I have my first standard visit at my house this week. There's a day and a half of examining (3 or 4 local teachers got together!!!). The examiner rang last week- I was teaching and my husband gave him directions!!!!
Got to laminate lots of signs etc, get a desk downstairs etc etc, tell the postman, tape up door bells . Oh yes- and try to get a couple of pupils to a better place than they are!!!

Good luck - I hope it goes really well!!

I'm quite excited about my students' exams next week, even though they're just at our local centre. I feel that the preparation has been really good this time and that they're all just at the right stage and are feeling confident. Of course, it still could go horribly wrong on the day!

Exams are tomorrow and next day.... bit nervous. Got 2 of my own children doing exams too!!!! Hope the examiner's ok and all goes well........

Beat of luck to all of you !

Enjoy giving your pupils the facility to take their exams on home turf. It is so good for them.

I was able to do this for a few years. The kids loved it. I think the judges loved it as well - they enjoy a happy atmosphere as much as the rest of us.

Good Luck Nicki

Hope it all goes well, thats a lot to sort out especially whilst you are trying to get your TMA 05 in!

ET

all the best ClariNicki1

I hope it wasn't as hot in your area today as it was in ours. I really wouldn't want to take an exam in this heat!

It was that hot!!!!!! One man told me tonight it's been 38 degrees today.
Thankfully, the front of my house is fairly cool (3 foot thick walls).
I enjoyed it....but the pupils struggled to focus. My youngest didn't play too well. She said she couldn't focus- her intonation wasn't good (violin).
The examiner was nice enough.... but one of the teachers who used my house has had him before - so we aren't expecting sky high marks.
The examiner used simple language that the pupils understood for which I am very grateful as I had a 7 year old taking an exam.
I'd do it again. Got more exams tomorrow morning- but all my pupils' exams and my own children's are over.

I've got exams at my house as well this week. The violin teacher told me that hers were struggling today because of the hot weather - getting hot and sticky and everything sliding about. I should think the examiner would be sympathetic to the prevailing weather conditions. My exam room is south facing and we have had doors and windows open, fans going, shutters closed etc but still quite uncomfortably warm. Shouldn't moan really, but it is all a bit much for me...

I accompanied some exams today. It was horrible. The grade 8 flautist was most unimpressed, and I could only have sympathy for her.

Hey ho. Such is life. I have started to cool down now - 11.02 pm.

It's certainly oppressively hot here today (Wednesday). My daughter had a cello lesson this afternoon, after which her teacher commented on how well she'd coped with the heat. She then went on to say that, being Italian, she never really noticed it and that growing up in Italy she used to practise 5 hours a day in the heat of summer!

My daughter has an exam on Saturday, and she played in a concert last Monday which happened to be at the same venue as the exam. It was horribly hot in the audience - I think she was so nervous she didn't notice - so I'm really hoping the rains will come and cool everything down by then.

My eldest did her Grade 6 flute and found it hard- she said that her fingers were sliding off the metal keys. After my youngest did her violin exam and had poor intonation (slippy fingers), we got all the pupils to wash their hands before the exam.
More exams today, but it's not nearly as hot!!!!

The young lady I accompanied had spent much of the previous day with her teacher, having her flute fixed after the excessive heat had 'broken' (her word) her flute.

I had one break her flute in the middle of an exam yesterday. The examiner asked to see her music, and she hit her flute on the music stand in the process of giving it to him, and bent her F key. So she had to finish the exam on mine.

Oh dear, poor girl - what a nightmare! I expect the heat has got to everyone this year; hope it doesn't affect the results adversely.