There's a lot of very high achievers in here but we should expect no less - this is the ABRSM forums.
Well, I've had 125,126,127 in grades. I was a little disappointed with that, but I'm taking my G5 piano in late March. I'm practising big time and hope for a good mark but as the saying goes 'practise makes perfect'. I really want to work hard and achieve something that makes me very happy about it...Better get to it then. However, I achieve high academically at school and we get a lot of homework for my age at my school, and that as well as other extra-curricular activities means less music time. Some of us like to have *relaxing* time too!
As to the highest achievers, surely we have some examiners on here (I duno- I'm a newbie!!!) that can comment on highest marks they've ever given. I really would be interested to see.
I should hope that one would be pleased with any distinction - after all a distinction is a distinction and nobody has raised the thought that surely if you can achieve 145 at eg. Grade 3 you could probably pass Grade 4 well without too many problems. I don't know but it's a thought and I hope a logical one.

A xxx

My highest was for gr 7 flute 137/150.
First time round for gr 8 - 123. Then tried again a yr later - 130 (really pleased, despite failing the aural....again!).
(edited)

Grade 3 clarinet 130 - the highest as I havent done any others

I know someone who got 147/150 for a grade 8 harp exam...she was very good...obviously!

Lowest mark I ever got was for grade 5 theory, I hardly did any work for it at the time, surprised I passed at all! My highest was for my DipLCM in Flute, that was about 92% I think.

The highest mark amongst my pupils is 140 for grade 1 descant recorder and the examiner was actually quite tough as the pupil was only given 20/21 for sight reading when the comment was 'an entirely accurate reading - just a pity that the rit. was not included in the last bar'. Same pupil was only given 17/18 for aural with comment 'all tests safe with Italian terms used correctly in test D'. The descriptor bands allow for allocation of full marks even with minor errors. This pupil went on to get full marks for aural in grades 2 and 3.

So, my pupil's distinction marks were 130, 130, 130, 132, 136, 136, 140. (All recorder - mix of treble and descant).

We've never had a pass and merit marks were 120, 121, 122, 122, 124.

I've never had a distinction... 125 for grade 8 piano.

Onequirkypianist - a merit rewards a very good performance and people should be really proud of the achievement.

I was left feeling a failure as a teacher by a pupil who achieved a merit for grade 3 with delightful comments from the examiner - BUT she had received distinctions for grades 1 and 2, so.... well the parent was indicating that the child would probably stop lessons.

My daughter has just got 137 in Grade 8 Violin - we are extremely proud of her, She got full marks in one of the pieces.

My best was 99 for grade 1 theory when I was 7.
Scraped through grade 5 by the skin of my teeth.

My best practical results have been in flute, though they're not very consistent. 143, 126, 139 and 126 for grades 2-5 respectively.
Getting the 143 for grade 2 was cool in some ways but unhelpful in others - it means I tend to judge myself against it, even though I know that it's harder to get high marks on the later grades.

Can't remember most of my marks for piano and clarinet.
I think I got the actual pass mark for grade 4 piano (Trinity, age 9, wasn't ready for it, fell apart completely in the exam and gave up piano after that). Got merits on some of the earlier grades.
Last clarinet result was a scraped merit at grade 6. Think one of my earlier grades was a higher mark.

Singing, I've never had a merit. I was a chorister from age 8 and find safety in numbers; solo singing scares me witless and singing exams turn me into a quivering wreck. I missed the merit by 4 marks each time (ABRSM and RSCM alike).

Overall, I don't think that the raw exam results are the best guide to how well you're doing anyway. I tend to set myself a personal target for each exam, based on what I think I'm capable of achieving and on the prevailing circumstances. 126 for grade 3 flute when I thought 125 would be a realistic achievement was, for me, a better result than 139 for grade 4 flute where my aim was 140. If I ever take another singing exam, a merit would be an amazing result to get and I'd be thrilled with it, whereas for flute I've always treated 120 as the pass mark.

Someone who routinely gets 135 (can't remember who it was who posted about that earlier in the thread) is naturally going to want to try to improve on that a little. Someone who usually scores around 110 is going to be delighted if they scrape a merit. I think it's more useful to use the exams to set yourself targets than to see how you measure up against other people. More important still is to play for the love of it and not get too hung up on exams - they're a useful tool but they're not the real purpose of playing an instrument. My piano teacher shoved me from one exam to the next, with no breaks between - even giving me the exam book for one grade before I'd sat the previous one - and I hated it. I always felt under pressure and I played very little apart from exam stuff. With a different teacher, taking it a bit more slowly, maybe I'd have stuck with it and got grade 8 eventually, instead of caving in after grade 4.

I have a new highest mark - 142! Grade 1 jazz flute so not the most impressive BUT my first ever jazz exam and I'd no idea what to expect.... so I'm happy

Thats brilliant for your daughter celloboy
And Fantastic for you with your first jazz pupil Sarah-flute
The highest marks any of my pupils have received was 143 for Grade 2 flute, full marks for one piece!!!
After that a couple of 138's for grade 4 and 5 flutes, and quite alot at 132-136, mostly for flute and sax (not quite sure why there are no clarinets in there ), but quite frankly for some pupils just achieving a pass mark is a distinction in itself(if you get my meaning) ! LOL!

Er - it was actually Sarah herself who passed her Grade 1 jazz flute exam with 142!

Wow, that is an incredible mark!

Mightily impressive results all round


Very true - I know what you mean! I have one pupil with special needs who does struggle but he worked so hard for his exam - I was so delighted for him when he passed.

Highest marks for my pupils was a grade one at 141 and a grade 8 at 142. I love letting pupils know they've passed, whatever the result - it's great to share in their happiness

Oh! Sorry! Must have misread that!
Congratulations to you then for passing Sarah-flute

that's fine, Janie, gave me a giggle - part of the reason for doing the jazz exams (apart from for my own pleasure ) is to maybe one day enter pupils, but yes, this time it was a student of mine but the student was me I went for grade 1 as I'd no idea what to expect/what standard they expected - so to get 142 was a boost (OK, I also partly did it cos the tooons were groooovin' and I wanted to play them!!)

I must admit, I've contemplated the Jazz exams also, as I do quite alot of jazz and blues pieces as well as the more classical repertoires during a school year with my pupils! Maybe I'll ask some of them if they fancy a go at them, and see what response I get! I bet some of them will be well up for it!

I really enjoyed the pieces, found the improv scary but satisfying, the aurals actually fun (groovy music again!), the exam experience very positive... highly recommended! It's likely that I'll go for G2 in an upcoming session... yes, could probably skip a grade or two, but there are so many good pieces and they're so much fun that I'd like to capitalise on the positive exam experience!

Wow, I haven't posted in forever.
I've only ever done one practical exam, Grade 8 Piano, which I barely made distinction with a 130.

Welcome back then!

That's pretty impressive for your only ever practical!!!

Some great marks out there! Impressive....

131 for G4 piano - 29/30 for one of the pieces. I get 17 or 18 in the aurals, (up to G5 piano - point deducted for 'all correct but slight hesitation'), pass the scales, but flunk the sight-reading.......11 being my lowest score yet in G5! Started violin last summer and can sight-read violin so maybe there's hope for me yet.......

I got 141 in my grade 5 flute after playing for two years (my teacher still managed to point out where I'd "thrown away" marks!) Roll on grade 8! I also know someone who got 142 in her grade 5 descant recorder aged 10. She learnt one of her pieces the night before the exam (because her teacher accidently taught a grade four piece instead of grade 5) and got full marks for it!

It's 30 years since I took a music exam (grade 3 flute!) so i haven't got a clue what my mark was. I think I got a merit but can't be sure!

My daughter got 98% for grade 1 theory (she's just had a merit for grade 5 with scarily little preparation) and my husband got 100% for grade 5 theory.

My daughter scraped grade 4 violin with 100 (but has since done very well with grade 6 viola so she's put that one well behind her!)

Son Lawrence took grade 8 flute in July. It was the last of his graded exams. He was 16 when he took it and it was his 22nd AB graded exam. He's taken exams in violin, singing, oboe, bassoon, flute, organ and piano and across the 22 exams he averaged just over 134. He got 143 for grade 8 flute (which he's been playing for 2 years).

But ... we just got back from a week's holiday to learn that he passed all his ARCO exams at the first attempt. To put that in context, the ARCO (Associate of the Royal College of Organists) exam is a bit like an AB diploma only the exam lasts 2 days, includes six hours of written papers, and where the AB pass mark is 40% the ARCO pass mark is 67%.

So, just for this evening, we are all on the sparkling grape-juice!

Hic

barry

That's great - no wonder you're all celebrating!!

Ditto - I wish my average was 134!!! Mine's 125 I think!

Just worked out my average for practical exams - 122, and the average for theory is 91. My highest mark for piano is 132 for grade 1 and I took my first violin exam in June, grade 2, and I got 131! I'm really pleased with that, because I just started learning the violin last September and I wasn't expecting to get a distinction

My highest is 138 G2 Piano. My average is 130.5

The highest mark I have ever had was 141 for my Grade 7 piano exam this year. I was really thrilled!!

I've only done 3 music exams. My first one was grade 4 flute and i got 128. Just got 95 on my grade 5 theory.

My last exam was grade 6 cello, in which I got 134, but I got 135 for my grade 2. I'm taking my grade 8 in november, so hopefully I can up my mark

Ooohh an interesting poll!!

Well for my first exam - grade 1 piano -I got 130, and then for my next exam (grade 4) I got 131!! Hopefully next time it'll be 132....haha!

And then I got 100% for grade 1 theory! yay!! hahaha! I doubt I'll get anything that good for my grade 5 though...!!! - (Just got my results - got 81 for grade 5 theory!)

I recently got 141 for grade 8 alto sax (ABRSM). I know plenty of others will have achieved much higher, but I am still dead chuffed with it!

This poll makes me look rubbish with a highest mark of 124ish

I got 138 in my grade 5 flute, when I was 11... That's my best mark I'm afraid...

123 for grade 4, now i just waiting for the grade 5 result! hope it can be better than grade 4!

It's just one of those "boast here" threads, don't worry about it - go and look on the statistics pages on the ABRSM main site, and it'll put all these results into a bit of perspective . Your 124 is a very good result, and you should be able to feel proud of it - remember, when contributors are putting their best distinctions up, it's going to put everyone else off posting at all, so the poll is almost meaningless .

:)139 grade 1 clarinet!!!

a girl in my school got 147 on her grade 8 flute! apparently at the end of her exam the examiner asked her if she wanted to be a proffesinal flautist.... she doesnt even want to study music at uni or at college?!! wasted talent!

136 grade 7 bassoon. (20 years ago)
cant remember grade 8 piano, but it was distinction. my memory must be going....... well i did sit them 20 years ago!!

i got 137 for g8 violin
but my best ever was g1 piano i got 142

I can't remember if I've posted here before or not, but for those of you who think you must be rubbish because you didn't score at least 140: I think of myself as a pretty fair all-round musician. My best result to date was 116 for grade 1 piano when I was 7, 41 years ago. The thing is, in those days I didn't even know how to practice, let alone do it. These day's I'm practicing. Also, I've just sat grade 5 theory, so look for a new PB in about a month!

So far, grade 2 Cello - 135 but more recently, 134 for Grade 6. But I did my grade 8 a few weeks ago and still awaiting the outcome =)

I got my grade 8 result last week, 136, which is quite a good distinction!

My highest was 93% on a performance diploma, at associate level. That was pretty recently.

Think I may have already done this, but my highest was 128 for grade 4 flute. Only Mr grade 6 flute examiner knows if I've ever done better (!)

My pupil this season got 100% for her grade 1 theory

Looks to me like you got 140 in grade 6, great job!

Indeed I did, thanks

Any time lol

New personal best now - 94% in G3 Piano (that's 141 if it were out of 150)

137, for both Grade I piano and Grade III clarinet. However my b*****d of a music teacher was reported to have said he thought the examiner had given everyone roughly ten marks more than they deserved. Charming! And as an examiner himself, he should have known that that was unlikely to happen.

The mark I was most most proud of, though, was distinction for Grade VIII piano, despite extreme nerves causing many 'mishaps' (aren't examiner euphemisms wonderful?!). Consequently not a particularly high distinction, but the general comments included the phrase 'clearly of distinction standard'.

Most disappointing was 120 for Grade IV piano - again nerves were to blame.