Does anyone know when this year's theory exam papers will appear in the shops please? I've had a look around the publications area which wasn't very helpful. I'd like to get the latest ones to beat my son over the head with!

Well I'm totally shocked that my son passed grade two. I've a good mind to complain. I was hoping he'd get the wake up call he needs.

It's usually the first week of January.

Ha! My daughter got the wake up call she needed on G3 - she passed by just 2 marks after leaving the exam at 40 minutes claiming that it was easy and she had checked her answers!

Not a happy Mummy at the mo!

At least they passed...

Thanks JohnS, I'll be first in the queue at the music shop. If only the words hadn't been in German he'd have stood a better chance with French or Italian, and he only needed 4 marks. So near and yet so far. Never mind, he'll regret failing by the time I've finished!!

Indeed. But it is more than a little frustrating when she had not got less than a distinction in the practice papers - using the exam techniques I had taught her! - and then she decided to completely ignore everything I had ever taught her on the day of the exam. i will be interested to see her mark breakdown today and I will get the exam papers when they come out too

I understand...us children, eh?!

I did that exam and I needed pretty much ALL the time for it. I couldn;t have left after 40 mins as I hadn;t finished, let alone checked through! No wonder you're cross but at least she passed. (PS I left G1 after 40 mins, and G2 after 45, but G3 was a lot tougher IMO)

My eldest passed with 4 marks to spare I can only say it's a wonder and I was suprised.

All sbhoa's tearing her hair out must have had some effect lol.

Pass on my congratulations to her notmusimum

Curious as to how old the children in question are?

Apparently they haven't got to their late teens by which time using exam technique has been drilled so much by the schools they wouldn't dream of doing anything different.

I find it really funny that our lectueres at uni keep having to change the structure of the papers, because we're all so good at doing the past papers, and figuring out the best approach, and doing far better than they expect us to. Kinda harsh though...

Mine's 14 and doing GCSE Music - just scraped through his grade 2. He will pass grade 3 at Easter if I have to beat him over the head with the book each evening until then (started last week)

Want to bet? I did my Grade 5 at the end of year 10, and left after 45minutes, having checked 3 times because I was so bored! I got 91 though I fully intend to do the same kind of thing when I get to Grade 8, I don't like to sit there longer than is necessary! Though I doubt I'll finish the paper quite so soon.



In other words he's probably ahead of the rest of the class then! GCSE requires the barest of theoretical knowledge. But you teach him!

Haha I was about to make the same post! I think it took be no longer than 40 minutes to do grade 5 theory and i got a distinction...Grade 6 Theory I spent just about an hour doing the paper and got 75... Yes I could have spent another 2 hours which I was allowed threating over the paper and trying to cram in extra marks...but i'd just keep contradicting myself and changing answers here and there

Yes, time is irrelevant .. I left gr8 in about 75 minutes and got distinction so I think it is a rather rough measure of how successful any candidate might have been...

I took grade 5 last term, I can't remember how long i took for the paper but i was happy with it when i left. I failed quite spectacularly, even after spending a year working through stuff with my teacher and passing all the past papers I took! I was very unhappy when i got the marks back... Re-taking in March... grr

It would appear that the 2007 papers are now available as I have just ordered them from Musicroom.com.

That's not very good. They're always published the first week of January. According to the ABRSM Publishing site, the 2007 papers were published today.