I had to come here and offload, rant, scream, kick the computer and say very bad words about the examiner!

I entered two of my students for grade 2 this exam period. Let me tell you a little about their achievements, and then you may understand my urge to scream till I'm blue.

The girl got 123 in grade 1, struggles with sight reading, but plays beautifully. She won first place at the local festival (playing a grade 2 piece I might add) and won the trophy which spanned over 4 classes (she got the highest out of four different classes). The boy got 126 for grade 1, very good sight reader, needs to express himself a bit more but nonetheless got an average of 26 over his 3 pieces at grade 1. He won second place at the festival. So, these two students got first and second place in the grade 2 and 3 class at the festival.... (out of 40 other kids)

Now...bear in mind, their grade 1 marks.....now here's their grade 2.....

The girl got 108....
The boy for 104....

Please tell me you are screaming at the computer with me!

They both got 14 out of 21 for scales, yet they both came out saying they didn't make a single mistake on them. The girl got 9 out of 21 for sight reading!!! She's not that good but I'm telling you not that bad! If she really was worth only 9 out of 21, could she ever learn a new piece?! The boy learns pieces in a week, yet got only 12 out of 21 for sight reading, yet he gets notes and rhythms spot on 80% of the time. I work through the "improve your sight reading" book and he never showed any signs of being as bad as the examiner was saying.

I haven't seen the examiner's comment sheet yet, so will let you know his reasons for breaking the hearts of two students who play so well.

The girl came out of grade 1 white as a sheet saying she made so many mistakes, yet got 123 (i agreed with the examiner on this though), yet she came out smiling for grade 2, telling me she did all the louds and softs, said scales went really well... how can her marks have dropped by 15?!

I know I wasn't in the exam with them, but i know how they've been playing the last few months and their marks are NOT a true reflection of how they play. Their confidence could be knocked by this, especially the girl.

How do I go about complaining and ensuring the people at ABRSM do something about this! They should get a free exam for this, because even if the ABRSM did raise the marks a bit, the people in their offices still didn't hear my students play. Only one man did, one man who seems to expect grade 2 pianists to play like mozart already!

I'm seriously considering staging some sort of protest, thats how shocked and bad i feel. I know I'm a good teacher because my students wouldn't have won first and second place at the festival merely last week, but i want something done for them, I want their exam results to tell them how good they really are. I know the festival should tell them they're good, but an exam to them would seem more important and formal.

I'm dreading telling them this evening....

We had a scenario like that here recently.....many teachers complained because the results were so unusually low.
Those who asked for a free exam retake were given them.

Would you share the examiners name with us?

Well, at least they passed - believe me you would be feeling FAR worse if they had failed!

There's no way ABRSM will ever raise marks, at best you'll get a resit where the fees for that will be refunded if the marks are significantly higher. Why bother? Let the children forget it and move on. It could be a case of an abnormally lenient examiner for grade 1 combined with an abnormally harsh one for grade 2. Or could it be that they've moved from one grade to the next too quickly?

Liz

I can't offer any advice - only sympathy... It does happen - but you won't really be in a position to comment until you see the mark sheets...

I had one lad some time ago who took his grade 1 (although he was probably above that standard) and got 104. He had low marks for his pieces (I accompanied him so I know he played OK) and failed the other sections - he was devestated! He somehow persuaded me to enter him for grade 3 the following term (he was about to move away) and passed with a distinction...

Hope it all works out...

W

Really don't have time to reply to this properly at the moment, but just had to say, whetever you do please don't go to them this evening and criticise their exam results telling them how badly they did. Reinforce the achievement that they've passed.

You should wait for the comments to see what went wrong before making a complaint and then consider it. What Liz says could be true here: maybe they moved on to the next grade too quickly, how long did they spend working on other repertoire between the two?

well, I don't know if this is going to comfort you any....

1) Your students will survive. Explain to your students that the "mark" is not the matter. It's only the opinion of ONE person in this world. Tell them you think they are great at piano, and the important thing is they did their best. Perhaps you can encourage them by giving them a little "special" (a little present) it doesn't have to be anything big or expensive, but just something to encourage them, when they find out their mark.

2) Regarding "unfair".... welcome to the world of "teaching". I have taught piano for 17 years, and the amount of times I thought was "UNFAIR" ..... I have lost track. There have been times where a student of mine SHOULD FAIL, but doesn't, comes back with a distintion mark. Where a student in my opinion should get distinction, gets a near pass.

I have learned in the past years of teaching, that a "performance" is just that. You really don't know how the student played in there. A lot of times, they say they didn't make any mistakes in this section.... after a few months, or talking about it hindsight, you will find out the student will tell you... here was a little slip, there was a little memory, there was a little wrong note, forgot the pedal...etc.

Also, many students perform superbly in competitions and festivals, but play terrible in exams. I have a former student who literally wins every competition she enters, but in examinations, she gets just very average marks, and one time, near pass only. Now she's in a very famous good music school with full scholarship studying piano performance.

A "performance" is just that, what the examiner heard at THAT moment. It might be true you came across a more "stingy" examiner..... but nevertheless, could it be POSSIBLE that the two students didn't perform as well as they did in competitions ? Sometimes, their peak is 1 month ago, by the time exam came around, the peak has dooped a little.

And getting a good mark in Grade 1, is not really an accurate guideline how well the student will do in the next exam. Too many conflicting factors that can affect the mark. The weather, the room, the piano, the examiner, the pieces, the mood and whether the student was feeling sick, or having a fever....

Sorry to hear about it, but I highly doubt there is anything you can do.

Some points:
1. Bad idea to share the name of the examiner, as he/she has no right of reply.

2. I know you must be feeling quite raw t the moment, but stress the positives to your pupils, don't forget, they have passed Grade 2, not failed. OK, they might have been expecting a few more marks, but remember 100 is an achievment, and they were both well over that.

3. I have felt frustrated at marking before. Usually when they fail I know that it has been touch and go, and they are only doing it for parental pressure etc. But the worst time I felt frustrated was when a boy at the school to 145 for Grade 8. Both his teacher and I were absolutely staggered with the result. Knowing how good it has to be to get that, and though he is a musical boy and knew the notes well, his tone wasn't very good, which hindered his articulation. We both congratulated him heartily through gritted teeth!!

4. Exact same thing happenned when I was a kid, sailed through Grade 1, bare pass at Grade 2, I was devastated. It was a wake up call and I put a bit more effort in the finer detail after that, and that's what makes the big difference between a reasonable pass, and a merit and above.

5. Whilst they maight not have made a mistake in the scales, they do have to respond promptly and play them evenly (which kids aren't very good at spotting if they don't) throughout to get into the 15+ marks.

Hope this is useful.

I don't think that a present is really necessary or will particularly help, it's no substitute for appropriate praise. The fact is if one presents the exam results to them as grade 2 is harder than grade 1 and you passed it, well done I'm really pleased with you (especially if you're convinced the examiner is wrong, you'll be sure you're not giving them false reassurances) then they won't be disappointed and won't need a present. Unless of course it's been reinforced to them by you, or someone else in the past, that this is a bad result.

The other points are good though .

The ability to pass grade 1 does not necessarily imply the ability to pass grade 2, after all if it did there would be no point in grade 1 existing. In the competition they only did pieces, not the other aspects of the exam, and maybe only one piece (I would suspect their strongest pieces). Try to focus on what they have done the worst in and work on that. It is possible that they were just affected more by exam nerves this time (were they under more external pressure? Or maybe it could just be part of getting a little older, or it could be something else)? Maybe it's true that the girl's sightreading isn't weak and it was just that test disagreed with her (that's quite possible) or maybe she needs to work on it more so it's more secure under pressure. Only you know the answer to that . I don't think that the pupil's assessment of the exam is necessarily too reliable, they're under pressure (something that does hinder short term memory), and at the early stages won't have as much insight into whether their playing goes well or not as an advanced pupil. Hence the need for you, the teacher. If you notice on this board, generally those who come out of exams saying they've done horribly badly and failed get the higher marks; those who say it went well tend to score lower....

It could also be useful to try to find out how other teachers' puplis fared with this examiner in this session. I doubt if you can do this officially, but you could try ringing the local rep on the pretext of asking for recommendations for teachers in the area. Then you could ring them and ask if they had anyone in this session and how things went compared to in the past.

Thanks for your replies, I've calmed down a bit now!

I've had a look at the mark sheet and I can say I do think the marks were too low. The examiner did not give enough justification as to why he gave such a low mark and also, on both my pupils, the compared marks do not make sense either:

For example:

both pupils did the same C piece, and both got the exact same criticism (played a bit too fast and so not always in step) yet one got 22 and the other got 24. Yet this was the ONLY critcism given for both. Otherwise he praised them both on the "perkiness" of the piece and for giving the melody character.

Also, both got 14 out of 21 for scales, yet the ONLY thing he said to both was "it was a little uneven in places". On one of them he said, there were a few blemishes yet both of them got the same mark? I myself have been told "scales were a little uneven in places" but still got 18 out of 21! What more can they expect from scales??

One got 12 out of 21 for sight reading, yet the examiner said that the pitch and rhythm was mostly correct????

The girl got 24 out of 30 for her first piece, but after a few sentences on praise, he put "you sped up a bit in the middle which affected the pulse", and that was the only criticism. She won a trophy for this piece...

Both got 23 out of 30 for the second piece, yet all he could say collectively on criticisms was phrasing was a little unsure in places. Otherwise he commented on good dynamics and complimented the left hand soft accompaniment on both...

I think both of them should have got 1 or 2 marks higher in each of the components (apart from aural tests, you can never know on these). They should have both been on AT LEAST 115, and that would have been the lowest mark i could accept and be reasonably happy with for both.

I have told both of them, the girl was very upset, didn't speak to the boy, but spoke to his mum. They both agreed that they passed and that was the main thing, both referred back to the festival (1st and 2nd place) and both agreed that it was a little harsh. But I did tell them all the advice that was posted here (one person's view on one day, i said i thought the marks were a little harsh, but you passed main thing, we'll work extra hard on grade 3....etc).

There was 9 months between grade 1 and grade 2, but just to be on the safe side, I'm going to go through more repertoire and try and do things a little differently before grade 3, just incase the examiners marks were valid. These things happen, I've had my rant, and now its time to move on...

You could compare the comments with the marking criteria outlined in 'These Music Exams' and if they really don't measure up you may consider that there are grounds for appeal.
I was disappointed with my grade 8 mark earlier this year and thought that the marks generally were low for the comments when compared with the marking criteria. I don't think that the difference would have put me into the merit bracketand thought it not worth appealing. I wouldn't want to resit anyway.

I'm sorry that dcbarton is so so negative about this. There is no way examiners can be 15 marks out, that's why they are moderated, so that this doesn't happen. The nine month gap doesn't even come into it. I had 18 months between mine, and a scraped a pass. Success at one grade does not equal success at another. On the other hand, its quite possible to have average exam days, and then one day suddenly pull an ispired performance out of the bag. Adrenalin does different things to different people.

You have to consider what an appeal would mean for the kids. Would they want to sit it again? I have a friend who got spot on 100 for her grade 8 piano, and was so cheesed off with the whole thing, that she worked like billio to do it again and improve her mark. What did she get? No joke, 100 again. Quite a few quid down the pan and an awful lot of stress.

Time to move on, it could inspire them for Grade 3.

I tend to agree with most of the above. I'd say nine months between any pair of grades was cutting it rather fine. Surely if one is to develop a reasonable range of non-exam repertoire and keep abreast of theory and all the rest, it is too early. I tend to think in terms of a year between grades minimum. I've heard of other similar situations where a high distinction in grade I has given way to a rushed Grade II and the candidate in question failed. The teacher concerned got discouraged and gave up all his private pupils. He had already been in full time work, so perhaps it was going to happen anyway. Still, it just goes to show that the exam treadmill is not necessarily a healthy scenario unless kept in proper perspective with fun music too. LR

As a parent when my daughter squeezed a merit for her Grade 4 flute (trinity), after only ever having distinctions before, it seemed logical to resit the exam with the AB. Which she did 4 weeks later without any help from her Teacher and got a Distinction.

I would say they are your pupils, and it's obvoius you feel strongly about their result, it's a brave thing to admit that something odd happened and far easier to duck the issue. I would have respected her Flute Teacher more if she'd acknowledged there were circumstances mostly beyond her control that effected the result. She didn't speak about it for about 3 weeks weeks to me or my child, so you're one up on her.

I'm sure knowing your pupils the way you do will help you to make the right choice.

There's very little point in this: the board has no way of possibly justifying the marks. There are no recordings of the exam and the chances of the examiner remembering two candidates out of a whole day's worth are almost zero.

I think Jen has the right idea now :

Unless there is an obvious discrepancy between marks and comments or there were problems in they way the exam was conducted I think that is what we have to do.

I have to say if I were the flute teacher I'd probably have been happy with the merit. Then again the pupil has a right to enter themselves for resits if they want to. I wouldn't encourage it, but if someone felt very strongly I'd be supportive.

xxx

I know that this is a thread about the exam results but can I ask you how it was possible for your daughter to do her exam wiht Ab only 4 weeks after Trinity if you han't aready entered her when she took the Trinity exam? Surely there is more than 4 weeks between the closing date of entry for Trinity and AB and the dates of the exams?

I would tend to agree with Lone Ranger that nine months between early grades is fairly short for most. Please don't take this as a criticism, Jen, as all students are different, but as an average, I wouldn't encourage pupils at this level to enter for the next grade within a year. I have had pupils enter Grades 5 and 6 within six months, but in the earlier grades, if all things are to be improved upon (touch, clarity, rhythmic stabiliy, cantabile, not to mention sight-reading) it usually takes longer than 9 months to be ready. Not nine months on the exam pieces, but nine months developing the various techniques required. All instruments are different, but I think the piano has a steep learning curve at the outset, which can level off a little in the higher grades. This has little to do with whether or not Jen should query her results, as only she knows how they were playing in the week before the exam, irrespective of the festival.

I'm sure notmusimum can answer this herself tomorrow, but in the meantime, I think it was because a cancellation came up at the last minute for the AB exam (it was mentioned on a thread at the time).

I think I've just done a phantom reply by accident! Sorry!!

I really sympathise with you as I had the same experience in the summer with a 'tight' examiner. I have entered 100's of candidates over the years, and am normally only a few marks out with my assessment at their mock exams I do the lesson beforehand. I might add that the exams were held at my home, so I did actually overhear most of the pupils, and was expecting good results. I was very disappointed with the results and would say that most of the marks were around 10 marks below what I would have expected. For example, one of my pupil's has achieved high distinctions in every exam, grades 1-6, and whilst this time at his Grade 7 (due to his problems with the aural - singing mainly) I expected him to get a high merit and he got a Pass! Shock, horror! This pupil also won trophies at the local festivals (against Grade 8 players) and also got an 'A' in his AS Level Performance with the Sonata he played in his exam. This pupil is only an example of the other 15 who got much lower marks than I would have expected.

I got my results on-line and couldn't even bear to give out the news until I got the written reports. Upon studying them I came to the conclusion that this particular examiner drastically reduced marks on any slight falter in the pieces. The comments were normally very good, but any slight mistakes, which other examiners would normally overlook in exam conditions, were pounced upon. I thought long and hard about appealing, but due to the costs involved I decided not to, and merely explained to the pupils that this particular examiner was not as generous as some, and reminded them (especially the lads) that we don't always agree with the referees on the football pitch either, but have to accept it. Another reason for not appealing was that some of the younger players would have been devastated to learn that their pass or merit at Grade 1 was not good enough!

To make matters worse, the examiner spilt ink all over my table before he left. He was very embarrassed and I felt sorry for him, but I wouldn't have felt half as sorry for him if I'd known the results he had in his bag for my students.

Try to put this behind you. I certainly have, and in some ways is a good wake-up call, as it has made me not a bit complacent and aiming to reach even higher standards!

I'm afraid, due to the flawed appeals procedure, there's very little choice....

eh?

I wonder - would we all be prepared to pay more to enter exams if we were guaranteed to have two examiners present?

Surely the Board would WANT to know if one of their examiners was out of step with the others? I'm not a teacher so I don't know, but is it not possible to just write to register surprise, and then if the Board gets dozens of letters of that nature, presumably they would check to see if it was just the one examiner at the centre of it. Surely not to give the Board the opportunity of knowing that one of their examiners might be out of step is to do the Board a disservice?

And it doesn't seem fair on future entrants for the problem to be perpetuated.

There's a thread about asking the Chief Examiner a question isn't there - what about someone posting a question covering this issue on that thread?

As I say, I'm not a teacher so sorry for barging in - but I could be that examiner's next entrant

Anotherpianist, Have a heart, I just meant a little prize like a sticker, or a candy or a musical pencil... something to encourage a young child ( I am assuming it's a young child)...... from the teacher for a job well done. I didn't say no PRAISE.... PRAISE and a little present to cheer the kid up. That's all. My kids always look forward to a "special" if they did extra effort for something.... like a recital, or competition, or exam, or even putting a piece together on their own or something....

I was very disappointed with the results and would say that most of the marks were around 10 marks below what I would have expected. (quote Glass Mountain)
I had a similar experience in the spring term this year - a child who had gained a high pass at grade one dropped 10 -15 marks below what I had expected at grade 2, and ended up with a low pass. She had quite definitely improved greatly all round between the two grades. The sight-reading in particular had a fairly good comment but a fail mark - which I felt was inconsistent ("RH was correct but there were slips in the LH"). (Fail ?? ! )

I decided against appealing because the child was quite happy to have passed, and a few marks wouldn't have given her the merit that I had expected from her "practice exam" a couple of weeks before. And of course I didn't hear her play on the day, so there are unknowns there - an unfamiliar piano, the same one, hadn't put her off at grade one though.

Jen, I'm sorry you have had this disappointment. I know from your posts you are a keen and conscientious teacher. I guess to encourage your pupils to feel they have done well (in the circumstances) and to look ahead is the best approach.

Sorry to cause a bit of a storm I was trying to make the point that sometimes exams can be re-taken and the result positive.

My daughter did re-take the AB exam 4 weeks after the Trinity... No she wasn't entered for both exams at the same time. She didn't infact get entered for the AB until 4 days before she took the exam. I did expalin in an earlier thread how it happened. The exam AB exam was a special visit to our Music Service and the administrator organised for my daughter to take someones slot that withdrew.

Whilst the exam wasn't re-taken with the support of her teacher (partly due to timescale) she did have support from senior staff at the music service. The circumstances were entirely different form the original posting several things had not quite worked out right (not anyones fault) unforseen circumstances is the best way to put it. The Trinity exam was a Joint Assessment and in the words of the Head of the MS there are "issues" with the exam.

Hope this clears things up for you!

I understand your concern and incidentally I do not consider the AB's appeals procedure to be sufficient and was about to post this in the ask the chief examiner thread.... The problem is two-fold: there is no recording of the exam so they can not possibly change the marks as the original examiner is the only one to have heard the playing, his/her desicion must be final. Further, the result of a successful appeal is simly to allow the candidate to resit the exam 3 months later: not really satisfactory for a candidate who has been a victim of the system and simply wants to move on, not put their learning on hold for 3 months. Currently it's basically a competition of the teacher's word against their examiners, and they're likely to believe their 'own' person in most cases. Despite the additional cost and effort incurred I do think that exams should be recorded, so appeals can be dealt with by listening to the recording and checking the mark, simple....

The board do, however, check on examiners by ensuring that one is not marking consistently below or above the others, this is the way they detect a low marker and will notice that way if there is a consistent problem.


That's fine (provided you're careful and aren't giving sweets to a diabetic or anything like that...) not what I meant at all. My original objection was because I got the impression that you were suggesting they were presenting a gift to make up for their 'bad' result, rather than being praised for doing well. I guess some teachers will manage just with the praise aspect; others will feel they need to use gifts as well, but ultimately it's the praise that's by far the most important and valuable.

I wasn't saying that the AB aren't above criticism and they may want to know if you have a particular issue with one examiner for the reasons that were cited (ie, if they get lots of these letters, then something is amiss!). However, comparison with any of the exam boards and festivals is a red herring.

The exam boards fall over themselves to tell you that their criteria are different to the AB's, there was a recent series of articles and correspndance in Music Teacher on the very subject, and Edexcel (and I think the other boards too, though can't be 100%) don't mark a one off performance at AS or A2. Kids can have as many goes as they like to improve their marks (that's how the pass mark remains so glitteringly high, but that's another topic!), even in the recital option at A2. Festivals always have a copy of the music for the adjudicator, which the AB don't (unless you do pno, violin etc) and all performers are likely to perform differently in front of a real audience rather than a one on one with an examiner.

I think recording the candidates is a good idea. Its poosibly a good way forward, it's fine for examiners to be validated and to be given training but there will always be occasions when that goes out of the window for some reason or another. I'm not implying the Examiners are not professional, merely that they are human.

At the end of the day everyone can speculate but it's the teacher who knows all the circumstances (except what went on in the exam room) and therefore it should be their decision to ask for a re-sit or not.

I had a similar situation with a violin pupil. I accompany my pupils and had 3 entered, one with a different examiner. The first two did really well, one gaining a distinction and the 2nd 128 marks. The 3rd with a different examiner played equally well, if not better , but only passed with 106 marks. This boy was so disappointed as he'd got distinction in Grade 1.

I did appeal and it was granted, so he is re-taking this exam next week (fingers crossed)

278,688 exams were taken in 2005. That's a lot of recordings to take, catalogue and archive.

147,161 failed or passed and might feel like a review. And there have been plenty of posts here regarding candidates who got a merit and they or their teacher or their parents thought they should get a distinction.

Talk about opening flood gates. The system may not be perfect at the moment. Some fail when perhaps they shouldn't and some pass when perhaps they shouldn't. The system would be much less perfect, I suspect, if results could be appealed against recordings.

If you were running the exams would you introduce something that had the potential to bring the system to its knees?

b

I'm sure that not everyone who passed or failed would want a review. There would have to be an appeal fee (refundable if the appeal is upheld) and some increase in exam cost to cover the extra costs. If one is selling an exam system though, one doesn't have anything to sell unless it's consistent and accountable, there must be some admission that things might go wrong and some procedure to deal with it (QCA accreditation requires an appeals procedure). Recording the diplomas makes the situation even more difficult: it almost looks as is the board are saying, this is a good Quality Assurance procedure that we need in place to ensure consistency and fair appeals; but the grade exams aren't important enough for that.


I can't see how it would be worse: it wouldn't make everyone appeal; not everyone appeals for diploma exams, and if people did appeal wrongly they'd loose the fee and could be assured that the marking was correct and they need to adjust their teaching accordingly. Currently we have the situation where it can be the word of a young teacher against an examiner with 40 years' experience: who is anyone going to believe? But the latter is not always correct, and the evidence to prove that would be there when it did happen. I think, as well, it would be great to be able to knock incorrect appeals on the head this is just as important: so people don't just go around believing they were right but there's nothing to prove it; it's important that if issues are there they are confirmed so they can be worked on. So many people blame the examiner for their bad marks, and more often that not, I suspect that's not the case.

It is important to an exam system to be consistent, fair and transparent. I've never felt my mark was unfair or unjust, yet I still care that the system is in place for the future should a problem ever arise. I could understand the strong feeling being justified if it was because of a past bad experience, but the truth is it's just because one needs to have faith in the exam system one is using.

I had a similar experience a few years ago where all my candidates achieved low passes. One of the candidates in the session was my son, he sat grade 3 violin and scored 110 having passed with distinction we had expected more. We appealed on the grounds that his marks didn't reflect the comments, he resat and scored 133 a couple of months later.

When I was young I got 126 for grade 1 violin and a year later did grade 2 and only got 100 but it would never have occured to me to question the result. I don't remember the circumstances but having looked at my certificates can see that I did grade 3 two terms later and got 122. So there's quite a discrepancy in the marks there but the near fail must have spurred me on to try a bit harder.

So all I can say is forget the appeal and just move on - the grade 2 mark will be long forgotten on achieving a better mark at grade 3 and beyond.

I do sympathise with you because I have had similar experiences going from distinction to a pass in one year.
It has made me re-think about entering border line pupils for exams in case they end up getting slightly less than I had anticipated. so far I can say that I have had 100% success and long may that remain.

Moving on is the best policy and hope that next time around you will be pleased.

Katie

the boy was asked for several broken chords which of course are not a requirement at grade 2 - this obvioulsy threw him as the examiner asked for about 4 (probably because he couldn't get any of them!). This might go some way to explaining why he only got 11 out of 21.

So might well have thrown your pupil off balance for everything he did after that, not just for the section. Assuming he played scales etc first, that would be everything else - he was probably quite upset by being asked for something unfamiliar.

Did he get asked arpeggios as well, or did the examiner simply switch the name I wonder - say broken chord instead of arpeggio I mean (not that it makes any difference - it's still bound to put someone off). Will you contact the board? This seems unacceptable to me.

If he was asked something that was not in the syllabus and was penalised for it, then you should contact the board!

The session has yet a week to run - I wonder what the chances are of his getting a late cancellation during the coming week? You can only ask - he's hardly been treated fairly so far!

AP this is exactly what I said on the "Ask the Chief examiner thread" The regs are transparent, alas AB's mark scheme is not (unlike TG), surely with the relaunch of TG now that Trinity and Guildhall have merged would provide the ideal opportunity to rethink AB exams. There is a lot right - complete transparency is not one of them.

Look, Learn and invardly digest AB. You have the opportunity to do something stunning from something that is basically sound.

NB My experience is that you may well find cancellation spots available even in the last week. You've just got to ask: - and be prepared to travel.

The comments are interesting. I got a very similar comment for my grade 8 piano "continuity was given the right priority - a small scattering of note slips." Yet I was awarded 18/21? I'd have though at grade 2 they would be more forgiving of note slips, not less?

xxx

Make sure your students are thoroughly conversant with the technical and aural requirements for their grade and that they know that it is OK to tell the examiner if they are asked for something not required. Examiners work from 9.30 am to around 5 pm with an hour for lunch and two short coffee breaks (they sometimes work through these if they are getting behind). They see a constant stream of candidates of varying grades on different instruments, so it's not surprising that sometimes a slip occurs.



Having stewarded several sessions of the current run, I am amazed at the number of cancellations that occur. It's worth asking.

Yes Skylark, you are correct and I'm ashamed that I didn't do this sooner. Even if it were only for future candidates I should have done it. I just am sure that, due to there being no proof due to lack of recording and only what I heard myself, then the AB would probably close ranks to protect themselves. However, that doesn't mean that behind the scenes they won't do anything about it. Especially if other people have complained about this particular examiner before. I have a large teaching practice and hold Special Visits at my home 2-3 times a year. Perhaps a letter explaining why there's going to be a drop in the amount of candidates I enter in future might make them sit up and listen. Although to be fair, this isn't the only reason why 50% of my students have opted for a different exam board. The main swaying points are the amount of singing required in the aural sections of Grades 5 and above, and the awful sight reading tests which we have been told will be made into 'nicer' musical tests (but not until the next new syllabus). Hope the AB hurry up and catch up with the other 2 main exam boards before they lose too many teachers and pupils!
Thanks Skylark for giving me the nudge I needed!

Have you never, ever, made an error, David? I'm not saying that you should not complain if this happens - you should. Also, I'm not saying that your candidates are not prepared for the exam, but they should know the requirements exactly, so that they query if they are asked for something that they are not familiar with - that's why I said let them know it's OK to query something. I know that not all will do this - it depends on the candidate.

This is one of the reasons why it's a good idea for the teacher to be at the exam centre - just for a slight deviation! I've had experience of pupils being asked scales which weren't on their syllabus (not ABRSM, I should add, just for the record!) and no, they didn't speak up at the time; they just blundered through, but they were able to tell me and the rep immediately afterwards, which meant that the examiner was informed straight away, and the mark was awarded for those scales that were relevant. I didn't make an issue of it, because anyone can make a mistake, but I'm glad I was able to sort things out on the spot.

I was asked the wrong scales in my grade six - the examiner asked me from the grade seven syllabus. I (needless to say) fell apart at that point, played even the ones I knew badly. I didn't say a word - my usual 'paralysed by fear' reaction to performance exams... Shortly after, I was packing up in the waiting room, telling my mum I'd failed, when the examiner came in and told me his mistake! I had to back in and do the scales again. He told me I should have told him his mistake earlier - he'd read the wrong line on the syllabus. I do wonder how much was taken into account when awarding marks, but my estimates of marks always fall short of the actual marks

I would certainly question the board, especially in this situation, but if you don't want a re-sit and you don't think it makes a difference to your student's mark, then take the pass and move on.

I know this is slightly off the topics that have arisen from my post, but I just wanted to say this, as I had said this in a PM.

Earlier on in the post, some people had commented that if grade 1 and 2 were done within a small period of time, then the marks probably reflect that. I had remembered of one of my students (who I dont teach anymore ) he got 134 for grade 1 and then 126 for grade 2, despite having done grade 1 in july and then grade 2 in the following march.

I have come to terms with my poor two students marks, and I told the boy who went deathly silent (his mum had only told him he passed and that I would tell him his mark ). He said himself (when going through the mark sheet with a fine tooth comb), "I dont understand what i didn't do". I explained the examiner's comments (the few criticisms he did say) and to some of them, he looked rather confused. For example, the examiner said he sometimes had a bumpy rhythm on his scales. The boy played one scale, and said "explain to me how that is bumpy", I gave him an example of bumpy rhythm, aand he replied, "I dont play my scales like that". Anyway, the boy couldn't understand why he only got 14 out of 21 for scales, as well as 12 for sight reading. He actually told me, the sight reading was easy, told me it was in D major, and said he had managed to play through it once before the examiner told him to start. He couldn't understand what he did wrong to get 12 out of 21 (and this boy is 80% accurate on notes and rhythm) especially as the examiner said the notes were mostly correct. The boy looked at me as if to say "i really dont understand where I went wrong".

However, for these two in particular, I'm going to wait a year before we do grade 3, they're just learning xmas songs at the moment, but I dont agree that students have to wait a long time before doing exams.

A year isn't a long time between exams it's average; and, as you know, the students aren't supposed to just use that time to play their exam repertoire and prepare for the exams, but to develop as pianists through playing a wide repertoire. A year is actually quite short considering how much repertoire there is out there . Of course it's possible to do two exams in a year, but that doesn't mean it's advisable or will work for every student (even the student whose marks you were happy with dropped for the second grade with the same marking criteria). How long are you giving the students before they tackle grade 1? They all seem to be doing well in that .

Unevenness can occur just under pressure: I recall a comment about unevenness in one of my grade 2 pieces (going back some way there ). In this case the piece in question was fine before the exam, I did actually notice the unevenness in the exam (so it was a fair comment), and then it was fine afterwards. It's possible that the same happened to him with his scales, only he couldn't hear it, or it's even possible that he can't hear unevenness at all in his scales yet at such an early stage (although I'm sure you could detect it).

Please don't feel I'm trying to get at you, just to assure you really that a year isn't a long time at all between exams, rushing only causes pieces to get harder and playing standard to fall further behind. Of course it's a long time to spend just on exam preparation; but there's all sorts of other repertoire out there that must be explored in order to form a well rounded pianist .