Does anyone know the rules regarding what happens with the papers at the beginning of the exam? I had a candidate sit grade 2 on Saturday, and she says they were allowed into the exam room 15 minutes before the start time. Apparently the papers were already on the table face up. Is this generally what happens - I can't remember?

David

Last year I know that the students had to twirl their thumbs and sit patiently if they arrived early.... Papers were then handed out about 5mins before the test started - face up, but the front page was only a cover type page which had no questions.

I might ask some of my students, what happened with the papers before the exam started, as some have sat the Theory just recently on the 16th. Would be interesting to know.

Whichever way you put the papers down, it is usually possible to see at least some of the questions, certainly for the lower grades. At the exams I have taken in the last few years, the invigilators have come round and given out the papers once people are sitting down. Given that the amount of time allowed is very generous and most candidates have long since left by the end of the exam, I don't think there is too much of an issue with people seeing the questions a few minutes early, is there?

When I took Grade 1, everyone was based in an exam hall and we were told to sit where you would find a label with the grade you were doing. In previous exams I did, we were based in classrooms, and we had to say which grade we were doing after everyone had sat down, and then the papers were handed out accordingly.

Car Expert

Hi David

On Saturday, we were allowed into the exam room early. We had to find a desk with the number on it corresponding to our grade. Once everyone was seated the invigilator went through each grade in turn and you had to put your hand up to receive the correct paper.

Thats exactly what happened with me too. In my exam there were 2 invidulators and one put then face up (which I thought was more sensible because it was just a title page) and the other put them face down.

Reminds me of my Maths exam... the invilgilator placed the exam papers face down on the table so we could see what the last question was when we sat down...

Car Expert

We were all allowed into the school hall as and when we arrived (not that I was first so I guess some could have been waiting). The tables were arranged in rows for each grade and we were told to sit at a table which had a label for whichever grade we were sitting. When everybody was seated, a number of invigilators came up and down the rows putting a paper face down on the table. We were then told to turn the paper over and put our name labels on, and the chief invigilator said some words about timings, rough paper etc before we started.

We had a time reminder after 40 mins. Then 30 mins to go, then 5 mins to go. I'd have liked one at 10 mins to go as 5 mins is neither use nor ornament, as they say in Yorkshire And I would have liked to have known in advance at which intervals the invigilator was going to remind us so that I could "budget" accordingly, so to speak (come to think of it, he may have done that, it seems so long ago now )

I've been in theory exams where the papers were out before candidates entered the room and you had to find a table with the right grade paper on.

Finding the paper was quite embarrassing because they didn't have all grade 1s together, etc. All the papers were randomly put on the table. As there were only two or three of us doing grade 6 and I was one of the first to arrive, I was walking up and down rows looking for a g6 paper. You were all right if you were g5 because that seemed to be the most popular paper.

We got our papers about 5 minutes before the start, face up, which was quite good, this meant I could sit and study the trio sonata question without diving in and writing stuff before the time began.

When I was doing my theory exams, 6, 7 and 8 I would be in the hall with my students. The papers were out before we entered on 2 occasions. I noticed that on the grade 3s the first time they were face down, but showing the back page of questions - how could the poor things not look? I think when I was doing my 7 we had to start 10 minutes later because they had lost my paper, of course I was the only one and didn't they make a fuss out of it. Good job I don't get embarrassed.
There should be a really clear set of rules for these, it does seem to me there's a little confusion. I'd also like to remove the minimum time limit, sick of 12 year old boys leaving on 40 minutes so they can play football whilst waiting for mum....

I think that the 40 minutes rule is pretty good. I'd finished my G5 in about 20 minutes, spent the next 20 minutes checking, then I left. I got a distinction. I doubt that being forced to sit there for the rest of the exam would have got me a better mark, nor did my leaving affect any other candidates, because I left quietly and without fuss.

It is strange that papers were placed so that the questions can be seen. Its also equally silly for some papers to be made of paper thin enough to see the first question to be seen through the cover sheet..

Any exams i have done we have always been allowed in early and the question paper is sitting face up so that you can see the first page of questions. I always thought this was a bit odd. In my Grade 5 exam we were in a University exam hall and were all sitting Grade 5 so we all had the same papers so it was easy to find your papers.

At our local exam centre the candidates wait outside until ten minutes before the published exam time. Then they are ticked off a list as they are let in and can choose which desk to sit at out of those labled for their grade.

The invigilator read the rules and then watches the clock until exactly the time of the official start of the exam when she/he cuts open the envelope (with a flourish and great ceremony) and the papers are handed out - face up - and everyone adds their label.

When everyone is ready they are told they can start. The time at which they actually start is noted and this is the time the allowed exam time is taken from so that the full time is given.

I understand this is the authorised way to proceed.

A bit of a pain if it takes a few minutes to get sorted, you need the full time and you have a bus or train to catch.
I thought they were meant to start pretty well at the published time. There are reasons why you can't go in after a certain time if you are late and that you must stay at least 40 minutes.

Presumably so that people leaving early can't tell people arriving late the questions and give them a few minutes to look up the answers before they go in.

Mind you, there is a school of thought that says that written exams should be "open book", simply set at a level of difficulty where, if you need to take the time to open the book and look it up, it probably means you won't have time to finish!

Not sure if this would work for music theory, but they've done trials in medicine - it can be very effective in sorting out those who "know" from those who "know where to look it up".

Our exams started ten minutes late.

Did anyone get load of rain and thunder and lightening during their exam? The thunder made me almost jump out of my seat.

That's interesting.......what about those people who do know it but are either lacking in confidence or so perfectionistic that they need to keep checking things, even though they do know it really? That wouldn't affect me in a music theory exam, but if dictionaries/grammar books were allowed in foreign language essay exams, very little essay would be done as I'd be obssessively checking that everything I wrote was grammatically correct!