ABRSM music theory exams

[Butternutissquashed]

DD did her grade 5 music theory exam a couple of weeks ago. Does anyone know how long results are taking to come back at the moment?

The whole thing is a bit annoying really. Why they can't give an indicative result post exam with a confirmed grade 28 days later once the online invigilation has taken place I don't know. Would remove the stress, especially if up against a deadline for higher exams.

Can you ask their music teacher to do a few private 1 on 1 theory lessons? Have a look at where they’re dropping marks on mocks and get the teacher to concentrate on those.

Thankfully we’ve got at least until November before a G6 exam so we should be fine, but it would nice to know the theory result. I wish the G5 theory exam was paper based as it would remove the stress of wondering whether we’ve messed something up with the online exam and failed because of an IT error!

In case it helps, even though everyone worries about the tech and rules, I've never heard of anyone failing on those bits.

Oh no!
My Dd failed and retook the test 3 days after getting the result and came out with 12 marks more and a good strong pass!

I was really annoyed that they can't tell you you have failed straight away - we wasted a month that could have been spent working on the theory content rather than having to cram again over a short time. We were on a grade 7 deadline 🙈

She’s booked back on now. I’m giving her a week to do some revision and then going for it again. Fingers crossed it’ll be the same as it was for your DD. I can’t listen to the same 6 pieces for much longer!

She’s done it again! Fingers crossed now!

Fingers crossed @Butternutissquashed - my kid did it this academic year and we had a TOTAL tech fail. Nothing we or tech could do would solve it. They couldn't find any way round the problem, it simply wouldn't work, for no good reason - we tried everything. And we went from totally exam ready to trying different things with tech support every 5 days or so - to the point that when it was actually done, it was almost a month after first trying, so all the cramming wasn't fresh, and we weren't expecting it to work on the day it did!

Things that didn't help included: having to pay again (despite never getting to open the exam in the first place), being sent the fail result 4 weeks after we first applied of zero (surprise - surely you can expect that if the exam was never opened...?), and a lengthy fight over a refund for the first exam.

Like you, this was all topped off by a fail by one mark - something which perhaps may not have happened if their system had just worked! Did pass the second time though, an extra 5 marks - put some extra work against the lowest marked area and that did the trick.

Given the format of the exam, I really don't understand why it takes so long - I mean, they give you the driving theory test result on the spot...

Good luck for results second time around!

@Butternutissquashed Fingers crossed!

Just got DD’s result back - got the email through but had to wait a couple of hours to get enough internet to download the crisp results as we are away! She got a distinction and is delighted!

Fabulous news @hettiethehare! Fingers crossed for yours @Butternutissquashed

Sorry to revive a zombie thread, but I need help - or a rant.

DD has been trying to set up her online exam for over an hour (not counting yesterday, when we discovered that none of our home laptops was deemed young enough to run the software and had to ask DH to bring his work laptop home). We've had endless problems with uploading her room video where it just stops uploading, been chatting to the tech person and they have asked us to reload/restart the whole setup process from the beginning.

She's gone from eager and exam ready to distressed and hysterical with tears, saying that she's now lost more than an hour of the 3 hour window, so will not have time to actually complete the exam when/if she gets to it.

I am really pissed off with how this is done, is our experience unusual? I feel like I want to complain to ABRSM.

If its grade 5 - the 3 hour window is how long you get to do it from starting it, but i don't think that it will apply with technical issues. The software is annoying in that if you've done any earlier exams you have to make sure you've unistalled and reinstalled. The actual exam will definitely take way less time though - less than 1hour i'd imagine.

We had internet issues at home when my daughter did hers and had to get on a train and go into my work offices and re scan a meeting room there and let her complete the exam - all worked out in the end, so try not to panic on this - she will have time and if she doesn't you can get a refund and re do it.

Thank you so much! It is Grade 5. DD eventually started after 1.5 hours, I'm waiting downstairs for her to emerge (DH has ended up being late for work because he didn't want to leave her struggling with his work laptop). I did try to reassure DD that all her practice papers hadn't taken very long, but it's really not great for someone to enter an exam scenario in such an unnecessarily stressful way.

We are usually the opposite of helicopter parents so this morning's experience has been an unpleasant surprise. Poor DD had spent so much time carefully reading the instructions, checking everything was exactly as required, and then ended up needing so much help and getting all upset.

On the bright side- if all goes well you won't ever have to do an online theory exam again!

Fingers crossed for her

We had a total nightmare with this and couldn’t get it to work at all! It took weeks to get a refund because they deemed it as having started and marked as zero - he couldn’t even open the damn paper!!

eventually did it after 3 separate tries in different weeks and so when he took it he wasn’t all calm and ready for it like attempt one started out! He failed by one mark and we had to go through it allllll over again.

To this day there’s never even been a certificate. Tight sods.

We had a total nightmare and could never get into the exam. In the end we got a refund.

Had a long think about what DD was actually planning on doing and decided to ditch the whole thing. Instead she now has a 1-2-1 theory tutor for an hour a week and they work on the theory she actually needs and uses and not the content of ABRSM's exam.

But... DD doesn't do grades so we didn't have to tick that box.

I have done so many exams online and ABRSM are by far the most ridiculous and complicated.

I teach violin; am not directly responsible for music theory with most of my students (and don't regularly use practical exams) but have been seriously contemplating encouraging families to look at Trinity for theory - no experience of their exams but I think their syllabus is better structured. I'm pretty sure you can use Trinity grade 5 theory as a substitute for ABRSM.