The importance of a distinction Options

[FullofWind]

Should you only sit grade 8 when you know there is a very high chance that a distinction will be achieved? There will be musicians for whom this would be a mammoth task but if a child was capable of getting a comfortable pass, would it be better to wait up to two years until they were beyond distinction level? How are resits viewed by conservatoires if a child wishes to gain a distinction at a later date?

[VH2]

Should you only sit grade 8 when you know there is a very high chance that a distinction will be achieved?

If that were the case, then the pass mark should be set at distinction level, and we would scrap the ordinary pass and merit grades. There is no correct answer. It all depends on the student, their musical ambitions, and their reason for takling the exam.

I know that those few instrumentalists hoping to make careers as professional performers are entering a very competitive arena, but does competition in musical performance ("X got a distinction, Y "" only" achieved a pass") really have to be introduced so early, for everyone??

[FullofWind]

but does competition in musical performance ("X got a distinction, Y "" only" achieved a pass") really have to be introduced so early, for everyone??

Sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean. My question is not relating to comparing other students - I have no interest in the grade or result of other performers. My son does want to go to music college though and as we are not exam focused I just want to know if it's always better to wait for a distinction. I'm not quite sure how it would work though. Would he continue to play the same pieces for years until they were distinction level? This would bore him.

[Seer_Green]

Would he continue to play the same pieces for years until they were distinction level? This would bore him.

It would bore anyone! I think that this misses the point though. Whether someone plays at distinction level isn't necessarily because they spend a long time and put a lof of effort into learning the exam pieces. It's surely dependent on the work and prep which has gone in before that on a whole host of other things - pieces, scales, technique, musicianship etc. There's a subtle difference between someone having to learn the exam pieces because they're not quite at that standard, and someone learning them who's already reached that standard. The latter may have spent longer on other things, but there's likely to have been more variety; the former is likely to have to spend more time on the exam pieces, hence, boredom sets in.

I'm pretty sure that this 'quest' for distinctions is a relatively new thing. When I was at school, we were all sufficiently pleased to pass - after all, the past mark is considerably higher than most exams these days (often 40%) - if the average mark is still around 117, that's 78% and to my mind, that's a superb result in itself. I didn't get a merit until Grade 5, and I only passed Grade 8. I always worked to do the best I could, but I never set out to 'try' and get a merit or a distinction. We always considered these to be a bonus, particularly at the higher grades. There are a lot of things which make someone a 'distinction candidate', and a good proportion of these are not related to playing the pieces.

I agree with others that for music college entry, whether he's got a piece of paper which says 'Grade 8 with distinction' will be largely irrelevant. Successful entry to music college is about a lot more than just performing excellence on one instrument.