the process on the ABRSM video. The PSI Bridge Software check didn't tell us to deactivate a pop-up blocker (I had never heard of these but my child knew about them and guessed it was a problem). Then the system wouldn't accept the video recordings of the room that you have to do to show you are not cheating, so we had to use the PSI Bridge online 'chat', which asked us weird techno questions...

Anyway, finally we were in a position for my daughter to start the exam. We haven't had an acknowledgement email from ABRSM to say they have the completed exam so fingers crossed!

Anyone know how long they take to correct them? DS's has been 'pending' since the 11th of July.

UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername The ABRSM website says it takes about four weeks.

I did grade 5 theory online during lockdown and I found it very complicated. If it wasn’t for techie dh I don’t think I could’ve done it - and I nearly got disqualified for not obeying one of the instructions - it was one dh couldn’t help me with as he had had to leave the room by then. My teacher had to explain that I wasn’t at all techie and they luckily excused me.
I don’t remember tearing a sheet of paper at the end - what is the purpose of that?

Did you pass?
I think the reason for tearing up the scrap paper at the end is to make sure you aren't going to pass on information about the exam questions to anyone else who has yet to take it the exam.

JudithS yes I passed - distinction by some miracle.
Ah, I understand now about tearing up the paper, thank you.

My 9 year old did it a couple of weeks ago. Just waiting on the results now.

It takes you through each process easily. A lot of photos and videos to be taken.

It kept telling me I had something running in the background and had to use task manager to do a manual shutdown of whatever it was.

good luck

We Had to do this recently for Dc1 and what a palaver. The results take 28 days. Why exactly given it is an online test and someone has to just check video I don’t know but apparently it is always that. Whereas we have had practical back in a few days.

Did you have to completely destroy the paper, e.g., run it through a shredder or burn it? Otherwise, what's to keep someone from taping it back up?

I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering that...

No, just rip it. The system is not at all thorough: neither our webcam nor smartphone was able to produce good quality video and uploading was difficult because of lagging (their system said our video was 20 minutes long! It was 30 seconds!) so it would be very hard to get a shredder or brazier into shot! It's just a notional show that you've made the effort to destroy any material related to the exam.

NEW UPDATE! My daughter's completed exam has been received, yay! I found this out by ringing up ABRSM on 0207 636 5400, a hotline only open until 1pm.... The woman I spoke to didn't understand what was on the menu, either, and had to go and ask someone in tech, so clearly it's not obvious.

This was after our ABRSM account last night still said 'Exam available' when she had already done it. This morning, it said something like, the exam had been available from 1.05pm (90 minutes before we even started it!) until 3.45pm, which was on the dot of when she finished and pressed 'End exam'. If I expanded this vague message, it said something about an instrumental exam being available from 4th July (three weeks before her teacher had put her in for the theory exam and she isn't doing an instrumental one) until 1st August (which was the day she did the exam).

I did ask the woman if they could please send an e-mail saying 'Completed exam has been received' or some similar acknowledgement, and similarly clear wording on the ABRSM account.

So now we wait for a month for the exam results.

It's interesting, though, that only one person replying on this thread found the process easy. I thought I might be the only person in the world having difficulty.

Oh my goodness, dd has just taken her grade 2 theory, it took us over 2 hours trying to get through the set up process, including having to go out and buy a separate webcam as it was not picking up the inbuilt camera on the laptop even though it works absolutely fine. So stressful and long winded. Fingers crossed for passes! 4 week wait is going to be tough!

It's interesting, though, that only one person replying on this thread found the process easy. I thought I might be the only person in the world having difficulty.

My teacher says she has had so many students and parents complaining about how difficult they found the process. Exams are stressful enough without this added difficulty!