For everyone who have taken the ABRSM exam for whatever level for any instruments,how do you view your certificate as?Would you think its an award or just something not important/no value of?

This had been a question in my head for a long time.....so what do u guyz think??

My mum gets more sentimental than me about the certs. She would hang them on the wall if I let her but I think she keeps them in a folder. I hand over new ones when I visit her! They don't matter too much to me. It's passing that counts.

I think of my certificates as an award - having them matters a lot to me.

How much work did you do pass it? How much practice did you have to do?
You should be proud of - it's defintely an award!

Ann

It is a great reward for your hard work. It also certifies at what level you have at least attained. Don't you think so?

It's just a bit of paper in the end. I prefer the mark sheet - it's actually useful! But then, I have a rather blasé attitude towards exams, so I've been told. If people ask how good I am, I'll play something, I won't tell them what my latest grade was! Grade marks are you one person thought you did in one performance on one particular day!

But you're obviously proud enough to put your marks in your signature? So it can't be *just* an exam or *just* a piece of paper to you.

The certificate goes up on the wall, so that if I'm having a bad practice day, I can look at it and think that I must be of a reasonable standard to be able to pass an exam.

yeah, I'm amazed that I got a good mark because in actual fact, the exam just happened to go well, I had never played 1 of my pieces that well, and got lucky with aural/sight-reading. My mark makes me sound better than I am, and I tihnk if that happens to anyone then fair enough! But a lot of people are dissapointed, and feel they are better than their mark, and that is usually my opinion, so I would still prefer to let someone hear me play than have them judge me on a mark. Which is why I put a recording on the forum recording website

I view it as a memory...it reminds me of the past time when my teacher and me were working very hard together and at last, our effort did pay off and we felt great

Certficates don't mean a lot to me, just proof later on that I can play the piano. I don't need a piece of paper or an exam to tell me what I can play and what I can't play.

the certificates are kinda nice to keep because they show what you've achieved, but i prefer the mark sheets too! at least they have feedback on them and i'm generally more proud of the mark sheet than the certificate because it's more personal, has a few nice comments on and stuff to improve

I love the certificates - signifies a result of often a year's work for me. And it's great to have 'advanced level of music performance' or whatever they say on them these days.
I get pretty excited about reading the mark sheet... I'm a bit of a perfectionnist sometimes so I'm always keen for the comments!

Well...as a matter of fact i did keep them nicely..at least my mom did ...
These pieces of certificates means a lot of me ..at least they "kinda"show that i am able to play the piano well.Some of you guys have mentioned those grading papers,as i am looking through them now, i have found lots of imteresting comments.The funny thing is that it seems like I am just the first time looking at them...or maybe i wasn't mature enough to understand what those comments meant =P

Now into my 50s I still have many of my certificates from long ago when I took my exams and they look very different to today's certificates. I still treasure them though - they remind me of the people who taught me, of the places I took the exams, of the many sacrifices my Mum and Dad made so I could play an expensive instrument and, later on, have a college professor teach me, and so much more .........

To those much younger members of the forums who just see them as "pieces of paper" I would urge you to keep at least one of them. 40 years on and you just might be glad you did. I still have my Grade 8 Oboe mark form from 1968! Fascinating to see how mark forms and certificates have changed in the intervening period - so keep them as historical items if nothing else!

I loved the old coloured certificates. Pass certificates were black print; merits were green and distinctions red.

Yes, I remember those!

Me too! I don't think I ever got a red one
W

I love my certificates too! My mum frames them all I love getting it and thinking that 'this is what I've worked to get' and like Joy said, I love the 'advanced musical performance' stuff too...

I Love my certificates I have them all up in my music room, Grades 1-8 practical, Grades 5-7 theory (Grade 8 soon hopefully, sat the exam yesterday) Grades 1-3 Jazz Piano and 2 diplomas

My first piano teacher had all hers up as well

Lol... to me it represents I'm good at something I want to do for the rest of my life!

i really treasure my certificates.
esp my grade 8 distinction in piano practical exam.
it reminds me of the time that my teacher and i spent together.
since i really love my piano teacher, whom i reckon as my best teacher ever, i treasure the cerf like i treasure the time spent with my teacher.
i also take a look at my cerf. and comment sheet every once a while, just to bring a smile to my face.
yes, and to encourage me to work harder for my DipABRSM (performing) piano exam.

good luck to you!

*confused*
Your signature implies that you have already taken and passed your DipABRSM (performing) piano exam!

This is something that's been troubling me for a while too .

LoL~~~ may be his/her signature is his/her goals xDDD Lol

there's so many quotes!
now i'm the confused one!
well, actually i;m taking dipabrsm exam this year, in fact, a few months later.
yup, maybe i should change my signature to "currently studyin..."
sorry for the confusion caused!
*blushed*

I have all mine in the filing cabinet. From time to time I still take them out.

They remind me of past successes, and that when I was a teenager I did far more than just my school work.

I have my piano certificates framed; they all share one frame, with my most recent achievement at the front.

When I started university my grade 8 piano was my proudest achievement - I was far more proud of that than my A-levels - and I took my certificate with me to put on the shelf in my room. Since then, AP started to learn to play the piano, and we now both have our latest piano certificates framed on the shelf .

I think the metallic lettering on the diploma certificates is a lovely touch; I know it's only superficial, but still... .

Certificates: only a bit of paper indeed, but then, so is a degree certificate... They are a mark and record of achievement and represent all the work that went into reaching that level on an instrument

I like them *grin*

I think certificates show how well I've done and I might sometimes look back on them and think about the achievements I've managed to do. I keep them in a plastic wallet book.

Car Expert

Oh dear, I've lost the cert somewhere! I've the marksheet though so she can still be proud of her effort.

I see it as evidence of passing the exam and something physical to represent it to be proud of.

It may seem sad, but i cherish my certificates!

All the pain i went through to achive them is sumed up in one slice of paper!
My tutors even make copies, and i have scanned and saved them for safe keeping!
A bit over the top but still!

To be honest i find the blue mark sheet more inportant, it tells me what to improve on!

My parents would hang them on the wall if they could but i keep them in a folder. They show that you have worked really hard to achieve something.

And after a while it all stops mattering :-)

After A-Levels, the GCSEs don't matter. After your degree you couldn't care less about the A-levels. I'm just about to submit my PhD thesis and the whole degree thing seems like a very long time ago. I've still got the certificates (you need them with surprising regularity to prove that you've done what you say you have!), but certainly not on display.

I'm proud of what I have achieved, and the paper doesn't add anything to that.

m

I'm proud if I get a good mark. If I say to people, oh, I did my grade 7 when I was 13, most of them look suitably impressed - but I only got 112. I'm not proud of that. What I am proud of is my Gr 6 organ 141, and the fact I've got distinction in all my organ exams so far. But to some people's strange way of thinking, that's less impressive because I'm nearly 16 now

Like some other have said, I have my certificates on my wall in my room, so that when I'm havaing a bad practise session i can look up and realise that I'm not so bad after all! But I agree that the marksheets are more important, I've kep all of those as well for my grades and I keep them behing the certificates in the frames.

I hang my latest certificate on the wall next to my piano has a motive to practice and put my old ones behind it. I view it as an award to show that i've done the hard work etc.

Certificates mean a lot to me ((escpecially if they are distinction ones, I wish!)), and I think they will mean so much more after several years.
They will remind me of the teachers who taught me , the hours I practised , my feelings during the exam and while receiving the certificate..

A crushable piece of paper?

It's what you can really do (that is not printed on the cert) that really matters.
Grade is just a number too.

But I'm proud to tell the others if I get good mark

Ilike to think of it as a happy step forward but i havent had much luck and i only got a pass on my last exam so i am hiding it!

FUNNY ! GOOD LUCK TO YOUR COMING EXAMS AND WORK HARD!

I think certificates are really important! Otherwise you have no proof of your exam. The mark form is very interesting also, and I always look forward to reading it. :-) But certificates are very special, as if you think about it, when you take your exam, that is what you hope to achieve. This is a very good thread!

Yes, I value my certificates. It's evidence of my achievement and it makes me feel proud every time I look at it. I've yet to buy a frame for it, so it's all inside a folder, but it makes me feel good all the same. I'm a collector of awards and materialistic stuff though.

I love to read the reports on how you play, in fact i prefer those to the certificates! I do like the certificates but the reports tell me on how I played and the certificate only tells me what i have got ie. pass, merit, destinction. They're both improtant to me!