My students had their exams yesterday and 3 of them were asked for scales which are not on the new list. Two young Grade 2 girls (aged 8 & 9) were understandably upset. One was asked to play A minor, and when she hesitated, the examiner repeated the request, adding 'A for Apple' (!) and then said 'well, can you play D minor instead?'. The other one was asked to play E major, which she did. Both of these girls are very shy and wouldn't have been brave enough to question what the examiner said. The other girl was taking Grade 4 and was asked for some Grade 3 scales.

I was really pleased with the how hard these students have worked and felt they were extremely well prepared, so I'm feeling pretty annoyed. I am planning to make a complaint, although according to their parents, they all came out feeling they'd played their pieces well. But as I had told them all to be sure to start off with scales, I can't help feeling that this must have been an unsettling start for them.

Was the examiner Scottish? Some vowel sounds can sound very similar in an unfamiliar accent.

Chris

Sounds like my French oboe lessons when my teacher used to ask me to play "si" (B) so I played "C" and he would say "no si" and I would check my fingering and play C again Even when he asked me for "si bémol majeur" (B flat major) I didn't immediately think I was mistranslating but that decided C flat was just a torturous way of asking for B

I used to teach a Turkish lady who used the French names. I ended up showing her fingerings rather than naming notes after a while - it was easier.

These days he knows that asking for "si" is not a good idea There is now a piano in the room so he usually either plays the note on the piano or points to a written one in the piece of music.

I bemused him totally when I first started because he would name all the notes in an arpeggio one after the other and I would laboriously play them (and get it wrong if there was a "si" anywhere) but if he just told me the name of the arpeggio (assuming it wasn't "si") I would rattle it off. Apparently he'd never had a pupil before who knew which notes made up an arpeggio.

Before all exams I remind pupils that examiners are only human and that they have such a range of instruments and grades to examine, that it is quite possible that they could ask for one which is not on the syllabus. If a pupil is above a certain age and sufficiently confident that (s)he knows the scales intimately for the grade in which he is entered, then I encourage them to say something like, "I don't think I have been prepared for that one" or " I didn't think that one is required for Grade x or y". Otherwise, a feeble attempt to play the unfamiliar scale may result in a lower mark than deserved and may go unspotted by the examiner if unchallenged. Obviously we are in the hands of the Philistines when it comes to 6 or 7 year olds who cannot be expected to remonstrate with an examiner especially in such a formal situation.

Otherwise, a call to ABRSM as soon as possible is needed.

LR

Slightly but on Monday I had a young pupil taking grade 2 descant recorder who was given the sight reading for the treble. It was while she was struggling to work out how to play these really high notes she had never seen before that the examiner realised the mistake...

W

Exactly!
What happened to me once in a wind orchestra rehearsal:
Tutor: Let's go from letter A (in a Scottish accent)
Us: Letter E?
Tutor: Yes A!
etc. etc.

Chris

Sounds like the reason we all missed an important signal processing lecture in my final year. The American secretary told us it was in AZ building not AD......we nearly found ourselves in a management studies lecture which with hindsight might have been more interesting

Sorry to hear about your students Jenny.

You can contact Jenny at QUALITYASSURANCE@abrsm.ac.uk if you wish to make a complaint, appeal a decision or even query how the exam was conducted.

I had to do that on Tuesday after 2 of my students were told they would be marked down if they heard the 3rd Aural Test (recognising a different melody or rhythm) for a second time.

They came out feeling it went really well but if the examiner has been saying that each candiate that day then that could be the difference between a pass and a fail for some.

How do you think I feel when I have to deal with call centre workers? I'm so broad they haven't a clue what I'm rambling on about. I'm getting good at the Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Echo thing though!

This "Scottish problem" reminds me of my first ever basson lesson. My mother was sat in the corner making notes to ensure we would remember what he said about assembling the instument correctly.

"And this is the BELL" said the scottish teacher, putting the last piece on the top.

"Is that BALE or BAIL?" queried my mother with her pencil poised.

This happened in two consecutive exams to a viola player I entered. In both cases she was given sight-reading for a completely different instrument (ie not even strings). Fortunately she is the kind of girl who takes things in her stride, but it could have been a different story for a more nervous examinee.

It's worrying to hear of so many instances where things have gone wrong....... I have never really felt the need to warn prospective candidates about such problems, but will make sure in future that I do.

I remember coming out of one of my earlier flute exams having been asked scales from the next grade up...thankfully it didn't make too much difference to the overall mark in the end, but it was most disconcerting to 9 year old me!

I know the examiners have lots of instruments and grades to examine, and that they aren't always examining instruments they play, or have experience of the syllabus with, but surely a quick reference to the relevant syllabus in the exam would solve the problem?

My student is taking Grade 2 violin in a couple of weeks. I've told her what to do if the examiner asks her for a scale that she doesn't recognise - and I'm also going to test that out when we do her mock next week.

It is worrying that there are so many errors. Surely they have a copy of the syllabus to hand, and it isn't as if they have to read reams - just skim over the scale requirements before each person comes in.

Exactly. I don't think it's acceptable - I feel we should be able to expect examiners to get it right, especially when the scales have recently been changed and as teachers we have made sure all our students have practised the correct scales for the grade.

I'm particularly annoyed that my little 8 year old, who is so promising and who was so excited about her exam, was quite thrown by being asked for A minor several times and made to feel she'd done something wrong. What an awful start for her.

Things do go wrong memories
In my final exam as an undergraduate there were about 20 of us taking the paper. When we turned it over and looked at it..there was not one single topic that we had covered for the entire year! Aghast we sneaked looks at each other to see who had started writing. None of us had. Mouthing to each other we 'nominated' one of us to deal with it. By sheer luck the Exam Invigilator was the Head of Faculty who upon hearing our murmering, hurried down to us at the back of the Hall. He asked each of us to confirm that we had never had sight of the topics! He then asked us to leave the exam room. An hour later he returned with the Re-sit paper and we sat that with sighs of relief. Yes we recognised the topics. Subsequently we were each given a written letter of apology from the Head of Department.

Thanks for that.

I emailed a complaint a couple of hours ago and have already received a polite response to say that the matter is being looked at.

Am I wrong in believing that an examiner can ask for scales from previous grades? ie C major is clearly G1 but I was asked it when i sat G8!

Had you forgotten it?

But isn't C major is in the syllabus?

I am astounded that every examiner isn't provided with a book listing every scale for every grade for every instrument, not laid out in the potentially confusing mode of the syllabus but literally every scale, in every permutation (tonguing, slurred etc), so they could check every one they asked was right. It seems so obvious. They clearly can't remember them all. No one could. And it's easy to make a slip reading out of the syllabus (and all other three octaves...). I always have to make a list, particularly for the higher grades, so I know what's required without having to think about it. One teacher has a laminated sheet (nice big print, too) for every grade. She could sell them to the board!

That's a really good idea...hopefully one of the mods will be reading and pass on your suggestion!

Yes, you are wrong.
The scales for each grade are not cumulative.
Well they might be in some cases but you only have to prepare the ones actually listed for the grade not the ones from previous grades.

C major/minor is in the syllabus for Grade 8 piano

I'm sure when I did my Grade 8 (many years ago) you had to do scales in every key? Or am I just dreaming...now, there is just a selection.

The list for grade 8 includes most keys.

At grade 7 there is a choice between two groups of keys.

At grades 5 and 6 you need to know all keys.