Hey,
I got the results of my grade 8 piano exam last week, I took it with the london college of music, & marks were out of 100. The examiner wrote really good comments, but marked me quite low. I think he was too harsh as the marks dont match the comments. He gave me 79 out of 100, & I appreciate this was a good mark, but I;m sure I deserved a few more, as I played my pieces really well.
Other people I know who were examined by him said he was a hrarsh examiner, & the marks & points dont tally. I'm gonna have a chat to my teacher, but I may appeal.
Do you think theres much point in appealin is my question. If it was just me, I wouldnt bother, but everyone felt that way??

Any thought??
jonathan

Congratulations on your Grade 8 result.

To be honest, you need to think to yourself whether it's worth the hassle of appealing.

I don't know what the LCM do if an appeal is upheld, but with the ABRSM they don't change your marks, all they do is offer you a free re-test (which is also what I think Trinity do).

So all you'd get is another go at the exam, which means dragging those pieces out for another term. Personally I wouldn't fancy doing that at all, and certainly not for what is, after all, still a jolly good result.

Cheers

Katyjay

No need to appeal. Use your time to prepare the DipLCM, ALCM, DipABRSM or ATCL.

I thought that my grade 8 marks were a little low for the comments too but wasn't worth appealing.
I know I'm better than the mark suggests and my teacher agrees so there's no point since I did scrape a pass mark and the difference wouldn't change it to a merit anyway.

I always enter a couple of pupils for LCM exams - it depends on the individual and on what's on the various syllabi - and have recently found that comments, in general, don't always tally with marks awarded; both this way round and the other way - i.e. negative comments, but fairly good marks. Marks, to be honest, were much as expected, but comments were not.

I would never encourage anyone to appeal a mark unless it was DRASTICALLY unexpected; look closely at the different components of the exam to see where you lost out; when it's out of 100 as opposed to 150, it doesn't take many marks to be lost for the overall outcome to be less than you hoped for.

I don't know if this is helpful or not - my instinct would be to put it behind you and move on - 79 is a very respectable mark. Would there be any opportunity for you to play any of your pieces at a local festival in the near future? Sometimes they have classes in which you can play your chosen exam pieces from the four (now three) main boards. It would be interestiong to see if the adjudicator's comments matched the examiner's, and to see what, if anything, the adjudicator felt might have given you the extra few marks you wanted to get a distiction, which is 85%.

Thanks guys - I wouldnt be too worried, but it is grade 8, possibly the most important grade. At least I passed, so I can now go on to prepare from Dip LCM, or something!!

J

I suppose it is grade 8 and this will be used to reflect your reputation so personally i would appeal although if it were any other grade i would leave it.Congratulations anyway though!

You are a grade 8 pianist regardless of your mark. Be proud!

Exactly !
Congratulations!

Speaking from experience. I recently had a student who undertook a grade 8 practical singing exam and basically had achieved distinctions right up until grade 8. This particular examiners comments were inconsistent with the marks and according to my student, he'd also missed out a particular component of the exam.
I'd posted the situation on here to see what others thought and yes....was told not to appeal, great result move on, blah blah blah anyway...to cut a long story short....the appeal was upheld, the marks were changed, yes, and a deserved distinction for my student so..my suggestion is to go with your instinct and no it wasn't a lengthy process....all dealt within a matter of 2 weeks!

Appeal? for a result like that? You sir...are...well...I won't say but it isn't good. Be happy with what you got. Congratulations on it (although I believe your signature always said you were G8 piano? )

Sparkle, you never did tell us which exam board this was. It certainly wasn't ABRSM.

Maybe he put it as Grade 8 because he was working towards it?

I put that i'm grade 6 flute, but i'm taking my exam in September or November... (other grades on my sig are actually taken and passed)

I think that most people reading that you are grade 6 would assume you'd actually got the certificate to prove it.

Precisely

But Deviless is not the first person to see it her way and describe their grade as the one they are working on.

Yes, I recall one pianist claiming DipABRSM having passed G5...

People who have lived in glass houses should be wary of throwing stones even if they don't any more...

Well I consider myself at grade 1 level because I passed grade 1.

The trouble comes when you do non-graded music exams. I have my Part 1 second study exam as a pianist that required me to give a performance of "Grade 7 standard". Yet the highest grade I've passed is Grade 6... some 19 years ago.

To make amends, I'm studying for Grade 8 Piano. I state myself as being Grade 7 standard due to my part 1, but never have I claimed I have Grade 7 Piano. I know I perform better than it says on paper, but in the world of music teaching, and I teach beginners piano and get good results, pieces of paper seem to count more than experience.

Katyjay, it was LCM. I assume then that it's unlikely that ABRSM would never remark? (No disrespect meant to the AB)

i was grade 7 standard from the age of 10-14 but didnt take the exam until i was 14 because i was catching up with theory. the grade i took before that was 5...but i took that when i was 9...so i would still have said i was grade 7 standard before i took the exam...although maybe this should be clearer on our signatures...anyway, since there are no rules on what should be in our sigs, can we say either is right? btw, all of my stated grades are passed, except the grade 1athon, for which i havnt even decided what instrument to do! xxx

The AB state very clearly in their appeals policy that if an appeal is upheld, then the candidate will be offered a free re-examination or, if they choose not to re-take the examination, a credit of that value towards the cost of their next examination.

I'm pretty sure Trinity did the same, and I'd be surprised if the new Trinity Guildhall do different.

I think it's actually a better approach - you can't then expect to browbeat the board and/or its examiners to change your marks just 'cos you don't like your result; if there is genuinely a fault in the way the exam was conducted you get a new assessment so that you are certain you've been examined properly.

I didn't realise the latter was an option - that's good.


I guess it's also a show of faith in the examiners that they refuse to simply change the marks given.