Taking an online ABRSM Music Theory Exam

Claire Furney

• 5 min read
Taking an online ABRSM Music Theory Exam
Photo by Marcela Laskoski / Unsplash

1 Study

See How to pass ABRSM Music Theory Grade 5.

2 Read guidance and watch videos

https://www.abrsm.org/en-gb/music-theory/guidance

  • Booking The Exam - 3 mins - video going through initial process: create an account; check you have a computer, webcam and quiet room; specific requirements and translation options (outside UK only); expected time to receive results (4 weeks + 1 week).
  • Starting The Exam - 3 mins - ABRSM maintenance windows; responsible adult specifics for candidates under 18; 3 hour window; click start; download and install and wait for PSI bridge software to launch (10 minutes); pre exam checks: language, system checks - microphone, camera, no dodgy software running, only 1 monitor, ID, 4 x 360 degree room scans (30 seconds each); take a selfie (10 minutes).
  • Taking The Exam - 3 mins - "Start"; show any rough paper (both sides); take test as per mock online exams; tear up any paper in front of the camera; "End Test"; "End Session"; any technical issues - close browser, log back in and relaunch - "Live Chat" also available

2 Create an ABRSM account

This is straight forwards, name, email, password. For some reason Safari on the Mac kept erroring, but worked fine via Chrome.

3 Book and Pay for the exam

Again straightforwards, select the grade, check name details are correct and pay. The current cost, January 2025 is £57. I received an email confirmation straight away. The exam window was from 3 hours after booking to approximately 28 days after that. The summary is shown on the dashboard (I sometimes have to login twice to actually get to the dashboard). Clicking "Booking details" shows the available window.

4 System check

There is a simple system check available on the ABRSM website, but I'm not exactly sure how reflective it is of the actual software...

5 ABRSM maintenance windows

Approx every 2 weeks ABRSM are doing system maintenance and taking the exam is not available - check https://www.abrsm.org/en-gb/dates-and-fees/exam-dates-and-fees-latest for dates.

6 Taking the exam

Brief summary of everything I can remember. Read all the resources on the ABRSM site thoroughly beforehand.

  1. Get ready
    Have the room all ready, clear desk, no books (or none within reach) and no keyboards / pictures of keyboards. Just need laptop, photo ID, glass of water, rough paper (plain or manuscript) and a pen.
  2. Start setup
    Click the "Start Music Theory Exam" from the dashboard and confirm a few times that you definitely want to start.
  3. Download and install the software
    My download didn't start immediately, the browser prevented a popup window opening. I had to click "download is taking a while to start" and then select macOS and download it from there. Run the installer - say yes to any permissions. After it finishes, as per the instructions don't click close, but let the installer open the software.
  4. Running the PSI Bridge software
    The software automatically opened, various prompts to use microphone, record the screen etc, after one of which my mac said I may want to restart the software, which I didn't end up doing and got stuck on a "loading" screen for ages. After a couple of minutes waiting, I quit the software and restarted it.
  5. Close other programs
    Still periodic 5-10 seconds of loading screen, but things started moving along now. I was prompted to select the microphone and camera. There was also a check of any other software running. The Chrome browser I had launched the software with was still open, so I closed that. Also a process called "photolibraryd" was running which it wanted closed. I didn't have anything else running and definitely not the Photos app, so had to open up Activity Monitor and kill the process. This PSI Bridge software hadn't been able to close it, and I could see they were about to show me some videos on how to sort it out. I don't expect most people will know about Activity Monitor and killing background processes so that could have potentially been a bit of a showstopper.
  6. Scan of Photo ID
  7. Room scans
    Now there are some scans required. They give you 30 seconds for the actual scan and then ask you to check it shows what it is intended to show. You can do it again if it hasn't worked well, I have to admit I wasn't super fussy - the laptop camera can only capture a small slice of things when you hold it and pan it around.
    I'd read someone talking about decluttering until the scans were accepted and various people having to scan multiple times, but there didn't seem to be any particular check at the time, unless there was but mine were ok.
    1. 360 degree scan round the room
    2. Full floor to ceiling scan (I just chose forwards where the desk was)
    3. Scan of the desk area you are going to be working from
    4. Scan of you holding up and showing both sides of your wrists as well as both ears including behind each one (and glasses if you are wearing any). They also asked me to scan the laptop (which is impossible when you're holding it) and to show my smartphone and then place it behind me out of reach. I'd already left mine downstairs.
  8. Selfie
    Then a selfie and a side by side comparison of this and my photo ID.
  9. Start the exam
    Ready to start, choose the colour of the background, read the instructions, show the rough paper to the camera and begin.
  10. End
    Once finished and any questions reviewed, tear up the paper, click end and click end session. The software showed that I had completed it, had taken 74 minutes, but there was no mark given. Closed the software and uninstalled it.
Don't try this: circle of fifths press-on-tattoo

7 After the exam

I was expecting to get at least some kind of email confirmation that I had successfully submitted the exam, but nothing. Also the dashboard was still showing the "Start Music Theory Exam" button even after I had finished which was a bit disconcerting.

Almost exactly 3 hours after finishing the exam, the "Start Music Theory Exam" button disappeared from the dashboard. Either at the same time OR later that day, the available from and available to dates changed from when I launched the software to when I clicked "End Test". The "details" section also showed exactly the times I started and ended the actual test.

8 Results

... 4 weeks later ...