Private & Public Exams

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Private vs. Public Exam Days

What is a Private Exam Day?

Rockschool Private Exams are exam days hosted at a venue of your choice, enabling your students to sit their Graded Exam in the comfort of a familiar setting, using equipment they are accustomed to. Students often prefer this format due to this familiarity, whilst it also reduces the amount of time spent outside of school. These exams can be done through an examiner visit or alternatively via a live-stream at the venue or direct from the student's home.

For teachers, this introduces a higher degree of flexibility as the exam date itself is not limited to specific Exam Periods, like our public examinations. All private centres are given access to discounts on official Rockschool publications, as well as additional resources and support to help make each learners experience as enjoyable as possible.

Please get in touch for more information...

contact an RSL exam officer

Key Information:

  • We can organise a Private Day for you if you have a full day’s worth of exams. Subject to examiner availability, it may also be possible to arrange a session if you meet requirements for a half-day booking. The terms for both booking types can be found in the table below.
  • A Private Day can incorporate any instrument, including Music Production and Popular Music Theory, across the entire range of grades available.
  • Private days can be booked on any day of the week (Sunday included).
  • Exam sessions generically run from 9am–5pm, but this can be amended to suit your needs - subject to examiner availability.
  • RSL will send an examiner to you. All you need to do is provide a steward and appropriate facilities to run the exam smoothly.
  • Each centre needs to provide suitable facilities and equipment in order to run the exam.
  • To register, please complete the Terms and Conditions Agreement and return it to your regional exams officer (listed below).
  • To enter your students, head to our online entry page and log-in. New customers will need to register before an application can be processed.
  • Students can be entered individually, or as a group.
  • Payment can be made through our website or alternatively via BACS/invoice. You can decide how you wish to manage this process.

DOWNLOAD THE PRIVATE CENTRE PROCEDURE FORM

Your Regional Exams Officer

To contact your regional exams officer and discuss your needs in more detail, please send us a message:

contact your exam officer

Times and Fees

Please use this table to identify how many exam entries will create an exam day.

A full day is 8 hours (6.5 hours of exams plus an examiner break), with a half day set at 4 hours minimum. Please see our exam fees here for Face-to-face exams, Recorded Video Exams & Live-streamed Exams.

GradeFull Exam (Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass, Drums, Ukulele and Piano)Full Exam(Vocals)Performance Certificate(Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass, Drums, Ukulele and Piano)Performance Certificate(Vocals)Music ProductionTheory
Premiere10 minutes10 minutes
Debut15 minutes12 minutes60 minutes
120 minutes25 minutes15 minutes25 minutes45 minutes90 minutes
220 minutes25 minutes15 minutes25 minutes45 minutes90 minutes
325 minutes30 minutes 18 minutes25 minutes45 minutes90 minutes
425 minutes30 minutes 22 minutes25 minutes50 minutes120 minutes
525 minutes30 minutes 22 minutes25 minutes50 minutes120 minutes
630 minutes36 minutes25 minutes30 minutes70 minutes180 minutes
732 minutes36 minutes25 minutes30 minutes70 minutes180 minutes
832 minutes36 minutes28 minutes30 minutes70 minutes180 minutes

What is a Public Exam Day?

A Rockschool Public Exam takes place in an exam centre, which is open to any/all candidate looking for a venue to take their exam in their region. All listed venues are viewable on our national centre map with exams held on specified dates within each of our Exam Periods: (A: Spring, B: Summer and C: Autumn). All dates are confirmed after each closing date at the latest.

These centres are particularly valuable if you are receiving or delivering tuition independently and would require a local venue to host exams. We give our public centres a fee for hosting an event and promote them on our national centre map. We also offer other deals on our publications to help support greater engagement with Rockschool materials and exams.

Public Day Key Information:

  • We can organise for students to attend your own Public Exam Centre once you have registered and been approved by our Exams Team.
  • A public booking can incorporate any instrument, including Music Production and Theory, across the entire range of grades.
  • Public exams are booked to take place within our set exam periods only.
  • Exam sessions generically run from 9am–5pm, but this is negotiable depending on your needs and examiner availability.
  • RSL will send an examiner to you. All you need to do is provide a steward and appropriate facilities to run the exam smoothly. This is covered through the application process.
  • Each centre needs to provide suitable facilities and equipment in order to run exams.
  • Students apply through our website and have an exam centre assigned to them with their preferences taken into account.
  • Public Exam Centres are free to submit their own candidates for exams.

Your Regional Exams Officer

Please contact your regional exams officer to discuss your needs in more detail:

contact your exam officer

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