Private Visits
Private Visits take place at an approved venue provided by a teacher, school or other organisation. Only candidates of the Visit Organiser or their Permitted Applicants can take exams at a Private Visit.
The information on this page applies to Private Visits in the UK and Ireland. If you are interested in holding a Private Visit in a different country please contact your local ABRSM representative for more information.
Instrumental and singing exams
- Minimum time - you must have at least three hours of exams, unless you have candidates taking Percussion, Organ, Harpsichord, Choral Singing or Jazz Ensemble exams, which must take place at a Private Visit. Timings for exams are available in our qualification specifications and syllabuses.
- Dates and timings - you can usually choose the date(s) for your Private Visit, although some dates may not be available during our busy face-to-face exam sessions. Each day can include up to 6 hours 30 minutes of exams, plus lunch and breaks. You can start your exams any time between 9.00am and 10.00am.
- Adding candidates – you can add candidates until booking closes 28 days before the start date. It may then be possible to make late bookings if space is available.
- Jazz – you can have Jazz exams at your visit if you have at least one hour of Jazz exams. The total examining time for the whole visit must be at least three hours.
- Percussion, Organ, Harpsichord, Jazz Ensembles and Choral Singing – these exams can only take place at a Private Visit as we are unable to hold them at our Public Venues. There is no minimum number of examining hours. We aim to provide an examiner on your chosen date but cannot guarantee this.
Music Theory exams (Grades 6 to 8)
- Venues - the venue must be a school, college or other educational organisation, or the education department of a prison or hospital.
- Candidates - there is no minimum number of candidates.
- Dates – exams take place on set dates available on our dates and fees page.
Downloads
Who’s who
Visit Organisers - book and run Private Visits. They are responsible for applying for approval for their venue, booking the Private Visit and for sharing their venue code with any Permitted Applicants.
Permitted Applicants - have received permission from a Visit Organiser to book their candidates at a Private Visit. The Visit Organiser will provide you with a venue code to enter when you first book candidates at the.
Terms and conditions - if you are a Visit Organiser read our terms and conditions, available to download at the top of this page. These set out how we expect you to organise and host Private Visits.
Risk assessment - Visit Organisers are responsible for providing facilities according to our instructions and for the appropriate conduct of the exam. We advise Visit Organisers to carry out a risk assessment. For guidance, see our risk assessment checklist and form, available to download at the top of this page.
Venue approval and codes – we need to approve a venue before exams take place there for the first time. This can take up to eight working days. The approval will then apply for all future visits at your venue. Once we’ve approved your venue we will provide you with a venue code to share with your Permitted Applicants. This allows them to book candidates at your visit.
- Log in or register.
- Click ‘Private Visit’.
- Under ‘My Venues’ click ‘Request approval for a new venue’.
- Complete and submit the form in the pop-up window. Please read our Terms and conditions for Visit Organisers before you do this.
- We will send you an email within three working days with a link to our Venue Approval Application Form which you should complete and return to us by email with any documents and photographs.
- We will respond within five working days of receiving the form to confirm approval of your venue or ask for further information.
- Once approved, your venue will appear under ‘My Venues’ in your account.
Instrumental and singing exams - you can add candidates to a visit up to 28 days before the start date. You may be able to add extra candidates after the 28-day deadline if space is available in the timetable.
Music Theory exams (Grades 6 to 8) - you can book exams during the published booking period.
Visit Organisers and Permitted Applicants have the option to upload candidate details in bulk from a pre-populated file.
- Go to the ‘add candidates’ section of your booking.
- Click ‘download import template’.
- Add your candidate/exam details to the template.
- Click ‘import candidates from file’ and select the template.
- Click ‘open’ and the candidate/exam details will appear in your Private Visit booking.
- You can edit any candidate details on-screen before confirming.
We confirm your Private Visit 28 days before the start date.
At this point we adjust the time allocated for the visit to the nearest half day, based on the exams booked. For example, if you select two days for your visit and only have exams to fill 1½ days, we will adjust the visit to one full day and one half day and allocate an examiner on that basis. If you select two days for your visit and have exams to fill more than 1 ½ days, we will allocate two full days for your visit.
Once your Private Visit is confirmed and adjusted to the nearest half day, you can add any late entries into the remaining time.
Before we’ve confirmed an instrumental and singing visit, you can change the date(s) or add more days. You can only select dates that allow enough examining time for your candidates and dates must not overlap with another existing visit at the same venue.
To change a date:
- Click ‘Private Visit’ and select your visit.
- Click ‘Amend dates' and select the new date(s) from the calendar and a start time.
- Click ‘Confirm dates’.
To add days:
- Click ‘Private Visit’ and select your visit.
- Click ‘Amend dates'.
- Re-select the start date then select your new ‘venue available until’ date from the calendar and confirm.
If you request a change of date after we’ve confirmed your visit, the following fees will apply:
- Full-day date change: £150
- Half-day date change: £100
At any time, Visit Organisers can download a candidate list for their visit.
- Go to your booking.
- Click ‘list of all candidates’.
- Click ‘Export timetable (CSV)’.
Please note - special characters will appear as a question mark in the downloaded file and if a name contains a comma this will move part of the name into the next column. On mark forms and certificates names will appear as they were entered in the original booking.
Once a Private Visit is confirmed, the Visit Organiser can rearrange their exam timetable. You can make timetable changes up to 48 hours before the visit start date, following our standard exam day:
Session 1 – 1 hour 45 minutes
Break – 15 minutes
Session 2 – 1 hour 45 minutes
Lunch – 1 hour 5 minutes
Session 3 – 1 hour 30 minutes
Break – 15 minutes
Session 4 – 1 hour 30 minutes
The day can start any time between 9.00am and 10.00am and can include a maximum of 6 hours and 30 minutes of exams. Any exams exceeding this will be scheduled the following day.
To request any other timetable arrangements, email us at [email protected] before the visit has been confirmed (28 days before the start date). We cannot consider requests after this.
Once timetable changes have been made, the Visit Organiser has the option to lock the timetable. This stops exam times changing for everyone if an exam is cancelled or moved to a different slot.
You can lock the timetable at any point from when the visit is confirmed up to 48 hours before the start date.
It’s not possible to unlock a timetable once you’ve locked it. However, you can still move candidates into space at the end of the day or into available slots created by cancelling exams. You can also remove empty slots if you wish to. This will shift all the following candidates up and you will receive a warning message if you are about to do this.
To lock your timetable:
- Click ‘Private Visit’ and select your visit.
- Click ‘Arrange timetable’ and ‘Lock timetable’.
The Visit Organiser is responsible for contacting candidates and any Permitted Applicants to let them know the finalised exam times. If you lock your timetable, this will send an automated email to any candidates with an account and to Permitted Applicants to let them know that the timetable has been finalised and that they can view their confirmed times.
Check our step-by-step guide to booking a Private Visit and adding candidates.
- Create your account if you don’t have one already.
- For instrumental and singing exams, check that you have enough exams to hold a visit and how many days you will need, Your can find exam timings in our qualification specifications and syllabuses.
- For Music Theory exams (Grades 6 to 8) check booking periods and exam dates.
- Read our terms and conditions for Visit Organisers and apply for approval for your venue if you don’t have this already.
- Once your venue is approved, share your venue code with any Permitted Applicants.
Log in and select ‘Private Visit’.
- Book your visit by selecting your venue. For instrumental and singing exams choose your date(s). Due to high demand, some dates may not be available during our busy face-to-face exam sessions. These will by greyed out so you can’t select them.
- You can change dates for instrumental and singing exams, or add more days, up to 28 days before the visit start date.
- Create your account if you don’t have one already.
- If you’re a Permitted Applicant, make sure you have the venue code from the Visit Organiser
- Have all your candidate information ready:
- Name - as it should appear on the mark form and certificate. This must exactly match the name on any candidate ID document needed for the exam.
- Date of birth
- ABRSM Contact ID – for candidates who have been entered before using our new online service
- Subject and grade or level
- Any specific needs access requirements or reasonable adjustments
- Any alternative ‘presented by’ name
- Email address for the candidate (or parent/carer) – optional for Private Visit bookings
- Log in to your account and select ‘Private Visit’.
- If you’re a Permitted Applicant, enter the venue code supplied by the Visit Organiser.
- Select the visit and enter your candidate and exam details. You can enter these directly into our booking service or you can use our bulk upload option to add a list of candidates.
- Check you booking summary and pay for your exams.
- We will send you an email to confirm your booking and payment.
You can add candidates up to 28 days before the visit start date for instrumental and singing exams and during the booking period for Music Theory exams.
- Private Visit confirmation – we confirm the visit once booking has closed. We then email the Visit Organiser and any Permitted Applicants to let them know that they can log in to view exam dates and times. Candidates with an account also receive a confirmation email.
- Cancelling an exam – applicants can cancel an exam through their account. If you cancel up to 28 days before the visit start date for instrumental and singing exams, and before the closing date for Music Theory exams, we refund the full fee. If you are the Visit Organisers and you decide to cancel your entire Private Visit, it is your responsibility to inform any permitted applicants and candidates.
- Amending a candidate’s details - you can make some small changes after you’ve paid for the booking.
