My daughter took her very first ABRSM exam last week. She said she did very BAD. She said she asked to start before she could get herself ready. She played first exam piece with a couple of wrong notes. Her 2nd and 3rd pieces were very shaky but without mistakes. She said she made some mistakes on your scales as well. She was in the exam room probably less than 10 minutes. She is very disappointed and said she is probably not going to pass the level. A day before her exam, she had her weekly piano lesson. Her teacher (he is very experienced) evaluated her and said she was playing in the distiction level. I feel very sorry for her. She practiced so hard for five months and might not get what she deserved. She told me if she failed the exam, she wants to re-take it. I am wondering if that is allowed in ABRSM. Do people recommend that? Thank you

In all probability it is not as bad as she thinks. Don't forget that candidates tend to focus on their mistakes rather than the things they did well - which, judging by what you say, far outweigh the mistakes. As this was her first exam, she will be better prepared for the experience next time. Distinctions are just the icing on the cake. A grade 3 exam is very brief, and that will not reflect what the examiner thought, since they are obliged to go through the exam step by step.

Re-takes are allowed in ABRSM - you can take the exam as many times as you like! But as her teacher has said she is playing at distinction level, he will probably recommend that she puts it behind her and goes on to Grade 4.

Tell you daughter to give herself a pat on the back. Exams can be a nerve-wracking experience sometimes. She will have done her best, and no-one can ask more of her than that.

Edit: Just noticed that was your first post. to the forums!

I was writing something along the same lines, but I've just had a glass of wine and Misterioso put it so much more elequently than I was.

Thank you so much for the vote of confidence. I am brand new here. I only just started looking at the forum after her exam to see what other parents' experiences are. I always teach my kids (and believe it myself) to work hard in whatever they do. They will see good results at the end. I feel sorry for her. She worked so hard for it. She did not do nearly as well as she hoped it. I can see she is a tough girl. After a couple of days of disappointment. She said if she failed the exam, she will pick up the piececs and start again. I am glad to find out she can re-take it if she wants to.

Don't forget that what is really important is your daughter's progress on the piano. It's very encouraging that her teacher feels she is playing at distinction level in her lessons. That's a great foundation for the next stage of her playing.

Often there aren't many opportunities for a youngster to perform pieces in public, so it's hard for them to get experience of e.g. playing unknown pianos, performing to an audience. That makes exams even harder, as suddenly they are expected to produce a lovely performance on a strange instrument.

For the future, these kinds of things will help:

1. Encourage your daughter to play on as many different instruments as possible, so that next exam she won't be as thrown by the piano.

2. If there is ever an opportunity for your daughter to perform, snap it up. There may be school or church concerts, or a local festival, or just more distant relatives on a visit to your home. Playing before an audience will help her learn to cope with the nerves that we all feel on these occasions.

It's always disappointing to perform at less than your best in the exam after a lot of hard work, but if I were you I'd tell your daughter that her teacher is a better judge of her real ability. An exam is just a snapshot of how she played on one particular day when she was feeling nervous - and as others have said, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that she did much better than she thinks anyway.

Hello and welcome!

An exam is definitely a performance, but it's not a competition, so your DD hasn't automatically "failed" if she didn't play her very best...as long as she's shown that she's competent in the points being examined, and played musically (and chances are, she did better in both those areas than she thinks).

I keep telling my son that examiners are thinking about his overall musical development, not looking for reasons to thin the ranks of competitors.

A G3 piano exam is only 12 minutes. Adrenalin can make you play things faster so you might escape quicker than this And the five minutes leading up to the exam last a life time, while those few minutes you are in there seem to go an awful lot quicker!

I'll echo what other people have said in that it's likely not as bad as she thinks - no examiner expects a perfect performance of every aspect of the exam. That's not what you need to do to pass!

(If you'd like to know about marking criteria, etc, then take a look in These Music Exams, but it might all be more detail than you want to know!)

As everyone has said, I'm sure it wasn't as bad as your daughter thought. She may not have played her very best, but many people don't, on the day, as nerves kick in. It's a pity that her teacher even mentioned the word Distinction, as it both raises hopes and adds pressure. There are other ways of telling a pupil that they're playing very well

The best of luck to her for her result, and welcome to the forum

Hi and welcome,

Well done to your daughter for completing the exam, to carry on and finish when you feel things are not going well shows great maturity.

Could you reward her for completing her first exam, whatever the outcome - a trip to a music shop to buy some new music, bag, etc.. it would be good to mark the occasion for all the effort and hard work.

Fingers crossed for a good result

Any news? How did your daughter get on?

Remember that a pass comes in at 100 out of 150 - that means she can be short of perfection by fifty whole marks before going into the fail area. That's a lot! She's all focussed on the odd error here and there which sticks out in her head as a total nightmare disaster, but the same as your own spot on your own face is the world's biggest ever spot, the examiner is unlikely to have been focussed on these details. Remind her that she doesn't need to have been perfect to pass, it's not the least bit expected, that's why they set the pass mark at 2/3 of the total.

And next time around she will know what she is dealing with, and you and her teacher can remind her to have the confidence to ask for a quick warm-up on the piano while the examiner rustles papers. It's important to feel ready to start. It's very tough to do piano exams as you are walking in to an unknown instrument, perhaps never having operated a grand before in your life. Nerves take over and you forget to say can I just see what sort of touch this piano has.

I'm sure she's done fine. She might be one of those people who stores their nerves up so they don't interfere but come out in a torrent afterwards. I never felt nervous before any of my exams, but I came out of every single one crying hysterically, even though I felt I had done OK, it was just all that stored tension flying out. It might well just be that.

Just came back from her weekly lesson. Her teacher showed us the paper. She got 126/150. Merit! She is so happy. Thank you so much for all your replies. I thought I have to post this happy news here.

I think, she is overshooting a bit. A mistake in the pieces doesnt lose much points. And playing shaky is probably nothing the examiner has heard, only she herself. I know I played my 2nd piece very shaky, but otherwise perfect. And my pianist said, she hadnt heard anything shaky afterwards. I do always some scales wrong and the phrase singing in the aurals are always only quite right. Still, the worst I got yet was a merit. And I really messed up a lot more than the said mistakes.

Congratulations to her

Well done to your daughter..Onwards and Upwards

So glad it turned out well. Time to move forward now. Good luck with the next phrase.

Congratulations to your daughter