Written exams may not seem like the ideal solution to assess a student’s knowledge of oral music traditions.  But for PRSSV, the UK’s leading examination board for over 30 years for oral music traditions, that used to be the only feasible option. Until they found assessmentQ, a digital exam platform. “The audio and video capabilities open up a whole new world of personal guidance,” says PRSSV founder and director Dr. Frances Shepherd.

Practice doesn’t always follow theory

Ethnomusicologist Frances Shepherd established PRSSV as an examination board in the UK in 1987. “I wanted to improve global music teaching and performances using Western methodologies,” Frances explains. “We speak of global music instead of world music, because world music has become closely related to pop music. PRSSV specialises in music traditions that are passed down orally.”

Non-written music requires a totally different examination approach than Western classical music. “You can study Western music without touching an instrument – and that’s how most students start. Practice follows theory. Oral traditions are much more about improvising and performing. From day one, students are learning how to create the music themselves. Theory and practice are intertwined.”

Personal guidance

Personal guidance, in both classes and examinations, is therefore necessary. “But that’s hard to do when you’re organising more than 1,000 exams a year. It’s just not feasible to have them all orally. In oral traditions, music and dance terminology is less standardised. We have therefore had to leave most of the testing requiring practical demonstration to take place during the practical exam, with theory questions reserved for the written theory exams. Far from ideal, because in oral traditions, students often aren’t able to read the script the musical terms are in. And as for dance moves, drawing hand gestures is very limiting.”

Like a lot of exam boards, PRSSV switched to digital exams during the Covid-19 pandemic. And there’s no way back, Frances says. “Students expect to have exams at home now. Parents don’t have to drive them around anymore. But we’re essentially still offering a paper exam on a screen. That’s what we wanted to change.”

“We switched to digital exams years ago, but they’re essentially still paper exams on a screen. That’s what we wanted to change.”

Dr. Frances Shepherd, founder and director of PRSSV

Examining oral traditions orally with assessmentQ

So, Frances and her team started searching for a digital exam platform. “We even went to India, to see how exam boards are doing it over there. They are very advanced, but the scale is vastly different: companies wouldn’t talk to us unless we had a minimum of 100,000 candidates a year. European companies combined exams and proctoring, but due to the very specific nature of our exams, we wanted to be able to proctor the exams ourselves.”

“With assessmentQ, we don’t need an IT specialist to create a question bank.”

Dr. Frances Shepherd, founder and director of PRSSV

“Then we discovered Televic’s assessmentQ. It was a dream come true. We can do the proctoring ourselves and we don’t need an IT specialist to create a question bank. Different teachers from diverse backgrounds are all able to use the backend themselves, which adds to the variety in the questions.” assessmentQ is enabling us to devise the testing of the student’s ability in a much more realistic and satisfactory fashion.

Enjoying the music during the exams

Best of all? “I’m blown away by the different item types. For dancing, we can just add a video of the hand movements. We can add audio for terms that are hard to read and write. We can even add recordings of talas – rhythmic hand-clapping patterns – and ask students to identify them.”

“With assessmentQ, we can finally make the theory exam practical, and that’s the way it should be. Up to now, we had no choice but to reserve a lot of personal guidance for oral exams. In the future, it will be much more about playing, enjoying and dancing to the music.”

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