I've got my grade 2 piano in exactly 2 weeks, and haven't been practicing as much as I should have been (I've been revising A LOT, but now my exams are over apart from one on monday).

I'm confident I'll pass, and if I don't break down with nerves, could be able to scrape a merit at the moment.

But I'd love a distinction, as anyone would. Is two weeks enough to really make a difference? If I practice really methodically every day, sight reading, pieces, scales etc etc

I've just started going through pieces with a metronome (I know, I know, I should have done it before, I just didn't think about it though) because I have a tendancy to practice waaay too fast.

I'm practicing scales, broken chords and arpeggios with the metronome too. I'm also going through things one handedly and focusing on the bits which I have difficulty with.

What other things can I do? Can I make a difference in two weeks to my playing?

Best not to get too stressed about it! Keep playing the pieces, perhaps with some slow practise. Avoid over practise - if you know your pieces well there is a chance they could become overly mechanical. Practise all the elements of the exam - scales, sight-reading (you say in your post you do) and perhaps find someone to run through aural with you in addition to your lessons.

Ask your teacher what they feel you can improve on - they've heard you, we haven't

Good luck! Enjoy the experience! The world won't end whatever the result!

I think that if you are hoping for a distinction you need to be thinking past the notes.
Think about how you want to perform the pieces.... make them your own in some way.

2 weeks is loads of time.

I'm going to disagree with others who says you can over practise - it depends what you're focussing on. If what you're practising is playing all the right notes up to speed, then, yes you can over-do it. Instead, practise short bits of a piece and try to make it sound as expressive as possible. If you can, record yourself playing and pick out anything that doesn't sound quite right to you (rhythm slightly out, one note accented a bit too much etc) and practise and re-record that bit until you like how it sounds. You can do the same thing without recording, but I find it a lot easier to listen critically when I'm not playing.

For scales, never move on to practise the next one until you've played the previous one perfectly three times in a row.

You're probably unlikely to make a huge amount of improvement at sightreading in 2 weeks, but have a play through whatever random music you have lying around.

Smart girl that sarah123. Lots of good advice here.

My bit: Two weeks is not much. Figure out what you do worst of all the exam components. That is where you can most easily raise your game. Is there one piece that you play much worse than the others? Are you hopeless at aural tests? Are your scales rough and ready? Pick just one component and concentrate your efforts there.

I do agree with Sarah and Mad Toms point about practising in intricate detail, and if you have the stamina for this, I'd go for it.

My point about over practise, I guess is more relevant to younger students who often don't have the discipline to do this. If you can develop this discipline at grade 2 level then it will really help in the future. But still, remember, this is grade 2, and relax and enjoy. If the really detailed practise, at this level, would have the opposite effect on you, ie stress, as it does for some students, then relax!

Thanks for your replies everyone!

I've been practicing the little parts which I find tricky in detail- trying to identify exactly what's wrong with them.

And recording them is helping A LOT

And playing the scales 3 times perfect is good too, I'm getting mum to sit there and read through the list and tell me which ones to do

Thank you!

If you want to let mum off the hook, write every scale you need to know on separate pieces of paper and put them all in a box. Pick out say 4 to do each day until the box is empty; then return them all and start again. If on any day you find one of the scales particularly difficult, return that to the box on that day so that it will come up again a bit sooner.

I'm sure your mum dosn't mind helping, but it could get a bit wearing for her if it's every day for a fortnight!

Not so sure about that, I spent an hour a night over a few weeks forcing myself to play through entire books start to finish no matter how long it took... I saw a massive improvement.

(I sound like one of those fake testimonials on an advert now!... "I tried the bicep-a-lizer for 2 weeks and now I can bench press an Elephant!")

Have you actually seen an elephant (or even an Elephant) bench press??

No, but "♪ I've seen an elephant flyyyyy ♪"