I have a student entered for Grade 5 piano this week. She is incredibly hard-working and pieces,scales and aural tests are excellent BUT her sight reading is awful!. We have spent long hours working on it but it is still almost non-existent. If she performs badly in the exam and fails this element can she still pass on the strength of her performance in other areas ?

Yes. (thankfully)

You pass on the strength of total marks overall - you don't have to pass every section. Assuming she completes the sight reading test (however badly) I think the most she can lose on sight reading is 14 marks.

B1 passed Grade 2 piano and violin (with merits), and Grade 3 violin (119) in spite of failing sight reading elements very badly.

B1's sight reading on both instruments is now very strong indeed but that was down to endless amounts of practising sight reading at home. I appreciate it's something that's very difficult for a teacher to ensure is up to scratch before an exam.

Don't worry! If your student fails the sight reading, and gets below 14 marks (AB), then as long as they get 100 or more out of 150, they will still pass, but will need to a few extra marks above the pass mark in some of the other subjects.... usually the pieces get extra marks. If you fail any one of the subjects doesn't mean you fail the whole exam. Some of my pupils have gained a merit and still failed their sight reading!

Generally speaking, try to slow their playing right down and get them to count while playing. Make sure they are aware of the key signature.... and say to them.... "Always Count, Never Stop"! Even if they make a 'balls' of it - examiners sometimes offer about 10 marks for effort - better than none!

......and make sure they are aware that the only way to score nothing is to not try. Some marks are always awarded if you make an attempt.

Yes - and keep the pulse and rhythm going as far as possible, even if the notes are rubbish. You get credit for that too. Keeping one hand going is worth doing too - give up on eg the LH if it gets sticky in the middle.

Correct. I'd need to check the mark scheme, but I think that any attempt at sight reading would get you at least 7 out of 21.

according to "these music exams" the mark scheme is as follows for sight reading

19-21
* Fluent
* Attention to expressive details
* Musically aware

17-18
* Mostly accurate
* Usually steady pulse
* Appropriate tempo

14-16
* Outline in place, despite errors
* Momentum generally maintained
* Some awareness of key and time signatures

11-13 Below Pass standard
* Poor recognition of time and notes
* Lack of continuity
* Inconsistent awareness of key

7-10
* Very poor recognition of time and notes
* No continuity or incomplete attempt
* Complete disregard for key

0
* No work offered

I know it's the stable door and the bolting horse - my reply is too late.

But what a strange set of responses....
I can see everyone saying "yes you CAN pass, even with rotten sight-reading", but no-one saying "why do you think it is rotten?"

To me as a teacher, I need to understand what's wrong so I can work out how to fix it. As a teacher, I don't understand this "planning to fail that section and checking if she can still pass".

What did you do in those "long hours" that didn't work?
How much sight-reading material did you give her to take home? I have a 50-page pack of material suitable for guitar Grades 1-2, and a 50-page pack for Grades 3-4, and for higher grades, a limitless supply of easy graded pieces.
How many times do you let her play the piece in front of you?
Where does it go wrong? Rhythm, notes, key signature?
How does she recover? Dump the cr*p and move on, or get flustered?
Do you play duets with her to force her to play to time?

I'm much rather we discussed how to solve the problem than how to ring-fence it :-)

The responses are as they are because that is the question that was asked by the OP.

Quite so, but "preparing to fail the sight-reading" isn't a strategy that I teach, and I was trying to understand the problem, not the outcome :-)

Anyway, you can see from the date of my posting that I did exactly what is NOT required of sight-reading, which is a prompt response, so I'm hardly in a position to thump a tub, even in the examiner's choice of rhythm

An examiner once told me that if a candidate played no more than one note they got 7 marks.
I asked him if that were so even if the note was wrong (I meant a wrong first note of the test, of course.) He said yes.

I can only assume that the 7 marks are simply for being aware that in a sight reading test you are supposed to play something!!!

I would have hoped that in Grade 8 they might have slightly higher expectations, but it seems not!

I failed sight-reading in grade 5 (rather badly, alas), but made up with my pieces etc and got a merit for the exam as a whole... but getting to grips with sight reading (as I have, I hope!) takes time and effort. If all else fails, teach the candidate to 'cheat' ie
- identify key and time
- silently tap/hum some important looking phrases, especially the beginning and end
- try out any tough looking chords
- add elements of dynamics etc if possible
- start playing when told to do so and keep time whatever happens. play as slowly as seems sensible, focus
on the right hand/melody and try add correct left hand [for piano!!] where possible, or sort of make it up
as you go along
- fermata and rubato like mad!

This is probably not the best approach in the world, but is certainly better than bombing out completely and
playing almost nothing