Beth got 127 after 14 months of playing.
I'm both happy and unhappy.
Obviously it is an excellent mark especially allowing she is only 11 (She is 12 tomorrow!!!)
But she only got 10/18 for the aural.
This despite special accommodations by the board and loads and loads of extra work which clearly resulting in a substantial improvement in her aural since her 9/18 for Grade 5 Flute at Christmas.
For her pieces she got two 27s and a 29 and her sight reading and scales marks were very good too.
I'm holding on to the fact that what matters is that she has greatly improved and that is much more important than the exam result.
Beth wants to take her Grade 6 in the summer because her teacher is leaving in the autumn. Obviously she won't get such a high mark but I'm inclined to let her try it because she has already learned two of the pieces.
Dora

Well done to your daughter. That's a great result

It's an excellent result, Dora. I can understand why you feel as you do about it, and the most important thing about the aural is that it went in the right direction. Happy Birthday to Beth for tomorrow

Congatulation on such a good result. My daughter, too, struggled with her aural at that stage. She is absolutely fine now and I suppose I put this down to lots of musical experience. She also listens to a lot more music now - all genres - but she particulalry listens to pieces she is due to play in close detail. and generally listens to a lot of classical music.

Well done to Beth!

That is a good result, the marks for her pieces particularly are excellent. I know what having a child struggling with aural is like too. Put in perspective being fab at aural and struggling with pieces would be much less desirable. Guess we'll just have to keep plugging away at it.

Happy Birthday to Beth for tomorrow.

Yes, congratulations, and yes, take the long view with the aural!

It is perhaps worth considering whether Beth struggles with aural work generally or just the exam aural tests - perhaps she finds the way the questions are worded confusing, or is just less confident in the pressured environment of an exam situation.

So, can she sing back melodies in tune, clap back rhythms, hear if a piece gets louder or softer / faster or slower, differentiate between different time signatures (being able to clap on the first beat of the bar will demonstrate she can hear the difference, even if she can't yet work out the exact metre), sight-sing pitches from a score? If she has some or all of these skills already, more practice specfically in exam technique should help. If she finds some of these areas difficult, then her teacher should focus on these.

Well done to Beth, and try not to worry too much about the aural tests. I feel for you because, as I've mentioned before aurals are not my daughter's strong point, and her performance in them is erratic at best. Always looking on the dark side, I sometimes tell myself that she can't be much of a musician if she struggles with aural, even though she does well at everything else.. Probably this is not the way to look at things, however.

One of my friends, who is a flute teacher, feels that the aural tests are out of date in the sense that they date from a time when children's practical skills developed/were allowed to develop much more slowly than today. Nowadays, lots of rather young children acquire significant practical skill before their aural skills have had chance to develop to a comparable extent. As you said in another thread you (and we, or our children) may be paying the price for taking relatively high practical grades at a relatively young age.

I thought my little boy would have no trouble with aural as he's been listening to his big brothers doing them for years and was often better than they were. But now that he's taking exams he doesn't find it so easy! I don't know if it's the pressure or what but a good or bad aural mark certainly doesn't necessarily represnt a child's musicality or understanding.

I took Grade 5 clarinet at the same age and also got 10 marks for aural, despite having perfect pitch (in Bb) and doing lots of practice. At the end of the day, they are difficult tests, and with maturity and experience it's possible to improve substantially - I've subsequently received full marks for aural in the higher grades. GCSE music helped me a lot with listening out for particular things, and identifying styles and periods. Well done to Beth - it's a fantastic mark and I'm sure that as she develops musically, her aural skills will catch up. Mine did and a lot of my pupils' have too.

Thank you everyone especially for the support over aural.
Beth's aural skills are really developing at quite a fast rate. We are starting from a very low base and she has gone through the grades relatively quickly which makes it worse.
We got the exam comments yesterday, which are as always useful and encouraging. The singing comment is that the pitch was not always correct. Beth generally does get the correct pitch in lessons, she tends to stop if she can't do it. So that sounds like exam nerves.
In December she even got the major/minor question wrong and I've not seen her get that question wrong in over a year in lessons or with Hofnotes so I think exam nerves are playing a part.
She also got the period wrong, she said Baroque and I'm guessing the correct answer is Classical. We have done work on this in the last couple of months and I'm sure that will resolve in time.
The final comment points out that the aural mark cost Beth a distinction. I think the message for us is to keep plugging away at the aural and accept that we have a mismatch that it is most likely that time will take care off.
In terms of Czerny's very useful list the answer is yes she can generally make a reasonable stab at sight singing and echo singing and I would say that then answer is yes to the rest. Obviously she didn't do it to a pass standard in this exam but during lessons or chatting to me yes she can do this.
Thanks everyone
Dora