# ABRSM Aural Trainer Grades 6-8 — user reviews > 40 indexed App Store user reviews of ABRSM Aural Trainer Grades 6 by The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (Publishing) Limited, rated 3.00/5 from 9 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abrsm-aural-trainer-grades-6-8/id1001613037/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abrsm-aural-trainer-grades-6-8/id1001613037.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 3 · 4★ 1 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 3 ## Newest reviews (17 of 40) ### 3/5 — Mediocre *2026-03-27* Helpful to have something to practise with but I find it frustrating when I get part way through feedback then click on the wrong button and can’t get back to see the rest of my feedback for a particular exercise ### 2/5 — Buggy *2025-09-13, version 2.3* I have a newish phone and newish earbuds. This is the only app I have that ignores the earbuds and plays through the phone’s speaker. This was reported by another reviewer two years ago. Clearly ABRSM don’t care. ### 2/5 — Unrealistic Lacking Feedback *2025-03-09* For The D part of the aural it provides you with options which is worse and causes you to rely on multiple choice. The pulse is also off putting for clapping back the sound. For Sight singing it lacks a way to provide sufficient feedback and the same with repitition . ### 3/5 — Grade 3 differences is stuck on a loop! *2025-02-13, version 2.3* Grade 3 differences is stuck on a loop! Not what you’d expect for a paid for app AND I’ve paid for the extension. ### 3/5 — Can we improve the cadence trainer please ? *2024-11-27* Great app but could we please get a way to select the cadences we want to practice ? (I.e a range rather than all of it so that we can learn by increment). Many thanks for listening🙏🏻 ### 2/5 — Useful Concept by but the app is unfinished *2024-11-26* I’ve used this app for studying for my aural exams which the core concept of the app works for. The problem is there are so many bugs and poor design choices that it severely impacts the usefulness of the app. Examples include: Not being able to use earphones for the app The microphone being constantly in use when the app is opened, even when you switch apps. The only way to stop this is to close the app. Constant application crashes mid way through testing. It feels like the app didn’t go through a proper testing procedure which is disappointing considering the price. ### 2/5 — No support for Bluetooth audio? *2024-02-27* Weirdly I can’t get the sound to play through my AirPods… what’s up with that? ### 3/5 — Useful but glitchy *2023-11-12* I am a mature student using the app to revise for my grade 7 piano exam; generally it is helpful but there are a number of glitches, particularly in the Cadence and Musical Features section. The same piece kept being repeated in the Cadence section while the app has a tendency to quit halfway through the Musical Features section. As others have said, for such a pricey app, this is not great. I would also agree with the reviewer who complained that answers are marked wrong when they were partly correct eg. 2 out of 3 features were correctly identified. ### 3/5 — Useful but needs improvement *2023-06-20* The app is definitely a useful tool for practicing and preparing for aural exams. However, the app itself needs improvement. Wireless headphones will not work no matter how many times I try, even though headphones are apparently “recommended”. When reviewing my responses I find myself accidentally clicking back to the Home Screen, and I cannot see how well I did. Needs a lot of work, especially considering how pricey the app is. ### 3/5 — Does not work with headphones *2023-02-23, version 2.0* This app will not work with airpods/earphones. Shame, as I bought it to test myself on cadences and modulations on the commute to work. ### 3/5 — Helpful but… *2022-11-27* Super helpful for Abrsm exams! However for multi part questions, the results are given by a simple tick or cross for each section, where a tick is only given if 100% correct. This has been quite disheartening for my child as he is shown a full slate of crosses despite the breakdown suggesting he would have picked up most of the marks. Would be great if this scoring system could be reworked to more accurately reflect the scoring system in the exams, thanks! ### 3/5 — Not good for cadences *2022-11-25, version 2.0* I bought this two years ago, so the newer version may be better. I spent hours trying to hear the chords of a cadence. Despite selecting grade 7 in the menu it kept presenting Plagal cadences (not used at this grade), and worse still re-presenting them endlessly when I got them wrong or tried to avoid those examples. I was completely undermined and a nervous wreck until I found some good training on youtube, where hearing the whole phrase as in the exam (and not just 2chords as on this app) made all the difference. Don’t beat yourself up - look online for excellent and free tuition and testing. ### 2/5 — It doesnt help *2022-06-27* My sister has used the first one for grade 1 piano and grade 3 flute, and according to her, that one helps a lot. This one, however, keeps giving me a mental breakdown. If i get something wrong, i like to quit it. I know how stupid that is, but its how im wired. But if i get it slightly wrong, the progress doesnt move, and with only 9 days before my grade 6 exam, with my dad putting so much pressure on me, sucking at sight-reading, and not getting enough help on my aural tests, I know im going to fail. ### 3/5 — Annoying design and incorrect grading *2022-06-19* This app is really helpful, but i get really frustrated when I accidentally click the back button when checking my answers and it takes me back to the menu page and I can no longer see what the answers were. There is no way of looking back and I often have no idea what I got wrong due to this. Also ocxasions where it says i’ve got the answer wrong but then has a tick next to the answer i put. Very frustrating ### 3/5 — Useful but restricted... *2020-07-22* I do find this useful - I find aural very hard - and I use both this one and the Grade 1 - Grade 5 version. I am making most use of the moment of Grade 8 because of what I will hope will be my next exam. Why only 3 stars? I only seem these days to get a very small number of examples - only about 4 or 5 in 8a for example - which the program constantly recycles. The questions are taken from the various printed volumes of aural tests and so I think there should be a lot more. ### 3/5 — Sight singing grade 6-8 *2020-04-13, version 1.6.1* How do you check that you pitched the right note after the exercise apart from playing back what you’ve sung? I am unable to find that option. Please help. ### 2/5 — ABRSM AURAL TRAINER 6-8 *2020-03-08, version 1.6.1* Great app but family sharing is a nightmare. Have already had to buy the app 3 times as it keeps failing to share to my kids phones. Also beware not to “upgrade to full version” from within the “lite version” as this can’t be shared for some reason either. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2023-12-04, version 2.1* Repetitive & you need to ‘mark your own’ in some testing areas. ### 1/5 — Nice idea, bit useless ... *2020-12-07* Unfortunately most of the samples (maybe all?) are just taken from the ABRSM aural training book. So I paid £8 for something I already had. Also the app sound only comes out of the i phone rather than my headphones, so can’t use on the train which is what I bought it for. All in all, fairly useless if you’ve got the book/ want to hear it. ### 1/5 — Not enough examples make this very poor value *2020-11-03, version 1.6.2* Only a handful of each test is really not good enough. How can you justify the cost? What use is it for practice if you can only use it a couple of times? We all get ripped off enough by ABRSM as it is. Not impressed. ### 1/5 — Help *2020-10-02, version 1.6.1* 2 technical bugs 1, will not work with blutooth speaker - only uses internal speakers 2, and the more serious one: I have this on my iPad but it will not download to my iPhone (signed in to store on same account) without me paying again... sort quickly please! ### 1/5 — Lost my sight singing progress and other issues *2019-10-05* I am trying to practice the melodic repetition questions, and when I get through to the ‘listen back to your attempt’ page and click on one of the options, I instead get directed to the sight reading I tried previously. Also the app seems to have lost all of my sight singing progress since the last update and it now looks like I have made no sight singing attempts. Not very impressed at all. **Developer response:** Thank you for your comment. After singing back the stated part of a 2- or 3-part melody, you then have the option to listen back to your performance. At this point, you are also shown the notation of the melody you were just asked to sing back, either on its own or with the other parts. These melodies are unique to the melodic repetition exercises - they are not used in the sight-singing exercises. Regarding the sight-singing progress, in order for this to be recorded you must rate your attempt with either a yellow ‘neutral’ face or green ‘happy’ face. If you do not rate your performance, or you rate it with a red ‘sad’ face, your progress will not be recorded. If you need further assistance please contact auraltrainer@abrsm.ac.uk ### 1/5 — So few levels *2019-05-10* Only 20-25 levels to complete ### 1/5 — Same few tunes over and over again *2019-02-17* In the grade 7 sight singing it sets the same 3-4 tunes each time. There's no way to tell it "I've had this one 5 times already, I remember perfectly now, it so give me a different one" presumably because there aren't any different ones recorded. It also will not connect to my Bluetooth speaker despite every other app being able to do so, so I have to listen through my phone's speakers. Not good. ### 1/5 — RUBBISH *2019-02-03, version 1.6* Says 2/4 is 3/4 - clearly not. Says imperfect is perfect! ABSOLUTELY RUBBISH! I recommend deleting it. ### 1/5 — Horrendous *2019-02-01* Absolutely ridiculous. For grade 8 chords, the “correct” answer is obviously wrong, using the piano to compare chord and what is said to be right **Developer response:** Hello 233473297 Thank you for your comment. We would be keen to hear from you with a detailed description of the error you perceive so we can advise you further. Please write to auraltrainer@abrsm.ac.uk so we can assist you. ### 2/5 — Useless *2026-04-05, version 2.3* Doesn’t work with headphones, despite asking me to use headphones. Immediately got a refund. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great app *2020-11-14* This is a great app but sometimes crashes or doesn’t let me answer the question. Otherwise, a great app! ### 4/5 — Cadence Trainer Feedback *2026-08-29* Dear ABRSM, Thank you for the grade 8 aural app, however on Cadence Trainer it would be more helpful if, after the key-chord and cadence have been played, one can press the chord symbols in the white squares to hear them and help their brains memorise the sound of it. Also, a few lines of text at the top are overlapped so I cannot read it (this is also in cadence trainer). I am using an iPhone 13 Pro and the black bit blocks the text. Thank you ### 4/5 — Brilliant app but not the most reliable *2026-07-21* As a recent (and successful) ABRSM grade 8 student, I used this app for a few months on and off to help me improve my approach to aural tests. It helped massively and allowed me to understand the full structure of the aural tests. Reliability is a bit on the downside though. Across the 4 sections, there turns out to be only a certain number of extracts to alternate between because it keeps repeating some (such as interrupted cadences and in the singing sections which doesn’t really help). The app is great but don’t fully rely on it. ### 4/5 — G7 Sight Singing in Bass Clef *2024-11-11, version 2.3* ABRSM please note that progress is only recorded if one chooses the treble clef. Choice of bass never registered progress. ### 4/5 — Overall very helpful *2023-03-04* I find this app very helpful overall as I am not a natural for the aural part of the exam. I am working on grade 6, there are a few things which could be improved I think. For sight singing, the examples I have seen are much shorter than the ABRSM printed examples and I assume those in the actual exam. In the musical features part of the app, it is a pity you only get to see the areas to be questioned as the music starts. This means I always miss the first part of the piece while I take in the written information. Perhaps the music could be started 5 or so seconds after the question areas appear. ### 4/5 — Useful but seems to glitch *2022-04-15* This app is perfect to train your aural, especially for people like me whose aural is extremely weak compared to other musical attributes. However, I have noticed that the sound seems to suddenly stop working with no warning. I am not sure whether this is a glitch on my behalf, but no other app on either of the iPads does this. ### 4/5 — The first day on G8 my son encountered the repeated question *2021-10-24, version 2.0* He used only 10min and told me he met repeated questions. ### 4/5 — Buggy *2020-10-25, version 1.6.1* This app is useful but (1) doesn’t work with wireless headphones; (2) is a bit buggy - is it stops working ### 4/5 — Great app *2020-02-23* I think this is a great app and very useful as i am doing my grade 8 flute in summer! The only thing I would suggest is can you make the cadence quiz be a little more varied - I keep doing the quiz and I keep getting the same cadences over and over: either a plagal, a perfect V-l, a lV-l and a l-V. It’s a little annoying as I want to learn all of the cadences by memory not just a few of the same ones Apart from that I think this app is great and definitely worth the money :) ### 4/5 — Very Useful *2019-01-29* This App is great for practice & I suggest it to many of my students to use at home. I am a little worried as to whether all answers were accurate though. The first grade 6 cadence practise that came up was clearly an imperfect cadence but when selecting imperfect it said it was wrong I did many others following and they were all 100% correct. I wouldn’t mind if it was just for me but when you’re showing someone how to use the app it kind of makes you look a little silly for that to happen. I was wondering if anyone else had this issue or whether it was truly a mistake on my part. **Developer response:** Hi DB387, Thank you for your comment. We would be keen to hear from you with a detailed description of the error you perceive so we can advise you further. Please write to auraltrainer@abrsm.ac.uk so we can assist you. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*