I am sitting GIV piano next month. I know all my pieces by heart and find that I play them far better without looking at the music - I would love to hear your views on actually playing without looking at the music in the exam - would that be that be totally foolish.....or not?

If you feel happier playing without the music, that's fine!

It doesn't make any difference to the marking whether you play from the music or not - the examiner will mark on what he/she hears - but I think you're supposed to take your music with you, in case he/she needs to refer to it. As it's a piano exam, the examiner will probably have the exam-piece books there anyway, but to be on the safe side I'd advise taking yours!

Good luck in your exam!

I can only pass on a word of caution gained through my own experience if you are intending to play from memory.
I went through grades 1 to 4 and although I had the music open on the right page, and even though I kept on throwing the odd glance in it's general direction, I never actually read a note of it during the performance.
During the grade 5 exam, I fluffed a couple of notes in the middle of a piece, which absolutely threw me out of sync and I got completely lost. I looked at the music to pick up where I had dropped off, but at that given moment, it was a load of dots on a page that resembled binary code and I was right up the creek without a paddle.
The net result was, I had to start again from the beginning
But the problem now is my confidence in my ability to perform, without reading the music, is shredded. So! I deicided that reading was the only way to get through it.
My main sticking point now is, because I have played the piece over and over, without reading the music for so long. And now I am forcing myself to read music I haven't read for ages. I have turned the piece into second sight reading test
Although I passed the exam , I got myself a really bad score (19) for the piece.
So! I guess my advice would be to at least keep one eye *actually* on the music, just to keep a tab on whereabouts you are during the performance.
Just in case the pressure gets to you

I think that if you can perform in front of others without the music and you are used to performing from memory then it sholud be ok.
Just being able to do it at home is not enough. If you have a teacher what does he/she think?

I think if you are confident playing from memory (Lucky You! ... it's a skill that I am painfully learning after many years) then stick to your guns, don't start using the score as an emergency prop, that's more likely to backfire as Fletch said.
However, I think you should perform those pieces as much as poss in situations that make you a bit nervous, not just cosily at home or for your nice teacher. Roll in a neighbour/relative/friend for a quick mini performance. Ask someone to deliberately distract you every now and again, play with the TV turned on, make yourself uncomfortable, eg put your seat too high or low ... use your imagination. So you practise being nervous and learn that you can deal with it. Not my original thoughts, see Philip Johnston'sbook "The Practice Revolution", one of my best buys ever!
Good luck

Thanks everyone for your advice. Fletch has voiced one of my big fears - and as my sight reading is weak, I have decided to combine the two and at least make sure I know where I am on the music sheet. My teacher has also said I should do this.

Dorfmouse - thanks for your advice to roll in a neighbour- playing in front of a friend was harder than I thought , and I the idea of practising playing while nervous makes a lot of sense. The idea of my fingers turning to bananas and my mind to fudge during the exam is not something I want to consider!

I already do the playing in front of other people bit, and it does help. Another piece of advice I can offer, and is one that was given to me, is to pick a bar in the middle of a piece and start to play from there and then pick another bar somewhere else and take it up from there.
If your anything like me, I find it reasonably easy to play a piece from memory from the beginning, but in the past, if I messed up when practicing, I tended to start again from the top. I have been informed that examiners tend to take a dim view if you do that during an exam.