Just wondering. For me its scales, definately.

It always was scales for me, particularly in the early exams. I got 3/15 for Grade 2 Scales (LCM) in about 1958.
But by ALCM in 1963 I only dropped 1 mark.
On the organ, I had trouble with transposition when it came in at Grade 6 (15/24 for Sight Reading and Transposition), but it came OK in my Grade 8 (22/24 -capable fluent and accurate , he said !)

For me, aurals, definitely. I'm just no good at them

Car Expert

Interesting, on average the thing I do best in is Aural or scales and Sight reading is what I dread, but in my last exam I found the scales ridiculously hard (she asked all the evil ones)...

Still I suppose hardest for me is the sightreading...

Walking into the room.
And waiting for your turn.

Sitting in the waiting room feeling like you're about to be sentenced to death...

I thought it was more like feeling you already had been......

Actually, I'll agree with that

Trying to get warm enough fingers and instrument in order to play without seizing up or fugging up.
Canny choosing of exam board* gets round other difficulties .

*and in my case, though I know not for everyone, enough of the right sort of practice

And I think my students would, too.

Apart from that, sight-reading. Aural tests were usually OK - until Grade 7, when I could not sing back the lower part of a two-part phrase if my life depended on it.

The sight singing is deffinitely the hardest part.

Aural, Aural, Aural. and erm, Aural.

The aural is the worst bit. Waiting for the results comes second.

The hardest part is the aural. The worst bit is whatever comes first as thats when my hands go all shakey for no particular reason - by the second piece, they've generally calmed down again.

The hardest bit is whatever bit it is you can't do!! in my case sight reading (though it's getting better).

So far for me, it's sightreading. Especially in piano (and I'm only up to grade 2! I hate to think what's going to happen to me further up)

I'm dreading sight-singing though. And the harder aurals. In my flute grade 5 aural I only lost 1 mark, and that was for time signature but I was reeeaaaallly worried about intervals and cadences. Then I learnt a different song for each one. There's Jaws, Happy Birthday, Greensleeves... etc etc

It's probably turning up!!!!

OK, apart from that, I find the aural hard because it doesn't seem to have much to do with the rest of the exam and I find the difficulty quite random. Some tunes I can sing back some I can't. I have a rubbish very short term memory.

Aural, terrible, failed it a few times.

Useless fact of the day : many of my pupils have got 100% in aural tests, I never have...

I loathed aural as a child/teenager and got c*ap marks for it (well, actually, I got c*ap marks for every section ).

Now, I think I'd find the sight-singing the easiest bit..

knowing that the examiner is listening to your every note... and a attack of nerves etc can undo the months of work.

Singing the lower line of a score, which raised its ugly head in the Grade VIII aural tests. My accompanist was so shocked at my utter inability to sight-sing.

Emsoboe would agree!!

For me it's waiting for the results Then I am really impatient

me too - also I think the aural can be harder to practise on your own outside lessons.

Aural is my worst bit, at least in the 1 exam I have ever done.

I am a violinist, I despise being tested on singing notes played on piano!!

I've done jazz exams and for me the worse part is definitely the aural when you have to sing back as an echo the notes played on the piano. I don't really find exams that nerve racking, but as my voice is breaking at the moment I'm not very confident singing so don't sing as very confidently which can sometimes result in me singing a completely wrong note.

I actually find the worst bit, especially in theory exams, is the bit just after you've finished and you start going over all the bits that weren't right and of course everyone will ask how did it go and you start going into minute about how there was an F# that should be an F natural and how its just the worst thing ever.

Also if your doing a theory exams with other people you start discussing your answers and if other people got different things then you know you'll be worrying about it until you get the results.

Probably sight reading, but I think it's the hardest part to prepare well for.

SCALES!!!!!!
I can remember them easily (I try not to use the music- learn them by ear) but can I play them? No.

Hardest for me is Aural Tests. Always has been, probably always will be ._.

the bit were you're in a room with an examiner.

Always aural, last time I only just passed it...lost me a lot of marks...but I've never been that good at it.

Why is it we have to sing anyway? I'm not a singer, I'm a pianist/cellist...