The Associated Board suspends all music exams in the UK and Ireland

Further to the government’s latest coronavirus advice, The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) has taken the decision to suspend all music exams in the UK and Ireland from Wednesday 18 March until further notice. The announcement was made on 16 March 2020.

This affects all Graded Music Exams, Diplomas, Choral Singing and Ensemble exams at all public venues and private visits.

ABRSM said: ‘We will process 100% refunds for the UK and Ireland exams in Public Venues that we have cancelled from 18 March to 4 April. We will also process 100% refunds for Private Visits booked until 1 July. Please bear with us while we do this. In the meantime, please do not make any further bookings for future Private Visits until further notice.’

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The full statement is published on the ABRSM home page:

COVID-19: 13 March 2020

The welfare of our customers, examiners, representatives and staff remains our priority as the COVID-19 situation evolves, and we are following government advice and public health measures. We recognise that candidates have worked very hard to prepare for their exam and that it may also be important for their further education, so wherever possible, and in line with official advice, we will try to run exams as planned.

We have a shared responsibility to follow public health advice [see https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/] and we are making sure our representatives, examiners and venue hosts are aware of the precautions they should take. In addition to reinforcing advice on monitoring health, washing hands, and avoiding close contact, we have requested that sanitiser be available in venues, where it is possible to obtain it, and that shared instruments and equipment are cleaned regularly. As a candidate we expect that you, and those who come to the exam with you, are following official health advice.

Exams in the UK:

Our UK Session 1 exams are going ahead. There may be individual cases where public venue exams have to be posponed for reasons outside our control, and we will endeavour to tell applicants in advance.  Please refer back to the website for updates.

Official advice for the UK has recently been updated to say that if you have a continuous cough and/or a high temperature, you should stay at home for 7 days. Please do not attend your exam if you are displaying these symptoms. Please make sure you follow the latest health advice.

Exams outside the UK:

We are following advice from governments and local officials. If we do have to postpone exams, we will notify you via the website of the relevant territory, and will try to contact applicants.

Please make sure you follow the latest health advice in your territory.