Well, I've just returned home after my grade 4 theory. And I'm happy, happy, happy. But that might be because of the large glass of wine I'm downing! After feeling really nervous all day, once I'd got the children from school and was on my way to the exam the nerves got a lot better. The exam centre was at our local 6th Form Centre, in their sports hall, and was freezing! Glad I had lots of layers and fingerless mittens. The exam officials were really nice and smiley, and well organised. And no shocks from the paper. It was more or less as expected after doing the last 4 years worth of past papers. I did think the intervals question was a little harsh - lots of sharps and naturals and things. I'm feeling well pleased with myself ..... and can't wait for the result. Distinction .... please, please and pretty please. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed! I hope the exam went well for everyone else.

Oh my. Oh my. Oh my ..... I've just looked at the posting from the lady who did her Grade 6 in one and a half hours. I had to be evicted after the full two hours. Maybe I shouldn't be feeling quite so happy. Oh dear. Now I'm starting to worry. And if I start to fret it'll be another glass of wine .........

I would say that staying for the full 2 hours = you've given everything a thorough checking over

Absolutely! It should take that time....

I needed the full two hours for my Gr 5 tonight, at the 40 minute mark I was just over half way through and at the end I had time to double check questions and answers. It was a good experience there were over twenty in our room taking 3, 4 & 5 and in another room there were grades 1 & 2 - nothing over 5 in our neck of the woods! I was the oldest by far and stayed the longest At first my hands were shaking and I couldn't get my head around the counting of notes to put in the bar lines, then I gradually calmed down and wasn't distracted by anyone or anything. It was such a relief getting a nice easy performance direction, I still can't get over how lucky I was to get that paper.

Thank you Barry, Dawn & Flautando for reassuring words. I'm glad I'm not the only person who needed to full time! I did take my time and checked, re-checked and re-checked again. And just to be sure I checked again! I did really enjoy the experience and my mind is already thinking Grade 5? Maybe I'll just have a little peek and make my mind up when I get my Grade 4 results.

Hope you get a distinction Bella-drum, I think you'll be doing Gr 5 very soon I taught myself, starting in August, with the help of past papers, the Gr 5 workbook and Dorothy Dingle's book. I'd like to have a look at Gr 6 and was going to buy the workbook today on my way to the exam, but the shop only had 5,7 & 8. Maybe they had had a rush of buyers today

Oh, do have a little peek anyway, it'll probably help your motivation

My Grade 5 was on 29 October. Germany was a little earlier. I hate those after exam checks though, although I have to admit I had a peek into the other thread and think I actually might have done quite well. Time will tell, when the results finally come back. But I have to admit, I find it a bit unfair that obviously those who had their exam at a later date got exactly the same questions. That would certainly give someone a significant advantage.

But never mind. It was my thingie. I chose this, and I think I did quite okay. Actually, I am quite grateful. The questions were quite nice in comparison to the things I practiced. But that counting note values question got me quite confused. Geez. Someone would think someone my age could count till 16! But obviously that was quite an achievment for poor me.

The exam setting was very well organised this time. Information up front properly done, enough paper for ones one musings. Very nice when it works that way. No reason to get agitated upfront.

Oh, by the way, I used all 120 minutes as well. To the last second. And I erased I think in the last 5 probably the worst mistakes I had made. So that time was put to good use.

I am really surprised that the same exam paper was used in your exam Lemontree, but as you say, it was quite a good one.
Forgot to mention before that I got an extra sheet of manuscript paper - I asked if I could have 2 pieces and there was no problem. Phew, I was worried about that, and I used all 4 sides
I didn't do any modulation in the compose a meoldy section and hope it works ok, the cadences were in the right places anyway.
It's a pity you have to hand all your rough paper as it would have been nice to try out the meoldy at home. Why do they want all your rough paper handed in does anyone know ?

That lady was me.

I was incredibly thorough about checking, double checking and triple checking. I made some corrections along the way and made sure that I answered the question. Reading the question really carefully is the key to getting good marks.

I spoke to the invigilator after the exam and he asked me if the paper had been easy given that I'd come out so early. I told him that it wasn't; I told him I just thought I was lucky with the questions. Some were incredibly easy, some weren't.

Only the mark will tell...but it certainly won't be due to me completing the paper in half the time allocated. That was the most prepared I've ever been for a theory paper...and there's a lot to be said for good preparation. So I don't feel bad about leaving in 1.5hrs because I did the best I could and that's all anyone can hope for.

Ooh - I hope it genuinely was nice and easy! Son No.1 did his Gr 5 yesterday, and performance directions have always been his Achilles heel. So far he has refused to be drawn on how the paper went , but he was under strict instructions to stay right to the end and check, double-check, triple-check etc. It was quite easy to make sure he stayed, at least - we pointed out that noone would be coming to collect him until 7 pm, so there was no point coming out early .

Oh dear, my student appears to have had a bit of bother with her grade 5 paper yesterday. Apparently she created an entirely new time signature on the first question.

My daughter did her's G5 theory yesterday too and could not get a word from her about how was it :-( .... It was her first time taken the Theory test tho !
Please advise did they use the same paper in each town across uk yesterday? And what types of questions did they ask? Were they reasonable or a quite hard?

Same paper everywhere. There will always be some questions that some people find difficult, but the fact is that this is a highly formulaic exam in which the same types and standard of question come round time and again. The exam papers vary very little in format or level of difficulty. Don?t take too much notice of other people?s comments. Nothing to be done now except relax, forget about it and wait for the result!

Very true!
But it is such a long wait for the result!!!!

I did grade 6 theory on wednesday and was a little disappointed with how it went. FOund it hard to concentrate at 5pm until 8pm - not the best time for my brain!!! However, I just hope I have done enough to pass.
Does anyone who also took it, remember what note the Q1 (add chords) started on? It is the one that was in D major and started with an anacrusis. I think I made a massive error and put chord V; which would actually clash horribly if it started on an FSharp, which I now think it did. In the heat of the exam, I think I just saw what I expected and panicked, and as soon as I came out, it dawned on my that I had made a HUGE error.
I also used an impertect cadence half way, and when I came home and played through it, as I had remember it, thought it sounded MUCH better with a plagal!!! I'm not sure how much leeway there is and how good things have to be to get a pass mark.??
I too guessed timpani, instead of cymbals, in Q4/5 (cannot remember which).
Personally, I found the 'realise the figured bass' Q2 quite tricky. It seemed to be more unusual than most I had tackled in past papers; I think it had an interrupted cadence in the middle.
Anyone else find it less than straight forward??

From what I can remember (& completely agree that 5pm is way too late!), qn 1's first melody note was a D. It then went F# then A I think. I ended up putting Ib, Ia for first two chords to try and avoid consecutives in melody.

Qn 2 was tricky. I followed the lengthy but thorough workings from MyMusicTheory on this and checked SO carefully for consecutives between all parts.

Qn 3 was great aside from not being able to get a tune that was hummed by a cleaner in Sainsburys loos out of my head! I found it really hard to "hear" the intervals as I couldn't v quietly hum my way up/down the intervals.

Was I right in feeling that qn 4 composer was REALLY obvious???!!! I don't want to give it away in case Gibraltar hasn't held their exams yet..

I also thought that some qns on no.5 seemed v simple??

Crumbs...I'm reliving it all and it's making me nervous again for results time. How long do they take?

You can give it away, we have a different paper (normally an S or T paper) so none of this affects us. LOL there probably won't be any above G5 anyway!!

Just noticed your signature, saxophile!

Ok I guessed Bach for qn 4.....obvious though!!

What were the composer options for q4 then?....i cannot remember. i don't know what planet I was on on Wednesday night!

I can only remember Bach and Wagner. There was one other, could have been Brahms but it was screaming baroque. Worth one mark instead of usual two probably because quite easy.

I thought the chord analysis and prevailing key qns on no.4 were tricky though. Had to go back to them.
Can you remember what you answered? I think the first one i put supersonic 7th first inversion in c minor and the second one was the dominant 7th (root?) but can't recall the key.

How long is the wait for results?

Theory results take between 6 and 8 weeks to come out, usually in alphabetical order of centre.

I thought it was screaming classical and I think the composer was Scubert. I agree that it was easy.

I think I put those chords too. The key was Eb major.

About 6 weeks apparently.

Now I recall it! Bach didn't ring any bells with me - that's why I was asking what the other composer options were. I put Schubert as well, as I thought it was in a classical style. I also put the same chords. Hopefully, that will make up for some daft chord choices in Q1!
Did anyone else choose an imperfect cadence in the middle of Q1 (the one in D major), rather than a plagal?

Another thing I have just recalled - am I right in thinking there were no 'mark on the score with a letter A....." type questions in Q4/5 (imitation, non-harmony notes etc), which there has been on pretty much all the past papers? I am worrying that I may have missed some out in my 'evening brain' dopey mode!???

Crumbs. Classical eh?! Maybe I cracked at that point!!
Oh well.

I can't remember qn 1 all that well but I put an interrupted cadence in the middle I believe.

Trying now to forget it and move on. Just got all the grade 7 stuff so going to open a new thread about that!!

Anyone else going to start G7?!

I put Schubert as well! Seemed very Classical.
I think I also put those two chords. I hate those questions!
There were a few ABC mark on the score things in Q4 I think, gards. A cadence, a modulation and something else.
I don't remember much about Q1, but there's no point in dwelling!

Please advise for the Theory 5 exam result - Do we just get the overall mark or will we also get to know the scores for each of those 7 questions? Also will we get our actual paper posted back to us?

The mark for each question is listed with a summary of what the question was about.
You don't get the paper back.

Many thanks for the quick reply :-)

Has anyone got their theory result back....... ?

It'll probably be another couple of weeks until we hear the results. At first I was itching to know whether I had passed, but now I can wait a while longer. I'm just hoping I didn't make any stupid mistakes.

Oh! Sound like we won't get it till after x'mas..... :-(

I think they'll be before that, probably around 8th - 14th Dec - well I'm hoping it'll be around then

Last year at this time, my pupil's results came out on Friday 3rd December - sometimes they are slightly earlier when viewed on-line, and will depend which part of the country you live in - so just gives you a rough idea.... so estimating next Friday 2nd December

Good luck everyone.

Ooooo thanks Superpianoman that's good to hear

oops that will be around the same time that our violin exam result to come back too...... not sure will my heart strong enough to stand it.......!

Mad panic!! I've just checked and no results for me yet. I'm a 'B' centre. Guess what I'll be doing all weekend! But well done you. Fantastic set of results.

Yes any time from next week we should see some results creeping through,

there were around 60 of us doing grade 5 at Cardiff, I have no idea how many people were in the other grade rooms.

I can hardly believe this.... I just checked online and I got 96 !!!!!!!! I am speechless. ( btw my centre is a J )

Congrats !!!

What a fantastic result. Well done! I hope you're enjoying a well deserved glass of wine (or two) to celebrate.

Wow, fantastic!! COngratulatons

Now I wonder how long we will have to wait in Gibraltar....

Thank you both and thank you to the forumites who gave me very helpful hints before the Gr 5 theory exam. Hope everyone else doesn't have too long to wait for their results.

Many Congratulatons!!!!
Yes, we got ours back too '92' - Grade 5 Theory - her first theory exam !!! very happy :-)
We are in 'L'

Congratulations!!! Very well done!!!!!!!!!

Well done to all with results! I just checked and mine aren't there yet! 2 different centres..... both near the end of the alphabet!

Thank you all. It does seem strange how some of the results are out and others are still waiting. Good luck.

Just checked and my theory results were waiting for me. 96% for my Grade 4. Well chuffed. Cheered me up a bit. Grade 5 here I come! For those still waiting I'm a 'B' centre.