Ah it’s finally over and I think it went pretty OK.
My examiner was Ian Denley, a flautist, violist and pianist. The day began with my exam. I was in the waiting room when I saw the examiner come in. I was soooo nervous. Last night I was practicing my pieces and I was making many silly mistakes, which made me even more nervous.
I entered the examination room trembling all over. The examiner greeted me cheerfully and I wished him back and strangely I felt a bit relaxed and my knees stopped wobbling. I played my pieces first. They were:
1. Sarabande and Rondeaux (J.S.Bach)- I think I played it quite well.
2. Allegro Moderato (Schubert)- I did make a slip in the middle but I’m not sure if he noticed.
3. Sacro Monte (Turina)- I was really scared about this piece before the exam but I was surprised when I didn’t mess it up during the exam. The extra adrenalin I suppose.
Then scales –sigh. With a billion scales in the syllabus there will always be some weak ones I suppose. I am awful at the thirds and of all the rotten luck he asked me ALL the thirds. One of them went hopelessly wrong and I pray he won’t cut too many marks.
Ah….sight reading. Hehehehe……I managed a continuity but towards the middle I was basically composing and improvising.
Finally, the Aurals. I was surprised how fast everything was going. Melodic memory and Sight Singing was quite good I think but lets see. I got a perfect cadence. The first 2 chords I partly guessed and said IV and Ib. Modulations..um. well I hope I got one of them correct atleast. Lastly, the Listening with understanding – He played the piece and asked me what I thought I said it was composed in the Classical period, He asked me who a possible composer may be and I said Mozart. After that he asked me some questions and played excerpts. He asked me whether there was a modulation towards the end. I just guessed and said yes. Oh well. I think there was.
That’s that. Mr. Denley seems to be a nice person but looks can be deceiving.
I did my best. Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed. Wish me luck.
Rupayan.

Does anybody know how many slips in scales/pieces it is acceptable to make before the examiner starts to deduct marks?

QUOTE

Does anybody know how many slips in scales/pieces it is acceptable to make before the examiner starts to deduct marks?

I don't think they deduct marks exactly. I think they assess from the "pass" mark level.

It says in the regulations booklet:

"Marks are not awarded either by deduction from the maximum or by addition from zero."

You don't fail if you make the odd slip - but I doubt if you'd get full marks either!

Maggie

QUOTE (Rupayan @ Sep 8 2004, 07:08 AM)

Then scales –sigh. With a billion scales in the syllabus there will always be some weak ones I suppose. I am awful at the thirds and of all the rotten luck he asked me ALL the thirds. One of them went hopelessly wrong and I pray he won’t cut too many marks.  :unsure:

Don't feel bad that he asked you for all of the thirds scales if you can't do them: he wasn't just doing it to make you loose all of the marks. If you do a scale wrong they ask you for another one from the same group to give you a second chance to prove that you can do it: obviously they won't give you full marks if you made the error the first time but if the second scale is okay they give you the benifit of the doubt and will only deduct very slightly. So if you did both wrong you won't get twice as many marks deducted; he was just giving you a second chance but will only deduct once for not being able to do thirds scales, not for each time you do it wrongly.

Congratulations for getting through the exam .

QUOTE (Markx1 @ Sep 9 2004, 12:49 PM)

Does anybody know how many slips in scales/pieces it is acceptable to make before the examiner starts to deduct marks?

If the exam system is sensible, which I'm sure it is, then none since you can only get full marks if you do things correctly. Of course when subjectivity creeps in you have to do everything technically correct and make the examiner like it to get full marks which means that even if you do everything right you still might not get full marks. As Maggie correctly says they don't actually mark by making deductions from 30 anyway they just have to find the appropriate description of your playing and match that to a mark based on how good they feel it is; the official line is that they start at the pass mark and go from there.

u shld be really happy that the ordeal is over. good luck for ur results.....i hope u do well.
my exams r in a few days......so i think i`ll go through the 'wobbly knees' phase too.(i usually dont get any sleep the night before the exam)
if u makes slips in the pieces then they do notice it(they have the sharpest of all possible sharp ears) but they dont deduct marks that way....so ur safe.
same with scales...they dont deduct too much marks if u play 1 or 2 scales wrong.......
by the way..did he ask u too many stocattos and chromatic contrarymotion ?coz i really suck at them.........how many scales did he ask u to play over all?and how difficult was the sight singing?

all the best for ur results again.....

agree...maggiemay

Good Luck Rupayan! I'm sure your results will be good!!