Oh dear - results came today and they, themselves were good news. Merit for a Grade 4 oboist and high pass for a Grade 2 oboist who, taking her first exam, was so nervous she nearly threw up beforehand. 118 was a good achievement for her first time out under the circumstances and some lovely encouraging comments from the examiner.

The sad bit came in the fact that somewhere between the ABRSM and my house a monsoon obviously hit the famous brown envelope and everything arrived rather the worse for wear. Half the mark-sheet had almost disappeared as the ink had been washed away, they were just legible thankfully but the certificates were a mess.

Anyway rang the Board and not much can be done about the mark sheet but they've offered to replace both certificates with new ones at no cost - which seems the appropriate action but given this isn't their fault, I was pleased they were willing to do so.

So, all's well that ends well but it did lead to me to ponder on whether the brown envelope is now the best way to send such material or whether there might be a better way. I have had several sets of mark-sheets and certificates in the past year slightly "mangled" by the Post Office but this was by far the worst example to date.

Any thoughts anyone on how to improve things?

Congratulations with the pupils' results!



Pitty the mark sheet and cirtificate were in bad condition...

What about other important letters though? Surly people can't affotd to have important letters smudged so how come the cirtificates?

Sounds to me as if the postman must have dropped them in a great big puddle and then trod on them

I have known letters and parcels arrive wrapped in a special plastic envelope, provided by the post office when they have been damaged and ripped open one end. From sorting room to postbox I suppose is a bit of a lottery. I once had a letter from my bank which had been opened by someone and then selllotaped up again. It was a mystery and I was worried that a bank statement or personal details might have been stolen.

Well done on your results anyway I wonder if you might be able to retrieve the breakdown of marks on your computer. I noticed last time that this is now available with the on-line results.

Congratulations Oboist and your pupils on the results. Pity about the certificates and comment sheets. Perhaps we could all pray for some dry weather.

And on Sundays leading up to Christmas.

Congratulations to you and your pupils on the results, Oboist. It's never occurred to me before that the only copy of the marks sheet is sent out - isn't there a carbon copy made at the same time?

2.15pm would be early for our post! One day I got home from work (4.30pm) just as the postman was walking up our road (got to our house about 4.50pm)

It is annoying when damage happens; you can claim from the Royal Mail but only if you have proof of posting, proof that the damaged stuff had a value, etc. No good in this case (I doubt AB gets a certificate of posting for each letter they send! And how much is a mark-sheet 'worth'?) Here is the link in case it is ever useful to anyone: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content...ediaId=77900748

"The sad bit came in the fact that somewhere between the ABRSM and my house a monsoon obviously hit the famous brown envelope and everything arrived rather the worse for wear. Half the mark-sheet had almost disappeared as the ink had been washed away, they were just legible thankfully but the certificates were a mess."

Sounds like at the very least examiners should not be using water soluble ink. Permanent in please!! At least you'd have a chance of drying them out. Does anyone know if the ABRsM do keep copies of the marks sheet?

Well done on the results

david, you should try living in Ireland. where I am the normal time for postman to arrive is about 6pm... and no 1st or 2nd post...
*nostalgically remembering english post being opened over coffee* Dem were the days

After I got my exam results for this year (Uni, not music ) I treated myself to some nice special edition books off Amazon. You can imagine my delight to find upon returning home one day, to find the (open) parcel sat on my doorstep in the rain.

Obviously, they had to go straight back to Amazon as the pristine white covers were now rather... well, I was sad to see nice book in such a state! Not to mention that I'd have to wait another week to get to read them.

It isn't just the Post Office that fails miserably in bad weather.

2.15 pm is about normal for us. It's usually a shock if it ever arrives before noon!

As for soggy post - our sorting office had a major fire just before last Christmas, and ALL the mail arrived soggy (that is, the mail that survived the fire and the firemen!)

Postmen don't actually get paid after after 1:30pm so if they dont do it quick, they are working for free.
I recieved a package from musicroom, got it at half 5!

Musicroom Musicroom!! I think thye are having trouble finding the post

Slightly off-topic but still about the postal service, I sent someone a hand-made birthday card recently that was very small and very light so I just put a normal first-class stamp on it, but the recipient had to pay excess postage on it because it had a "sticky-up bit" which meant that because it wasn't wafer-thin, it was classed as a "large letter"

when we first moved to where we live now (it's not THAT long ago!) we had a regular postman who turned up every day regular as clockwork, at about ten to eight. If the post didn't arrive then you knew he was off.

Nowadays we do better than some, by all accounts - we have a fairly regular postie who delivers around 11.30 to midday. He's good - my AB certificates are usually propped up carefully in the porch and not jammed into the letter box. Days he isn't on though we get post any time up till about 4 pm - and we have one clever guy who plays origami with anything bigger than an average envelope.

Anyone remember the old post office slogan (now this will date me!) 'Happy birthdays begin with the postman?' not any more they don't!

Oboist - sorry to hear about your soggy results.

Thanks for your responses. I did actually ask an examiner colleague about additional copies. It appears the examiners keep a copy of what they write, in case of any queries but that wouldn't be of a suitable quality to be sent to the candidate. I guess I could ask for a re-write of the damaged forms but in so far as we could read them, it doesn't seem totally fair to put the very friendly and fair examiner through this, even if ABRSM would agree to it.

I think the point about permanent ink (or biro) is well made though - likewise the suggestion of plastic folders round these valuable documents.

Have a good summer all.

Ahhh the Post Office has sadly gone downhill since 2005.

Ooh yes! Second post - I remember that!!! First post around 8.45 ish and second around lunchtime - 2pm......... those were the days!!!

I've been watching for the postman for the last few days - waiting for certificates - and most of the days last week it was pouring down as our postman reached our street. He always had a bunch of letters in his hand to work through and made no attempt at all to keep them dry. Thankfully my mark sheet arrived on a dry day.

Perhaps the answer for the exams is to have all the examiners write in (waterproof) biro.

Or better still, as I think has already been suggested, they could be printed out instead of being handwritten. I nearly always have to read the remarks out to parents who find it difficult to decipher the examiner's handwriting and last year I even printed them out, as the writing was SO hard to make out.

Well done on your results!

I wonder if there is any better way ABRSM could send them - though I don't know what. I've had soggy results, too. I also once had a Grade 8 certificated ripped in half by the postman trying to shove it through the letterbox. AB replaced it but the ripped marksheet they couldn't do anything about.
Then in the Spring my daughter took G1 and the postman actually folded it right in half to get it through the letterbox. The certificate had a big crease right down it. Once again AB said they'd replace it but in the end I just stuck it under some heavy books - never quite the same though.

I have complained to the post office so many times about it that now they just get shirty with me - and nothing ever changes. I actually went out and asked the postman one day (very, very politely) if he could ring the doorbell if items were too big to fit through. He said he didn't have time and he was "entitled" to put it through the letterbox and tough if it got creased!

So, I don't know what the answer is, but I'm getting so despondent with constant wet, creased, ripped certificates

The LCM certificates are sent out by the local representative and she always puts a very stiff piece of card in the envelope. There's no way the postman would be able to bend it short of standing on it. She's written on each card "Please return at next exam" so she has them for next time.

I presume that these were envelopes marked 'certificates enclosed - do not crease'? If so, that's outrageous of the postman!

When we moved here we fixed up a post box on the wall by our front door (having lived in Norway, where everyone has a post box) and we asked our postman to put anything too big for the letter box in it. He was very doubtful, as it doesn't have a lock on it, but did as we asked - there's plenty of room for music parcels etc. so it's perfect for us.

Oh yes, Jenny!
I assume the words "certificates - please do not bend" translate as "shove this through the smallest gap available in the quickest possible time" to our postman...

And on waterproof paper too......
Reminds me of the old Goons sketch...........

Seagoon:
Gas meter inspector Seagoon reporting for duty, sir!

Henry Crun:
Seagoon, go to this address and serve them a seven-day final notice.

Seagoon:
Yes sir. What's this? President Fred, Casa Rosa, Avenida Varest? That's South America!

Henry Crun:
Ohhoho - is it? Then you'd better borrow the Gas Board's bicycle.

Seagoon:
But sir, it's overseas.

Henry Crun (angry):
What is our bicycle doing overseas?

Seagoon:
No, no. I mean Argentina is overseas. How can I get there on a bicycle?

Henry Crun:
Well, you must have it waterproofed that's all.

Seagoon:
Oh, thank you, sir...

either last year or the year before, , we got a marksheet with the wrong teacher's name (the candidate did two exams on the same day and swapped the order - the examiner wrote the same teacher's name on both sheets).
The board re-typed the exam mark-sheet but said "the examiner was unavailable to re-sign it".
So I would imagine you could get that done - especially as you know what was written

Well ... my results for this term are sitting on my desk.

The envelope is so creased and mis-shapen I cannot get it to sit flat. Clearly not our usual postman today.

I wonder what the point is of a certificate that is not fit to be framed?

(ed - I have just dared to investigate inside the envelope - and the certificate is so badly creased in the middle that some of the writing has started to rub off.)

: (

I must be in the minority, I have a lovely postman, who, when the results come, rings the doorbell, hides the envelope behind his back and asks "guess what I've got for you today!!!"

Yes - we (normally) have a lovely postman who takes care with things like certificates. Sadly he was not on duty yesterday!

However - I have received a kind e-mail from the board - offering to replace my certificate if I return the damaged one to them. Thank you very much AB - I will do that.

Even better, they could all enter their comments into a computer and then could transmit it electronically to the board and then it would be beautifully legible, and hopefully work really quickly.

Imagine how much exam fees would go up in order to pay for that though!!