The regulation portions are designed to test your understanding of procedures as well as principles of regulation. You should be able to figure out appropriate action specifications when none or only some are provided. In scoring, your regulation specifications are compared to those determined to be optimum for that action model by the examining team. The repair tasks are all common ones routinely performed by the average technician, such as key bushing, hammer shaping, string replacement and splicing, repinning, and shank replacement. The scoring criteria are detailed and you do receive partial credit for all properly done work even if you run out of time and don't finish.
Most applicants find the time limits generous.
You will need to watch the time as you work and do each task to the best of your ability so that your best effort is demonstrated. If time permits, the examiners will gladly discuss your work or make arrangements for a private interview. They then use an electronic tuning device to measure the tuning precisely, and make a record of each note and its pitch measurement on a specified partial. Examiners will likewise measure your tuning of the same piano, and then, by means of a computer or handscoring program, pitch-correct and compare it to the master tuning. When the measurement of a given note of your tuning differs from the master tuning by more than the tolerance allowed after correction for overall pitch, the CTE will record the appropriate penalty points on the scoreform as indicated by the scoring program.