I have got my result recently. Unfortunately, I fail. Howver, I pass the Viva Voce with 15 marks. That means in my retake, I will have to do Quick Study and the Recital only. I will sit for it after my local public examination in May. I plan to play the same works in my retake. How many time do you think I have to prepare?

Alex,

I'm very sorry to hear about your failure, have been in exactly the same position myself so know how dispiriting it can be.

I would check on whether you avoid the Viva - this may have changed under the 2005 syllabus but in failing the Quick study and the recital this means you've failed part 1 and part 2 of the exam (recital = part 1, QS + Viva = part 2). I think under these circumstances you need to do the lot again.
In any case, this shouldn't be a problem for you as your viva mark looks OK!


Didn't quite understand the "how many time do you think I have to prepare" question - do you mean how many attempts it will take to pass? If you failed the recital narrowly (three or four marks), then you can probably work things up to pass in May. I failed in July and resat in December so it is possible to turn around quite quickly! If you were well off the pass mark, maybe you want to give it a year?

Talk to your teacher - go through the examiner's comments and see whether you need to just polish the performance, or do some more fundamental work.

All the best.

sorry to hear that I know how you feel because Ive failed it twice

My advice would be dont take it lightly, do as much as you possibly can between now and your resit. Dont forget to practice sight reading as well

Good Luck

You live in which Country? I'm in Hong Kong .

I got the DipABRSM result today. I passed this time and received the Certificate. I re-take the Quick Study only. (I failed 6 times already since 2002). Thanks for my new teacher. She passed the DipABRSM recently. She know the secret how to get pass the Quick Study!!! Also I know the secret now. My previous teacher didn't know.

I found the standard of DipABRSM is very very high. May be similar to LTCL.

Are you going to share the secret Joe?!

Charlie, hit the <Add reply> button at the bottom instead of the < "reply > one.

Cheers

Katyjay

Thanks Katyjay. I'm very new to all this!!

I also failed the quick study last year, I am lucky to pass it in my retake this year.
But I don't know the secret too, would Joe mined to tell us?

For Alex DBS, wish you success next time.

The "secret" is actully not a secret . Play all details marked in the music and avoid to play wrong notes.

I suppose EVERYBODY knows this.

That's what I've been doing wrong

As an aside, I must say I find it interesting how many people, previously successful at Grade 8, seem to struggle when it comes to the QS at Dip. I mean, you get minutes to actually try the piece out before you have to perform it, a luxury never afforded (by definition) for Sight Reading. Why does this seem to throw people? Is it that the QS is really that much harder than a Grade 8 sight reading piece, or is it the fact it's longer/more contrasting?

Thoughts and opinions welcomed!

I have failed the Quick Study twice. Its not so much that the piece is harder, although it is longer, its just that they expect a MUCH higher standard. For example Grade 8 I got 18/21 and Dip I got 4/15 (the min to pass is 6)

As a teacher myself, I know a pretty fair (good enough to pass a grade exam) attempt at sight reading when I hear it and I thought I had done well both times and had not. It seem like they expect near performance standard.

I had my teaching Dip exam today, again I think the Quick Study went well but time will tell

To pass the sight reading, even at grade 8 level, one has to mostly play the right notes, at the right time or thereabouts, perhaps even ignoring all performance directions. And, if one fails the grade 8 sight-reading, no matter - one is still awarded a grade 8 so long as one's overall mark is at least 100/150.

At DipABRSM, the right notes at the right time are taken as read (allowing for the odd fluff, of course); my understanding was that due to the comparative ease of the piece - grade 6,7 or 8 rather than DipABRSM, LRSM or FRSM in difficulty - one was expected to be able to play it to a standard close to the recital given after 5 minutes working on it. It has to be performed fluently, confidently and musically; not merely survived. And, if one fails the sight-reading section, one is not awarded a diploma - one has to retake until a satisfactory mark is achieved.

So perhaps it's a combination of the higher performance standard expected for the test; and, of course, that grade 8 candidates aren't necessarily able to pass grade 8 sight-reading. Add to this the fact that there is the occasional rumour that one will be awarded the pass mark for the quick study if one does well in the other two sections; and failing a candidate for just one section's mark is an empty threat: which is clearly not true, because many people do fail on only one section.

Nice analysis YAP, I particularly like your use of the word "survive".. an accurate depiction for many, including myself, I would think..

> play it to a standard close to the recital

Not sure I agree here, but I've never examined so cannot comment in an informed manner. Perhaps a standard close to what you might expect someone of that Grade to achieve in a Graded exam? i.e. A grade 6 student will take 3-6 months to learn a piece for performance in their graded exam. For Dip, you have to give a similar performance, but you only have 5 mins or so...

I agree pretty much with what YAP has said. I think I heard or read somewhere (or I may be making this up) that the skill level they are looking for is that of a teacher demonstrating to a student. As the teaching and performing QS are at the same level, then the standard would be similar for performing candidates. As my students would attest, I can make a fair attempt at playing a Grade 6 study without necessarily being 100% note perfect.

I thought I had done pretty well at my QS, and was a bit disappointed with my mark of 9. In retrospect, having read of others' experiences, I am now pleased with that mark. It's not often you play a piece where the first note is triple-dotted.

Oh lovely!

I would agree with Yet another Pianist. The performance undoubtedly needs to be musical, fluent and confident. I think the detail they are looking for can be seen from the comments I received

DipABRSM 'This was musically phrased with excellent characterisation of the dance style, though there were a few errors in note-placing. It was fluent and broadly accurate nontheless. 12/15

LRSM 'A very musical, expressive performance. Not always observent of the rhythm, though some longer notes were abbreviated.
12/15

FRSM 'Something of the character was attempted and caught! An impression was given that rubato was not always for musical reasons! Adagio was played with musical colour 6/!5 (I was lucky to pass here!!)

Obviously the sightreading got harder and longer with each exam but the standard remained the same. If you don't play the piece with almost everything correct (taken as read) plus feeling, character, fluency, sparkle whatever your mark will drop.

Hope this helps

"An impression was given that rubato was not always for musical reasons!"

miaow! blimey...

I did my (first attempt at) DipABRSM Performance yesterday. The Quick Study was going OK until the penultimate bar when I suddenly thought to myself "Wow, this is going OK!" and promptly played a bar's worth of wrong notes!!! I have no idea what kind of mark I'll get - I got 21/21 for SR at Grade 8 (which included wrong notes) but as people have said the QS at dip level is entirely different. Fingers crossed for those magical 6 marks to pass...!

(only 2 moths to wait... )

Hahaha! Excellent!

What level of diploma did you take?

If it is Dip, I think 2-3 hours per day is okay.

But for LRSM or FRSM, you should spend more than 3 hours a day in practice.

Good luck in the next attempt.

I disagree. You cannot be that prescriptive across all candidates. Sometimes less is more. If you need three hours a day perhaps a diploma isn't for you...

But, according to my experience, 2-3 hours per day is okay.

I think it depends on how you practice during these hours.

A fair point, can you tell us your experience?
I practice very badly

2-3 hours a day for a dip?

I manage about 4 hours a week, maybe 5 if I'm under a bit of pressure, or 7 if I have an exam imminently; e.g. as I did for a two weeks before my DipABRSM.

I find it hard to practice and focus without pressure: I'd much rather just tinker around with a bit of this and a bit of that. I'm trying to generate pressure by working on pieces for the forum concerts though .

I agree YAP, I've got one coming up in a week, and managed a whole hour today... lol
still, I will probably fail tho so it's my own fault!!

My experience is: 2-3 hours a day but keep this in 2 years.

So, it is not difficult to get pass.

Try your very best.

Does studying the Grade 8 Theory help with getting a good pass/merit or better for the DipABRSM?

My boy is still a little immature for writing performance notes and talking about music. But he is a fabulous player and got his ABRSM g8 piano end 2004. Rockschool g8 performance cert end 2005.

If he goes for his Grade 8 Theory while doing a Trinity diploma this year, he will then be better equipped for his DipABRSM next year. Any comments? He already has Grade 5 Theory as needed for his G8 piano.

Richard
Hong Kong

I received the other QS re-take result yesterday. I passed again. I have 2 DipABRSM Certificates now.

Well done!

Well done.

Why do you have two though? Did you re-enter the quick study before knowing your result or have you done it in two different instruments ?

Yes, I had applied for 2 re-takes for QS at the same time. Same instrument --- Piano .

Wow, this begs some interesting questions then; I hope you don't mind me asking. How many distinct quick studies are there? Did you ever get the same one twice? Best case for you is that you could have had a total of 40 minutes practise on one piece .

How much does it cost to retake the various components by the way? I don't think that one gets to see the prices unless one needs to do a retake.

I got one piece twice only. All others are different. The piece for the last QS exam was the most difficult one. It was similar to Grade 7 list C standard, but the tempo was Lento. After taking the last QS exam, I wrote down the music from memory and show to my teacher. He said it should be in LRSM QS standard.