Submitted a late entrance form about 4 weeks ago. I normally submit students in good time and online but a bereavement caused me to take my eye off the ball, so to speak. Anyway, sent forms/cheques etc. A couple of days later, I rang up to confirm that the application had arrived. Was told 'yeah it will be here' by a gentleman. I kept checking bank statement to see if the cheque had cleared - nothing. I thought, with it being a late entrance, that this was normal practice for the ABRSM to wait for any spaces before cashing cheques. Rang up this morning - waited 23 minutes to get through. I was told the person to speak to hadn't arrived and to ring tomorrow - Saturday. Anyway, rang up this afternoon - another 20+ minutes to get through - only to be told that my letter hadn't even arrived at the office. They had no record of me ever submitting a late entrance. Feeling absolutely gutted and feel like giving up. I have wasted my students time, money and effort. Not looking forward to telling those students that 'it ain't happening this time!' Exams - are they worth it?

We all make mistakes from time to time for all sorts of reasons but you can see from other threads that all is not well with AB exam appointments this session. It isn't good enough, AB - there is a lot of competition in the market these days and this sort of caper is going to put the loyal punters right OFF

In your circumstances, Englebert, how about punting around for a Special Visit in your area that you could tag on to? Some schools may be running Standard Visits that may be able to squeeze an entry in too (certainly my school has taken a few stragglers not known to us in the past).

Good luck and try not to feel too low.

Bagpuss x

Thanks for the support, Bagpuss. It is most appreciated! I have done as you have recommended and am happy to say that there is a Special visit near me who would be happy to take on further students. However, this is under the proviso that the examiner is happy also to take on further examinees. I will contact the ABRSM tomorrow to see if this can be arranged. Hopefully, I can get through! Once again, thanks for your advice

Well done, Bagpuss - good advice.
Well done Englebert for following it.
All you can do when there's a mess up is to try and rectify it as best as possible. No one's a miracle worker.
If it's a reasonably low grade I'm sure the examiner will accept it, no problem. If it's grade 8 or something it might be trickier but even then . . .
Good luck.

that sounds like a result to me. I think it's very unlikely the examiner will say no (unless you have 50 candidates... )

Special-Visit-Bag x

Sorry to hear this.

Did you send it recorded delivery or recieve a certificate of posting? You could always phone AB up again and say it got lost in the post which it must have done or perhaps the B has mislaid it? They might show some empathy.

I would encourage you to use their online facility from now on.

I normally do use the online facility. Somebody close to me dying meant that I had other priorities at the time.

Update: Rang up ABRSM today and was told that my entrance form had been found! Went to a different area dept, apparently! So, fingers crossed, we're GOOD TO GO!

Sorry to hear of your sad loss. But I'm so glad the AB found it.