Music performance assessment on-line: an unpopular opinion

​Taking performance assessment online has been a bit like moving house.
You can do a certain amount of preparation in the run up to the big day – in fact you should.  You can write lists, measure spaces, pack boxes, label everything.  But however carefully you plan, there will always be something that goes wrong, something you didn’t think of.
The three main Boards I have dealt with over the plague year are London College, Trinity and the Associated Board.  All entered the on-line assessment arena in their own way – London, as the smallest, appeared the most agile, flexible, and eager to impress, like the new recruit on the removals team, scrambling over the inside of the van, packing and stacking at speed.  London were quick to replace their Spring bookings with recorded exams, made the switch easy and even opened their exams to candidates presenting pieces from any of the other main Boards’ grade lists.  

The real benefits of digital exam assessment have come to those students who .... listen back to their recordings with ears open for the beauties in their performances as well as the knots and blemishes, and then go back to the bench with a plan of work for the week.  Even if there are patches they still find challenging days later, they will have learnt to listen critically and become better reflective practitioners in the process.

​ABRSM lumbered late out of the dressing room, opting to refund or delay their Spring exams rather than replace them with digital options.  They scurried down rabbit holes of their own making: first by clinging to the hope of in-person exams in public centres well into the Autumn, exams which mostly  then had to be rearranged or refunded; and then when they drew up their new Performance Grades as an alternative digital option.  These grades, while a welcome addition to the landscape, were not easy for candidates and teachers to switch to: they required a fourth piece (for piano) which few candidates would have had ready; criteria offered for the – 30 marks-worth – ‘performance’ element were sketchy; and recording instructions changed without announcement. To their credit, ABRSM introduced an on-line grade 5 Theory exam for the Autumn session, but they failed adequately to test the functionality and the load on the software, which sadly crashed on the day.
Trinity, too, took a wrong turn out of the tunnel when they first launched digital assessments in the summer of 2020, which left out the technical sections and replaced them with a moderating algorithm, for reasons that remain impenetrable.  

​So far I have had only good results, with more Distinctions than usual, and I suspect that this is not because the joys of lockdown have put examiners in a more generous mood.  I strongly believe that digital performance grade exams give a truer picture of the competence and talent of young musicians.

​It certainly hasn’t been an easy process, but now we’ve got there, unpacked the kettle from the box unfathomably marked Bathroom, and found a small area of window-ledge to sit on.  All three Boards have arrived at settled solutions.  None of them – quite rightly - is identical to each others, nor to their own in-person examinations, but all of them are coherent and well-documented.
Booking
Both Trinity and London College have arrived at an ‘always open’ approach to booking periods.   ABRSM has settled for repeated single week booking periods each month, for exam recordings to be submitted by a due date the following month, which shows intelligence at work in planning the recruitment and workload of examiners and moderators and the upload site traffic.
All Boards have had to ‘tweak’ existing sites to accommodate new booking systems, and this shows. Trinity are diverting Classical and Jazz candidates to their Rock and Pop site for booking, and the navigation of all three sites to the registration/booking screens, and to recording instructions, feels clunky and confusing.  All three Boards, as they move from Centre-based models, also seem to be drifting away from systems where the registered Teacher makes all the exam bookings for her students.

​Preparation and Assessment
This is where I feel we are seeing the greatest difference, and where I see actual improvements to be gained by opting for digital assessments. 
So far, all my pupils have had excellent results, with more Distinctions than usual, and I suspect that this is not because the joy of lockdown has put examiners in a more generous mood.  I strongly believe that digital performance grade exams give a truer picture of the competence and preparation of young musicians.
First of all, teachers and candidates can book an exam without having to second guess whether they are going to be at peak match-fitness, ready with a scrape, or over-cooked by the exam date.  They can record on their own instrument, with warmed up fingers; they are in control of everything in that environment.  What the examiner sees is exactly what they can do, not what they can surmount.

There are other benefits to digital assessments in terms of flexibility and accessibility, especially for those candidates who use mobility aids such as wheelchairs, or for whom unfamiliar, unpredictable  environments are a challenge.  ​

​Before upload day even comes, we will have made practice recordings of individual pieces or of performance elements, ostensibly just to break the back of recording anxiety and to deal with technical gremlins. During lockdown, especially in the first days when sound quality was dire and connectivity unstable, several students sent recordings for routine feedback in lessons.  I only discovered late in the day that most of them never listened to the recordings themselves; so we took to listening, and critiquing, together.  The real benefits of digital exam assessment have come to those students who fully engaged with this, who can now listen back to their recordings with ears open for the beauties in their performances as well as the knots and blemishes, and then go back to the bench with a plan of work for the week. 

​ Even if there are patches pupils find challenging days later, they will have learnt to listen critically and have become better reflective practitioners in the process.
Many students have sent me their full exam recordings, sometimes for feedback, which I am always delighted to give, or in some cases to help them decide which file to submit – a much harder task!  A recording of their best possible performances, when they are smartly dressed for the occasion, the room beautified, is something they and their families can treasure for ever, and another habit to build into year-round practice.
There are other benefits to digital assessments in terms of flexibility and accessibility, especially for those candidates who use mobility aids such as wheelchairs, or for whom unfamiliar, unpredictable  environments are a challenge.  

​With so much to be said for digital assessments, I for one hope they will continue to be a well-resourced, well-supported option for years beyond lockdown.