I had my Grade 7 piano exam today and a few things went wrong.
My first 5 or so scales were good (I thought although I think I played them a bit too slowly) but I ended up messing up C minor a third apart very badly and asked to do it again which he said. After that I also cocked up F# minor contrary motion and then Bb minor arpeggio!

My first piece went well and the second wasn't too bad although a few small slips. Then I was quite pleased with my C piece (Lowside Blues) except I hit the damper pedal instead on the run! (the 5 black notes followed by 4 white).

Then I felt like and idiot in the aural because I couldn't remember the tune and rhythm I had to clap back! Also in the cadence part I said interrupted-I'm usually fine at this but couldn't seem to hear it right and then after telling him what chords he said "would you like to rephrase your last response?" and that took me liek 10 seconds to answer (slow!)

I was hoping he would think the first slips were down to nerves but after this many I dont' think so! Does anyone have any idea?

For ABRSM, examiners mark each section from the bare pass mark - what that means in practice is that they start out assuming that you will just about do well enough to get just enough marks to pass that section, then mark up and/or down according to what they hear. The exact criteria and what they expect varies from grade to grade - have a look at 'These Music Exams' by Clara Taylor (there's a link from 'Students' and also from 'Exams' on the website. So, generally , so long as overall you've done lots more good things than slips and bloopers you should be fine. Remember, too, that it's only human nature to remember all the things in detail that went wrong and forget about all the things that came over really well.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

It sounds like you had a pretty average exam experience.

Like minstrel says, you only really remember the bad bits. In your head, before an exam, you have the perfect performance that you're going to (and 'know') you're going to give, so when you do something right, it's not going to really register as that's what you were planning to do all along. When something goes wrong, on the other hand, that wasn't the plan, so the world crumbles all around you. The number of times I've come out of exams thinking I was borderline pass at best and have turned out to get much better than that...

I wouldn't be too worried if I were you.

What would be worrying would be if you came out and thought you'd done really well - then you're just setting yourself up for disappointment!

Ok thanks I've had a look at These Music Exams. I shall let you know but porbably won't be until mid August as going on holiday next week.

I appreciate the advice though I feel a little more at ease now!