Entering Exams
Tony Skinner provides some essential information about the procedures to follow if you're planning to enter students for the RGT electric or bass Guitar exams…
Whether you've entered students for RGT exams on previous occasions or are thin king of doing so for the first time, both yourself and the RGT will want to make the process as smooth as possible for your students. Following the advice below, and keeping yourself and your students informed of the administrative procedures, so that they have realistic expectations of how the exams will be organised, will help to keep them happy with the arrangements, understand the processes and avoid any unexpected surprises.
Exam Periods
"RGT holds exams three times a year within the UK".
A list of UK entry deadlines and exam periods is shown on page 6. Different arrangements apply to overseas exams and teachers should contact the RGT representative for their country or view the RGT website for specific information.
Entry Forms
"Each grade handbook contains the entry form for the exam".
In order to ensure that, before entering an RGT exam, candidates are fully conversant with all the musical details and the exact requirements of each grade, obtaining an Examination Handbook is the only method of acquiring an examination entry form. The only exceptions to this are for siblings and 're-entry' - in both cases special entry forms are available from the RGT office.
Exam Dates
"Exams may be held on any day of the week - including weekends".
We still get phone calls from some candidates saying: "I didn't expect the exam to be on a Sunday", whilst others call saying: "Why is the exam on a weekday, my teacher told me exams are always on Sundays". Please remind candidates that exams may be held on ANY day of the week - including, but not exclusively, weekends. The exact day exams are held in an area is entirely dependent upon the availability of candidates, the exam venue and the examiner.
Apart from the Christmas Eve to New Year week, exams may be held at any time during each two-month examination period; this may be within or outside of the school term.
Candidate Availability
"If candidates don't state when they are going to be away then we cannot avoid setting their exam for that date".
Each exam entry form contains a space where candidates can name dates when they will not be available to attend for examination. If candidates do not tell us when they are going to be away then we cannot avoid setting their exam for that date.
Once the exam is set up we will have issued a contract to pay both the examiner and the venue for the duration of the candidate's exam; therefore, candidates who wish to change their exam date will incur an admin fee.
Where possible an alternative date will be offered, but this will normally require the candidate to travel some distance to an alternative venue. In some circumstances it may not be possible to reschedule the exam if no spaces are available in other exam centres; in such circumstances the candidate will forfeit their entry fee if they decide not to attend for their original appointment.
Being Reasonable
"Candidates should only rule out dates on which it is impossible to attend".
In fairness to all other candidates in each location, it is essential that candidates only rule out dates on which it is IMPOSSIBLE for them to attend. The staff in the RGT exam dept. always try their best to arrange an examination date that suits all candidates in a particular area, and to aid us in this task, teachers need to ask their students to be reasonable when listing dates on which they will not be available: cancelling out two or more weeks, all weekends, or only giving a few dates that they can make is not fair to other candidates - who will then all be obliged to attend on the day that is convenient for that one candidate.
We have had several instances in some towns of one candidate stating that he cannot make "any Saturdays", with another not being available for "any Sundays", and others stating that they cannot attend "on weekdays". Clearly this makes setting up the exam impossible, so any entry form that blocks out unreasonable periods during the exam sessions are unlikely to be accepted and may be returned.
Exam Recognition
"Students should be informed of the validity of an RGT exam".
RGT exams are internationally recognised qualifications, that are QCA approved and have been placed on the National Qualifications Framework with direct equivalence to GCSEs and A' levels, with the higher grades being awarded UCAS points. Therefore, before entering your students for an exam, you should make them aware that it might be necessary for them to miss football practice one Saturday morning or take an hour off work or school in order to attend this important exam. Please remind students that we cannot accept entries dependent upon a convenient date and entry fees cannot be refunded once the exam entry has been accepted.
Advance Notice
"Let your students know the exam date as soon as you are notified".
Candidates or teachers will be sent examination appointment letters at least 10 days prior to the exam. If you have agreed to administer your students' entries then it is your responsibility as the teacher to ensure that all your students are made aware of the exam date, time and venue as soon as possible after the examination appointment letter arrives.
Often it would be helpful to the student if the teacher telephones the student with the exam date rather than wait until the next lesson - which might be very close to the exam.
Late Entries
"The sooner we receive all the entries the more notice candidates can be given of their exam appointment".
Entries need to be received by the entry deadline date, but it is really
helpful to receive them before then if at all possible.
Entries received up to seven days after the official closing date may be
accepted dependent upon whether the exams for that area have started to
be set-up, but all late entries will incur a late entry admin fee. Please
remember that the sooner we receive all the entries the sooner the exams
can be set up - and therefore the more notice candidates can be given of
their exam appointment.
Exam Venues
"We always try to assign candidates to the venue that is nearest to their home address."
Exams may be held in schools, colleges, teachers' or examiners' houses, rehearsal studios, arts centres and community halls. Exams may not always be held in the same venue in any particular town - it may be necessary to use a new venue due to availability or the location of candidates. But whichever venue is used, we use specialist travel mapping software to always try to assign candidates to the venue that is nearest to their home address.
We aim to ensure that no candidate should have more than a one hour drive to the exam venue: in practice, we are able to assign 95% of candidates an exam venue within less than 30 minutes travelling time. Very occasionally it may be necessary to assign a candidate to a more distant venue - this will usually be due to the candidate's unavailability for the exam dates in more local venues.
Exam Results
"Reports will normally reach the teacher within four weeks of the exam date".
Candidates are not informed on the day of the exam whether or not they have
passed. Instead the examiner will write a helpful report, detailing the
candidate's strengths and weakness in each section of the exam. This will
normally be sent to the teacher, if the teacher's name was given on the
entry form, to present to the candidate. Thereby giving the teacher the
opportunity to study the report before presenting it to the student. Reports
will normally reach the teacher by post within four weeks of the exam date.
This time is necessary to ensure that all results are checked via the exam
standardisation procedure. RGT staff and representatives are not authorised
to give out results by telephone, as it is essential that the candidate
reads the complete report rather than just the final mark.
Certificates for successful candidates are normally dispatched to the teacher
within a maximum of 16 weeks of the examination date.
Helping Us Help You
"We appreciate your efforts to keep your students informed about the RGT exams".
Thank you in advance for your co-operation in passing on all the above information to your students. If you require any further information regarding examination entries and procedures please do not hesitate to contact the RGT office.
