Today I had four piano candidates taking grade one I would also have had a grade 3 candidate but I withdrew this candidate last night due to lack of practice. This has upset his parents very much.

I gave the candidate lots of extra tuition to help him but he was not able to pull his pieces off at the last minute. I had warned him three weeks ago that I would withdraw him if the standard of his playing did not improve but to no avail.

I have always had an unwritten policy that everyone is aware of that if I do not think a candidate is up to the required exam standard I will withdraw them.

I have been teaching the piano for more than 25 years and have only done this a handful of times. To make matters worse the candidate in question had a younger sister taking grade 1 at the same time. The parents told me that this upset her greatly as well because she thought she was not up to standard like her brother although this was not the case. The parents felt that I should have let their son enter the exam as he may have pulled it off ( very unlikely in my opinion). They also said if he had failed he would have handled it ok. Bearing in mind he is 14 years old and burst into tears when I said I was withdrawing him. I always feel that it is bad for a child's morale to fail and will avoid this situation at all costs.

I explained to the parents that I feel that I am in a position of trust with regard to passing or failing an exam and as far as I am concerned a lot of this trust would be lost if I entered candidates who fail.

What would other teachers have done in this situation? Do you think it is ok to enter a candidate that you think will fail?

I'm finding it hard to believe that you withdrew a candidate the night before an exam.

You had already stated your opinion , that you 'think' they will fail. So if they then do - fine, just as you predicated. Neither child nor parents will presumably be surprised.

However, no one can fully predict how a child plays in an exam - I have 2. One tends to do slightly worse that 'predicted' However the other somehow transforms in the exam room, appears to recall everything ever said about the piece, manages to pull it all together and invariably does a lot better than anticipated.

To be quite frank I can't understand what you mean about ' a position of trust' ...whose trust ?? - parents, other teachers, prospective pupils, or the pupil. Is this about trust or is this about reputation??

This is a 14 year old boy, whose parents said would have handled it. If he failed then you would have simply reinforced that, as you said, he needs to practise harder. Now he'll simply wonder if he would, in fact have passed.

As a teacher I don't think it is right to enter a candidate who you think will fail - but this candidate HAD been entered already so somewhere along the line things didn't go as planned. No offence , but I certainly don't support pulling him out, against his wishes, the day before

Musicman's Mum

I think that I would have discussed this with his parents first, as they were the ones who paid for the exam and let them know that you expected him to fail, and why, and wanted to withdraw him. I'd then have let them make the final decision whether he was to be withdrawn or not. They may well have decided to go with your advice and withdraw, but at least it would have been their decision.

I think it would have been good for him to have taken the exam, and failed. It might have made him realise that he has to do the work necessary to pass. As long as the parents were aware he'd probably fail then let him go ahead.

Why did you enter him if he wasn't yet up to standard? Personally I only enter someone when they already know 80% of their scales, and can more or less play the pieces.

Sorry, but I think this is a bit harsh. Adagiok5 has 25 years of experience and I'm quite sure that when she entered this lad he was making good progress towards his exam and she was confident that he'd be fine by the time the exam took place. However, we all have students who then fail to practise, go backwards or generally don't make any further progress through no fault of their teacher. I have one at the moment who I was confident would be fine but who has got a bit stuck and hasn't improved quite as well as I'd hoped. It doesn't mean I shouldn't have entered him.

It must have been a really difficult decision to pull him out at the last minute, but he and his parents had been made aware of the situation and that he would be pulled out if he didn't put in the required amount of practice. I think I would have done the same. I was in a similar situation a while ago with a 14 year old boy and I let him go ahead. I felt at the time that he'd really let me down, as well as himself and his parents, because although his pieces were okay, he seemed to think that his scales, sight reading and aural didn't matter. He scraped through with 100 and in retrospect, I feel I should have withdrawn him.

Yes, quite. I guess we have nearly all on the odd occasion entered a pupil for an exam when we had doubts. A couple of times I have reluctantly agreed to send in the application, only on condition that if I still feel the pupil is not ready nearer the time I may withdraw. Sometimes there are reasons to 'give it a go'.

I had one such in the autumn of 2007. She put on a good spurt just around the time of entry: we discussed deadlines and noted a few. However she went backwards rather than forwards during the rest of the term, and I cancelled her exam with about a week to go.

(Oddly enough - and I almost can't believe we did this - she had another go a whole year later, in the autumn of 2 008, and got a good result, then promptly gave up. )

I think there are very few children who are helped by a fail result.

I'd be in agreement if the pupil had been younger, but at 14 I think he should have been encouraged to take responsibility for himself - even if this had meant failing - as long as you made the situation clear with regard to his prospects with both him and his parents. Having been told he wasn't allowed to do the exam, he and his parents will always wonder if he just might have passed, and may blame you for not allowing him the opportunity to try. If your advice was clear, but you had allowed him to make his own decision, the outcome would have been on their shoulders.

We've all been in this sort of dilemma from time to time, and it isn't an easy call. At what age do we allow them autonomy? How bad does it need to be before we pull them out - or advise them that they'll fail? After biting my nails several times I started to ask myself this: If I was honest with myself, and with pupil and parents, what was I so worried about? And I came to the conclusion that a lot of my concern was for own reputation. Up to a point, teachers have every right to safeguard their reputations, but not if it's at the expense of the pupil. And there's always the chance that they'll scrape through. I have to confess to actually being annoyed once when what I thought was going to be an abysmal fail turned out to be a merit; the pupil in question just thought I was an idiot who didn't know the requirements for a pass, and he consequently had false expectations for the next time! To this day I don't know how he passed.

The first time I gave a pupil permission to fail it was my own son. A week before his Grade 6 exam I said, "You need to get the finger out or you're not going to make it." Two days later I told him I was pulling him out because he wasn't doing enough work and was definitely not going to make it. The very next day I found him playing computer games without a care in the world and overheard him blaming mummy for the fact that he "wasn't going to have the chance to do his Grade 6". So I told him that pass or fail was up to him, but that I was insisting that he do the exam, having paid for it with his blessing. He had a quick rethink, pulled out the proverbial finger and almost got a merit.

I think it's all too easy to think, "They won't let me fail."

Not sure about UK, but in Singapore and many parts of Asia, the practical grades registration date is 6 to 7 months before the exam date. And the registration deadlines are usually before the exams in the previous session (only 2 sessions per year).

In the course of 6 months, anything could happen. The student could hit a bottleneck, develop a poor attitude, get busy in school, lose interest, refuse to practice a section (I have gone through all as the student)... I don't think a teacher could anticipate all that during registration.

I personally went through 3 piano exams with insufficient preparation, and failed them all. My teacher told me I would fail, and I was totally apathetic because I wanted to stop anyway. The impact on me was small, though there were snide remarks from peers that I was "untalented" (does talent even play a part?), which bothered me for maybe 2 days .

I think the impact of my failures was larger on my parents, who were disappointed that I could not even finish a "simple" task while other children managed to complete Grade 8 at younger ages.

whole-heartedly! The best learning experience for me was when I was having lessons myself as a child. I always practised my piano, but hardly took the violin out of it's box - yet still managed to pass all my exams...... that is until Grade 7! I'd been warned by my teacher it would happen if I didn't pull my socks up, but by then I'd got complacent due to the other 6 exams I'd sailed through. She was right - I failed!! I can still remember the shock to me and the big disappointment I felt towards my teacher and my parents, especially when it was totally my fault! I also use this story to my own pupils, hoping they can learn from it - which they all have up to now!

As a teacher, and due to my personal experience, I would always let the child enter the exam (apart from the fact that it's the parents money that paid for it) and learn for themselves. It's amazing how much work is actually achieved in the last month (and even the last few days). Up to now, the pupils in this position have all been lucky, apart from one girl who had been studying so hard for her A'Levels and thought she'd be able to pull it off in the last few weeks. I'd entered her against my wishes and her Mum agreed with me too, but she insisted she'd be ok. Sadly she wasn't and her lessons was 'teacher and Mum knows best'

I think the most important thing is to liaise with the parents every step of the way - after all, they're the ones who'll be cracking the whip at their end!

I must admit, as a mere parent, I find it unbelievably odd that a teacher would unilaterally withdraw a pupil the night before an exam.

If you had already had the discussion a few weeks ago, making it clear your doubts about the student's ability to do well in the exam unless they really put some work in, I don't see what else you could do. Like others have said, he may well have pulled it off, or if not, he (and his parents) would have had fair warning, and at the age of 14 he is old enough to cope with failing if he didn't pull his finger out as requested. I don't think withdrawing him the night before is any better for his morale than a (possible) failure would have been.

At the very least, the decision should have been left to him and his parents. As a parent I would have preferred it, and respected the teacher more, if they had said to me a few weeks/a month before the exam 'Look, I really don't think X is working hard enough, and I think it is likely he will fail the exam. Knowing that, do you still want to go ahead with the exam?'. Teachers can only do so much, at some point the student has to take some control and responsibility.

I would find it very hard to have further confidence in, and respect for, a teacher who went ahead and withdrew a pupil the night before without consultation with the student and parents. If I were feeling particularly cynical, I would wonder if it had more to do with the teacher not wanting a fail on their books!

Speaking from a Parent perspective here.

I have had my youngest pulled out of an G4 viola exam a week before the event, because her teacher felt her scales were not ready. I was not happy, as I was just told not given the opportunity to discuss it. The viola teacher, I felt,was more concerned with his 100% distinction results, he mentioned it several times, and my daughter would have got just a pass.

We changed viola teachers, a successful move.

Whereas her piano her teacher let her do the exam, despite warning her that she wasnt working on her scales and she did fail. Again it was not discussed with us her parents. The piano teacher then sacked her after she failed, stating that she was "unmusical". Her older sister, took over the preparation for the resit exam and she got a distinction.

I have to say that my daughter was in Year 6 and had quite a nonchalant attituted at the time.

Neither of the above events were good for her moral but she is now at junior RAM with subsequent excellent exams results for her viola. She never did another piano grade exam after G4, so I often wonder what exactly did both of those teachers have in mind for her future as a musician.

As a parent if I have paid for an exam I do expect to be consulted if my child is not working to the required standard, in sufficient time for me to have some in put into the practise schedule. However I would be quite concerned if a decision to withdraw was taken the night before!

The OP clearly states that this discussion did take place three weeks before the exam, with a warning that if the boy didn't pull his socks up, he would be withdrawn from the exam...

Before anyone says anything, this is MY opinion

To be honest, I don't think any teacher should withdraw a pupil from an exam, atleast not without the candidates parents/candidates consent, as it is such an expensive thing to do, and who knows, they might pass, but if they don't it's all good experience to play infront of an examiner, and the fact that he might fail might show him that he needs to practise.

To be honest I don't understand how a teacher can withdraw a candidate without discussing it with the parents who have paid for the exam. I would be very annoyed at this if I were the parent. However, I think it is perfectly acceptable to say " I don't recommend your son takes the exam and in my opinion he should withdraw". Are you going to reimburse the parents for the cost of the exam?

And I agree with Hello Cello - the exam is a valuable experience in itself whether you pass or fail.

Sounds like Adagio had kept everyone well-informed. I have pulled pupils out but none recently although Alpha Male Jazz Cat had one earlier this week he withdrew the day before the exam. I'm with Maggie here - failure is rarely a good thing in these situations.

As an experienced teacher I am sure Adagio made the right decision for that pupil.

B x

When I was a lot younger, taking grade 2 piano and grade 3 clarinet at the same time I was told on the Friday that I was going to fail both exams by my teacher. I went home and practiced and practiced and I got a distinction and a merit on the Monday.

I think I would warn a pupil but I would let them take the exam, I think, but then again I haven't been in that position yet.

xx

Withdrawing a pupil from an exam can be such a difficult decision to make. I am withdrawing one of my grade two candidates a week before the exam date. The student has worked her socks off but it just hasn't come together in time - had a chat with dad and we agreed she'd be much better off taking the exam in the summer. Final decision was made by the student, though, as I said she could try but the way things are at the moment, we would be taking a risk. Have sent student off to buy an 'Upgrade' book and plan to have some fun time (duets, etc...) over the next few weeks before we proceed in ironing out problems in the exam programme. Think everyone is okay with it but it was a difficult decision to make.

Yes, in my view, you'd be quite right to do so. It's a business after all. They pay their money; they take their choice. The teacher has fulfilled his responsibility by teaching the student to the best of his professional ability. If the student chooses not to avail himself of the tuition proferred by practising for all sections of the exam, then that's his fault. It should not be seen to reflect on the teacher. None of us likes to have failures in an exam, but surely someone of 25 years' standing can detach his/her ego from the result.

I have a brother and sister tackling Grades V and VI respectively on Monday morning and I have told both that there are absolutely NO guarantees of success in the upper grades - even for the best candidates. These are certainly NOT the best candidates. I told the parent concerned about my misgivings before I entered them for the exam and he judged that I should proceed anyhow, given that this was the last opportunity to offer 2007-8 pieces and given that they have both spent a long time in the preparation for it.

At the end of the day, they're not going to their execution; it's only an examination. There are a lot of other things to get more worked up about than exams in the teenager's world. Let's keep things in perspective please.

LR

I as a parent would be angry too if a teacher pulled a pupil out after I had paid for entry. Schools don't withdraw the ones who are going to fail - they maybe don't enter them though in the first place. If you have recommended I enter my child and then you withdraw, losing me my money, that's not on. 100% success reputations are meaningless if you withdraw anyone likely to let you down!!!!! I realise you can't predict who is going to practise enough, but if I have paid you can't choose to throw my money away - that's my choice (along with my child's). You can explain to us what is necessary, keep telling us of the work is not being done, but you CAN'T throw my money away. It is the payer's choice what to do - not the teacher's. If I choose to embarrass or upset my son by making him do an exam he's isn't ready for - that's my fault, not yours - but maybe I see it as a lesson for him. If he doesn't work hard enough, I am not withdrawing him from his GCSE exam just in case he fails

One thing no-one's mentioned yet is that if it's the teacher's name on the application, then surely it should be the teacher who has to withdraw the candidate - or am I missing something here?

i'm sure that;'s right - but not their decision

No, nor their money let's remember.

LR

I was a very confident, academically-able 10 year-old, used to waltzing through everything without breaking a sweat.

I also played the violin which I hated and never left its box.

I was put in for Grade 1 and got 98 - and was mortified !

I then worked my socks off for Grade 2, got the best mark in the school - and then promptly gave up, having made my point.

Failing, as many have said, is not the end of the world.

If there is no chance of failure, there is no satisfaction and pleasure in passing.

As Dulciana said, a 14 year-old should be responsible for his actions - he is not far off being an adult. It is not our job as teachers just to get them passes in their exams. And, even if they've been warned, I believe that the parents should be consulted before a final decision is made - as Belinda said, not only is it their money but they may WANT him to take the risk of failing, as one of life's lessons. Teaching children is a three-way thing.

Thank you for everyones advice and concerns on this matter.

In answer to many questions about the exam fee, yes I am going to refund the pupil's exam fee. Something I would always do in this situation.

This has only happened a hand full of times to me in 25 years teaching and I do feel truly sorry about it.

My pupil's and families have always beem aware of my policy on this matter. Also this pupil in question's mother has always said to me at exam times 'you won't let them fail will you'. My answer has always been 'no I would pull them out the night before if I thought they were going to' In return she would say 'thank you we will always trust your judgement'

I am not trying to justify what I have done and I know a refund of the exam fee does not account for people's feelings but I truly did believe I was doing the right thing for the pupil's interest and not for my own ego.

I have written the family a letter apologising for the upset it has caused them on this matter. But I have also said I would still adhere to this policy. I have also gone on to say that my regret is that I had not involved them more as parents and I am truly sorry for that but at the same time I had been informing their 14 year old son over the past few weeks that I did not think he was up to standard and I would withdraw him





Thank you Jim that is exactly how it was.

I'm not so sure about that. My students get great pleasure in passing exams, but I don't talk to them about the possibilty of failing. I only put people in for exams if I feel sure that they will pass. I realise that sometimes very unexpected things can happen in an exam, but that usually that means that they will only get a pass instead of a higher mark.

I presume the parents are getting a refund. They've paid for a service that's been cancelled. That's clearly a refund situation.

I agree up to a point. For music exams, I only enter candidates if I'm pretty confident they'll pass, I'm not looking for the roll-the-dice thrill of will they, won't they (and nobody's failed so far).

But what I mean is that, for music exams and exams, indeed life, in general, I think children shoud know that failure is a possibility; it's not a threat or a disaster but it happens. And that sometimes it's bad luck but usually it's down to lack of work/preparation beforehand.

If you're guaranteed a pass (as some exams do now) - or assume that you are - where's the satisfaction in passing it ? And what about when you take your driving test, apply for a job, whatever ?

N.B. I think your response is perfect Adagiok 5 - apologise and justify.
The mother's comment of 'you won't let them fail, will you ?' is a classic to which the only answer is 'no, but he might let himself fail'.

When you carried out your comprehensive survey of all schools in the British Isles in order to make this statement, it seems the only one you missed is the one where I teach - what an amazing coincidence! (Sorry, but it does annoy me when people make sweeping statements.) I, and other peris, have indeed withdrawn pupils on more than one occasion after consultation with those involved and due warning given to the pupils concerned.


You'll see just a few posts above that Adagio did indeed give the parents a refund. However, I think there is an argument that the pupil's side of the bargain was broken by not practising adequately. I think you would struggle very much to find a service that does not come with terms and conditions.

Here's my two happorth-

Whilst I agree that children need to know that failure is a possibility and I do not tell all my pupils they are wonderful when they clearly are not, I do feel that music lessons should be a life-enhancing and positive activity. I would not let a pupil of mine take an exam that I seriously thought they might fail, and would certainly withdraw them unilaterally if that was the only way to prevent an adverse outcome. I would rather do that and perhaps leave them thinking that they might have passed if only... rather than have to break the news of a definite fail.

I have withdrawn 3 candidates in 3 years - and 2 of those were due to my inexperience in the early days - they never even knew I had entered them!! The third quite clearly wasn't doing enough work in the run up to the exam. I invited the parent to sit in on a lesson and went through all the exam material - it was perfectly obvious what the outcome would be and they phoned me a day or two later to ask me to withdraw the pupil. No refund was offered or requested, but it was clear that the fault was on the side of the pupil and this was several weeks before the exam. I think I would have done the same as you, Adagio, if it was the day before.

You obviously felt a bit awkward about it all, hence the original post. I think the fact that the younger sibling was also doing an exam complicated the picture. However, children can't be cushioned from every blow, and your policy has been in place for a good long time. I think you did the right thing by sticking to it - your position will remain clear and firm for the future. There is no point in having rules / principles if you can't stick to them when the going gets tough.

I think Belinda may have meant exams in general? Since she mentions her son's GCSE at the end of her post as an example.

Ah, you may well be right... sorry.

Welcome back, David!

Glad to read you again David!

I think there is a problem with timing sometimes. I don't normally enter candidates unless I am 90% sure they will pass. I am never 100% sure - I don't think one can be. However, a lot can happen between the time when one is reasonably sure, so one goes ahead and enters the pupils, and the day of the exam. Particularly if there is a three month gap as there is in my case. I don't know how this compares with the UK. This year my entries had to be in by 13th March and our exams will be the third weekend in June.

So far I have only once withdrawn a child - a Grade 1 who had simply stopped practising. I do make it plain to older pupils that they could fail if they don't work. I am more positive with younger ones though towards the end of the preparation period I do sometimes say "You would have lost a couple of marks for ...."
If someone is really flagging I usually tell them they won't, for example pass one part of the exam so they had better get extra good marks for another part. But it all depends on the pupil.

It is true as some posters have said, that parents expect what they have paid for, but it is also true that teachers expect pupils to work if they have decided to do an exam. You don't get results just by paying an exam fee.

I think the problem with the OP may just be that it was a bit late to withdraw but on the other hand maybe the intention was to give the pupil every chance up to the last minute. It's a difficult judgement to make.

I think I have sometimes failed to make it sufficiently plain to parents that an exam means regualr practice
over a period of time. Just being entered doesn't mean all is in the bag.

Just a small point - I'm female. It's jm (my initials) not Jim.

Mind you, I think The Old Lady once called me Holly....

Sorry about that. I 'm female as well someone thought I was a man

I'm sorry to admit that I only realised that myself about three weeks ago.

I think as a parent I'd be furious if a Teacher withdrew my child from an exam particularly the night before. I don't doubt Adagio that yoiu acted in the boy's best interests but it should have been a family decision.

I don't understand why the parent's didn't realise the child was going to fail and withdraw him themselves. There's only so much a teacher can do and it sounds like there was lots of teacher support.

I had similar thoughts about a teenage girl I had doing grade 3 last week. She simply has not been practising enough and will be lucky just to pass. As teachers we can only do so much - we can't learn their scales for them or polish their pieces the way we want if they ignore our advice. If she does fail hopefully it will be a lesson you have to make the effort. As lessons for life go, a music exam is pretty small fry.

Withdrawing a pupil seems a drastic move, but only the teacher knows the full reasons.

My son's piano teacher wasn't sure whether to enter him for his Grade 2 because of his very varied progress. He really has perfected the art of practice without making progress and if I sit with him and put pressure on him for each practice it is possible to overcome this but the emotional cost is not insignificant.
At the last minute she decided to enter him, she actually rang me during his lesson to say he could do it. I'm quite happy for the teacher to make that decision but once the entry had been made I expect the exam to be taken.
I take exams very seriously, we have 3 this time and I'm feeling the strain. While I do believe that the exam should be a snapshot of achievement on a particular date rather than a goal in themselves I do believe that the specific exam should be well prepared for and invest time, energy and money to ensure that everything that I can do is done.
I don't have a huge amount of experience of music exams, we have done 12 so far in just over 2 years, so I'm not a novice at the lower grades.
I wouldn't suggest that a candidate could "get lucky" on the day and get a distinction but it seems to me that there is the potential for a fair amount of variation on the day. My children got almost identical Grade 2 piano marks and I wouldn't have thought they were at the same level. For the Grade 3 piano my son got 117 and I thought he might fail.
While it may be obvious that some candidates are bound to fail it seems to me that there is a degree of uncertainty for many candidates.
My daughter did her Grade 5 flute at Christmas, which she passed, but the most useful thing to come of out it was to find out that she only got half the available marks for the aural section. Her flute teacher doesn't do aural with her and I had made arrangements for aural to be done elsewhere. As a result of the exam it was obvious that this hadn't been a sucessful arrangement so over this last term I have made alternative arrangements which I believe will result in a better aural mark for her Grade 5 sax exam on Thursday. I also have in place accommodations for her learning difficulties which I believe affected her aural score in December.
I also think failing the aural persuaded my daughter that more effort in this area was essential.
I'm trying to say that the feedback form on a failure must be helpful to parents, teacher and candidate in some way. My experience of examiners' comments is that they are very useful.
I would also not be pleased by a teacher "surprising me". I expect to be alerted to potential problems as they arise. For example a note that if a certain scales were not well known by the following week or a certain piece played hands together reasonably well that it might be better to defer the exam would enable me to focus on the issue and work with the child to achieve the target set. With those kinds of interim goals it would have come as no surprise to me, or presumably the child, to be told they were not of the required standard.
With 3 sets of exam dates in a year, alternatives for all pieces and no requirement to take an exam before moving on to the next grade I think if I were a teacher I probably wouldn't enter a student who wasn't pretty much at the required level. My daughter's piano teacher wasn't happy about her Grade 2 pieces and suggested that we deferred by a term and picked new pieces in an effort to raise her standard. I thought that a perfectly reasonable idea and enabled her to keep learning.
Dora

The only time I 'strongly advised' a candidate to withdraw was one that I inherited in Year 13, and who more or less insisted he be entered for Grade 8 in the Summer Term. For whatever reason (I never really did work out if it was lack of practice, or poor practice and understanding/skills, and despite various strategies from me), with a week to go, he was way off - couldn't even get through the pieces. The big problem was that he was also doing his A levels. I knew that even if he did two hours practice a day, he wasn't going to get there, and that was two hours time he couldn't afford - his A levels were far more important. He did withdraw, very reluctantly and unhappily, but ultimately it was his decision. I'm sure that it was the right one.

I would hope that teachers would not withdraw candidates because of a consideration of their own pass rates. Of course we all want all our candidates to pass, but a fail can be a strong learning experience at any stage of life and in any context (and for all parties - pupils, teachers and parents - in the case of music exams). At least with music exams you can have another go.

I think somebody has already mentioned this, but just to reiterate that the feedback gained form the examiner's report is bound to be useful even if the candidate fails the exam. I've seen pupils' musicality push them through even when I felt that the notes weren't sufficiently in place for me to feel confident of a pass. But had these individuals failed, we would have had a clear idea of why from the report. Having allowed a few dodgy ones to go ahead and try I've often been surprised to see the positive comments on interpretation outweighing the negative comments about wrong notes and inadequate practice.

After 15 years of teaching, I have had a couple of candidates fail - such is life. People who have one hundred percent pass rates sometimes make me wonder...

Like others have said, I will only enter pupils if the scales have been learned by the closing date, and pieces well on the way, and if I'm 90% (or more) sure that they will pass. However, some then refuse to put in enough work, and I've had 4 fail in the past 10 years - 2 through lack of work and 2 through falling apart on the day. I have only withdrawn 2 pupils - one autistic boy who suddenly got upset and changed his mind about doing the exam, and another child who simply went backwards after the closing date. This was done after full consultation with the parents, and ultimately it was their decision - not mine. On another occasion, I advised a 17 year old girl to pull out because she wasn't making enough progress. She was adamant she wanted to do the exam. I told her she would probably fail but she still insisted, and failed. I think communication is key here - these decisions need to be made by the pupil, parents and teacher together after frank and honest discussion. It sounds like the parents of the child in the original post were fully aware of the possibility of failure, although I'd have left the final decision up to them.

Yes...surely the teachers whose pupils only ever learn their exam pieces, starting in September to May or June as bound to pass! In my opinion, these teachers are not teaching the instrument, just the exam. And any pupils I have inherited from such teachers are usually on the verge of quitting out of sheer boredom even though they might have distinctions in exams coming out their ears!

I think it is better to prepare for the exam over a term or a term and a half. It is a risk though that pupils won't keep up the work rate and end up like Adagio's pupil. I haven't withdrawn anyone yet, but I have had a few near-misses (pupil in question didn't fail but got some awful marks). However, last year's near-disaster has learned his lesson and is working much better now. Not an angel by any means, but understands that he did too little too late last year. He is 17, so I was quite honest with him about the result and about what I expected of him this year. It has been a learning experience for me too!

My only question is, why did you feel you needed to reimburse the parents? They had been made aware of the situation and pupil didn't do enough work. You did your job but by the nature of it, all you can do is act as a consultant. If the work isn't done between lessons you are powerless. I don't see why you should be out of pocket.

(Maybe I am about to become very unpopular!!! )

Sorry, but this is too much of a generalisation. There must be quite a few of us who have not experienced any exam failures, but that doesn't mean that we teach only exam pieces for most of the year!!

I agree to some extent with what Piano Dub said. I once had a piano teacher who only taught graded music, when I went to him I was grade 6 and he made me take grade 5!! Unsurprisingly I got a distinction, he didn't even hear me play anything other than scales for the first 6 lessons (which is when I got the grade 5 music). The lesson after the grade 5 exam he gave me the grade 6 music that couldn't be taken for another 9 months because it was a new syllabus.

He had a 100% pass rate too

surely the teachers whose pupils only ever learn their exam pieces, starting in September to May or June as bound to pass! In my opinion, these teachers are not teaching the instrument, just the exam. And any pupils I have inherited from such teachers are usually on the verge of quitting out of sheer boredom even though they might have distinctions in exams coming out their ears!

actually my experience with inherited pupils is the opposite - that these candidates are not ready to take the exam even after so long, are struggling to learn the pieces (more by rote than anything else), and are more likely to have a string of results they would rather not tell you about!

why did you feel you needed to reimburse the parents? They had been made aware of the situation and pupil didn't do enough work. You did your job but by the nature of it, all you can do is act as a consultant. If the work isn't done between lessons you are powerless. I don't see why you should be out of pocket.

This last bit I am in agreement with. You and the student have dual responsibility in preparing for an exam and to reimburse assumes full responsibility, which seems at best unfair. I would reimburse if, say, I had been unwell or otherwise unable to teach for several weeks - but not if the pupil simply hasn't done the work, and I have been clear about where we are all along.