I was in a classroom in a row of 4. I was squashed in-between a young girl who did a lot of rubbing out and rocked the table so much that I had to wait until she'd finished every time before I could carry on writing; and a boy of around 7-8 years old on the other side who had no concentration and spent much of the time playing with the items in his pencil case Fortunately they both left before the hour was up, but if I'd had to really concentrate (eg on my composition) whilst they'd been there, it would have been extremely difficult, especially in the case of the young boy.

I'm thinking of going to another exam centre for my Grade 6 but are they all like this? The only other option is to do all my next exams in the June session, because those exams are held in the main school hall and we all have individual tables with a walkway between.

What sort of conditions do other people do exams under?

If you ring the HLR you can ask about how the exam room is set up.
I did that when I was putting in a theory entry for an adult student of mine as I knew then that some centres didn't have separate desks.
I only found that out when my god daughter did an exam at a centre like that. I really don't think that people sitting round a table is adequate because of the problems you mention.

The exams in the Chippenham (wiltshire, not the chippenham near cambridge!) area are all done at a roman catholic primary school in their school hall, and you sit in long rows with walkways in between the seperate desks. the exam room is pretty big, and there were about 20 people roughly. there were quite a few grade 1's, and fair few grade 2's and 3's, one grade 4, 6 grade 5's, and 2 grade 6's (me and my mum's pupil).
Because the exam was in a school hall, a fair few teachers were still around, and they didnt exactly make a huge effort to be quiet around the hall area, and the photocopier was going off for ages, and then a group of fat women walked past the hall to a fitness club held there, and they werent too quiet either!

Jacob.

My children's exams have always been held in schools and they've always had individual tables. I can see it must have been really difficult sandwiched between two young children - it must be hard for a 7 year old to concentrate all day in school and then be expected to concentrate again in the evening, so I don't wonder he couldn't sit still.

I remember being very pleased that one of my daughter's February exams fell in half-term week, as I thought it would help her concentration. The pleasure turned to annoyance when we arrived at the school (a private junior school) to discover that because it was half-term the hall was not heated - she came out absolutely frozen!!

My exam was in a classroom in a private school. They have long tables all joined together. Luckily I didn't have anyone rubbing out next to me for this exam but I did have that when I sat grade 4. There were only 4 of us doing an exam today, 3 children doing Grade 3 and me doing Grade 5. All 3 children had left before the hour was up so then there was just me.

There was a lot of noise going on outside the classroom which I found a bit off putting, especially when trying to work out my composition and I kind of wish that someone would tell them to be quiet.

We started the exam at 4.50pm as everyone was there and I stayed the full 2 hours. After I had finished one of the invigilators said to me, haven't I seen you before? and I said yes, I was here in November doing Grade 4 and in June doing Grade 3. I said to him I am going all the way and want to do a music degree. We had a really nice chat and then I left.

I feel quite invigorated by it all, mind you just having the time on my own to just concentrate on music and not worry about anything or anyone else was really good.

Trish

Mine was in the same school hall that they use for the summer session. Individual desks.

I was the only one doing anything above grade 5 so I spent quite a bit of time with one-to-one supervision!!

I would complain about this, skylark - it's not on to have distractions like that. Give your local rep a call about it.

Mine was in a large school gym. There were about 50 candidates, all with separate desks and plenty of space between them. No distractions apart from the invigilator calling out 10 minute warnings and time up. They put the higher grades completely separate from the rest at the other side of the hall. There was a fair sprinkling of adults and another teacher that I know was doing grade 8 on the desk behind me.

I'm off now to have a meal out at the local Italian restaurant - 5 to 8 pm is not good from the eating point of view.

Mine was a big hall, long tables which fitted two people on, with a large enough distance between them so that they couldn't cheat. Lots and lots of people (some of them very young children!) doing either grade 4 or grade 5. I sat next to a very friendly girl doing grade 4, who lent me a ruler.

Mine was in "The Great Hall" in Oldswinford Hospital School. Lovely room with stained glass windows and many award boards around the room.
Separate tables, BUT, the girl next to me sniffed her way through the exam So I turned my hearing aid off in that ear
Beverley.

I haven't done an exam this time, but I did Grade 6 and 7 at 2 separate centres. The first was a bit like yours skylark - one table with 4 of us on it. The young lad sitting opposite me spent most of the exam rubbing things out. I found it very distracting. The centre for Grade 7 was lovely - separate desks, very spread out, and, as I was the only one doing Grade 7 they put me right at the front so I wouldn't be disturbed when all the other candidates left. When I do Grade 8 I shall go thee again I think.

the hall I went to was nice and spacious, at a catholic school, but someone kept switching the lights on and off.

Very large room in a school in a nearby large town.
Individuals desks, but very close together, about 7 in a row and maybe 15 rows. They put the higher grades near the front, but mixed in amongst the myriad grade 5s.

Exam started about 25 minutes late, so I was worried about the fact that I was being picked up at 8.05 and it was in the middle of town, so nowhere nearby to park.

Things weren't too bad until it was just the higher grades left, but after that invigilators chatted at the back of the room and it was incredibly distracting. I had about half an hour where I don't think I wrote more than 2 bars. Which is rather annoying as I was doing OK up until then, but I couldn't concentrate at all while they were being noisy, so I ended up doing a horrible rushed job of two questions.

T.

That's dreadful, Teigr. I really think you should tell the rep about that. Conditions in the various centres seem so different; it just isn't a level playing field, is it.

Nice hall with separate desks for us. But several persistent sniffers. I too had the problem of chatting invigilators once everyone else had left. However, they did shut up again after 5 minutes, just as I was about to say something.

You might want to consider Cheltenham instead then David - Bournside School is the venue. Always decent desks and plenty of space.

Yes I think that's extremely bad, much worse than my situation and I thought mine was bad enough. There's a list of the HLRs on the ABRSM web site if you do decide to tell the rep - this is the link.

All four of the theory exams I've done have been at the same centre (a school). All but grade 5 were in the summer. Grade 1 and 5 were in classrooms, in a similar setup to skylark's, but luckily there were no really annoying people. Grade 2 was in the hall along with grades 1 and 3 set out like a formal exam with little tables etc. Grade 4 was in the huge sports hall with all the grades together, so several hundred people all together.

At my centre two of the three invigilators went home when the last few candidates were left, so there was no talking. I certainly wouldn't put up with that. I must have been lucky re restless and sniffing children - all ours were very well behaved and got on with it (or else I was so absorbed that I didn't notice!)

David, I think you ought to complain about your centre - infant sized desks and chairs are not suitable for the size of most children likelt to be doing a theory exam, and I'd hate to be doing a three hour paper there as an older teenager or adult! Surely there is a secondary school they could use.

I must admit once there was only me left the invigilators were talking, but talking with a whisper and I did find this a little distracting. The other thing was I think they were pouring tea from a pot and it made a real loud sound, so much so after each time it happened they apologised.

That's not fair on you, and I agree with the posts above that say to contact your HLR.

All the best for your result.

I think this aspect is also very bad - what with this and the chatty invigilators, I think you've definitely got grounds to compain Teigr. There could be all sorts of reasons why starting 25 minutes late could have adversely affected some candidates and could even have meant that some people had to leave before the end of the revised finishing time

Well, I think it will have affected my result, but I don't want to kick up a stink about it. I do quite a lot of exams, so getting on the wrong side of the local exam bods would be unhelpful. There were three invigilators and it was the other two that were chatting, but the one who was in charge over all was the lady who usually stewards at practical exams. So she already recognises me and knows my name.
And I wouldn't want to get anyone into trouble - even the ones who were doing the distracting were nice and after the exam the one that I'd spoken to when I asked them to be quieter came over and apologied about it and said taht she hadn't realised it was distracting.
Plus I was only doing this one as a trial run for next term, so the result doesn't matter so much. It would've been nice to do well, but it's not the end of the world if I fail. At least I've learned some things that should help next time. (I'll arrange to be picked up half an hour after the time the exam /should/ finish and make sure my lift knows that things might not run to schedule, and if the invigilators are distracting I'll say something a lot sooner, rather than wasting over half an hour of the exam.)

T.

i vaguely remember my exam hall, it was the main hall of a school and the supervisors were really nice and relaxed. we all had separate desks so it wasn't too bad, well, at least compared to everyone else here

Mine was in a private school in classrooms. There were about 30 - 40 of us there I'd say, so we were split into different rooms. 15 minutes into the exam the lights went out...due to the timer running out, ha!

Fair enough - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

I was the only one doing anything, and there were 2 invigilators, a husband and wife. One of them went out half-way through and came back with coffee for her husband, but I didn't mind. It was nice not to be in a freezing church hall sharing a desk with someone as I did last time.

I picked up the 2008 booklet on Exam Info & Regs the other day and it says this about the "exam environment":

A suitable environment is provided for candidates, including a quiet exam room with tables that allow the reasonable spacing of candidates.

From this thread it's obvious that some candidates don't get quietness, and others don't get reasonable spacing.


Something else which I've just remembered was that one of the candidates asked for extra rough paper, but was told they couldn't have it. I think (but I'm not certain) that on other occasions, candidates have been told they can have extra if they asked, and it certainly doesn't seem fair to force candidates to make do with a very small piece of rough paper if they need more, or not to tell them in advance that they can't have extra... Is this really the case?

For the practical exams I ring the rep beforehand and ask where they're holding it. Three main boards all have nice venues in nearby towns and we choose the ones we like best - for AB we're halfway between an upright in a church hall and a grand in lovely old ballroom.

For the written exams the representative doesn't book somewhere until she knows how many candidates there are - and the session before last it was six people to a table - I was there, trying to draw my music very neatly while someone was shaking the table trying to rub out something.

I find this quite shocking, I would never have imagined that you could be sharing a table in an exam

Is it still the case? I know this thread is quite old.

The exam I just sat was in a school sports hall, seperate desks, spacious, 120 candidates up to grade 7 and quiet invidulators. My only gripe was that the lighting was terrible, it was as if someone had coated the room in a 1970s photo sepia tone! But it sounds I got off lightly. For my next exam I was thinking of using a centre that is nearer to me and to avoid the lighting issue, but I don't know if I should now, it could be worse.

One thing that surprised me was the relaxed attitude to bags, I asked when I went in where I should put my bag, as in every other non music exam I have done you have to keep them in a seperate area. We were allowed to keep our bags with us, and one girl was reading her pink book right up until we could turn our papers over

I did my grade 5 theory there - all grade 5 in one room, the rest in another.

Single desks, quiet, nothing to complain about.

However, having the previous year stopped teaching mathematics, it was a mathematics classroom we were sat in! So I spent the waiting time scanning the walls, checking for mistakes!

I chose to sit at the back - only ever did as a kid when we were sat in alphabetical order!

Oldest by 30 years, so a few odd glances from Y10/11 students, but I was the second person to leave, just as an hour had elapsed - I was hungry and wanted to go home for my tea!

I too cannot understand why any sharing of tables was allowed, in other centres mentioned.