I am changing violin teachers in September back to the one I had in primary school and I want to have all the books I will need. I did Grade 5 a year ago and have been working on the grade 6 scales, technical stuff and learning other pieces since then. I want to get my new exam pieces so I can start on them before my first lesson but I'm not sure whether to get the gr 6 or gr 7 pieces because I've seen the gr 7 ones and think I could manage them ok. I also think because it would be more challenging it would encourage me to practise more. Do you think its a good idea to miss out gr 6?
Laura x

Sounds like good advice to me! I guess there's nothing stopping you from buying pieces from both grades to peruse.

Totally agree here. I have often bought the books for 2 grades at a time, so I can see what is coming up. I like to delve into trying a higher graded 1 just for the fun of it, before the pressure starts mounting when considering doing the actual exam. I have bought the cds, I find them really useful to hear someone else's interpretation and how they are supposed to be played, properly! So there's no harm in skipping ahead a little I don't think. Just keep it fun, when you are playing, otherwise it can get too stressful trying to try pieces that need that little bit extra work.

What pieces have you looked at for grade 6 and 7 violin so far then?

I have to quote Katyjay (I think..!)'s signature here - Music is for life, not for exams. Very true. (and I just wrote by mistake "life is for music, not for exams" - freudian slip? also very true!)
I'll agree with the others and suggest that you have a look at some pieces on the syllabus. If you find it hard to progress without incentive, you can change your mind and do the exam, and if not, you can just concentrate on progressing in musicality and technique without the stress of exams. I skipped grades on both instruments and it doesn't seem to have hurt me...

I would skip grade 6 as i did recently. I got a pass in my grade 5 which i took last summer, but my teacher had enough confidence in me to skip grade 6 and do 7, which i have just done this summer and i passed the exam. I didn't really learn all of my scales to be honest and the ones i did know in my exam went wrong anyway but i still got a pass - 111.

Hello there, mysteryd! I passed Grade 5 as well with 113. And it's the same problem, scales were not really well-known.

There is much debate over the fingering of the scales. Some tell me that it's better to do it all with the same fingering begining on different positions, while some say follow the book. I don't know, but for me, I would do it all with the same fingering in different positions only if I were confident that I'd get it mostly in tune. Otherwise the whole scale might go wrong. Hence I might do C major in 2nd position, beginning on the G string, but E major in 1st position beginning on the D string.

I wonder what do people on this forum say about that?

Yes, that's a good suggestion. I have learnt it before, just that I wasn't confident of beginning on the right pitch and so I decided not to do it for the exam. Fortunately for me, it didn't come out!