As my flute exam approaches, I'm just wondering what other players do about the problem of moisture accumulating in the headjoint.

In past exams, I have always taken my fluffly-brush-thing in with me to swipe through as necessary between pieces, etc, but is it normal to have to do this? (I'm taking Grade 5, by the way.)

I don't have an answer (first exam coming up in a couple of weeks ), but I have the same question for clari / sax players. I find I can get lots of moisture building up in the mouthpiece / neck, and if I don't stop and take either the mp or neck off and shake it, I get that awful "frying chips" sort of noise, especially in all the pp parts of the music - lovely (not!). Would the examiner be OK with my stopping and dismantling my sax in an exam, or is it frowned upon??

If you need to mop out then do it.
It's your performance.
I did in my clarinet exam.

Professionals blow out or swab during performances, so why not? Incidentally I had my first experience playing in a full(ish) orchestra over the weekend and due to the trumpets and trombones right behind me had very little idea what was coming out of my oboe at times. I realised at one point that I had been gurgling along an octave down because of water in the octave vents. After that I took every opportunity to blow out the vents.

The best thing to use is the stick which comes with the flute - with a strip of cotton fabric threaded through. I cut strips from an old pillowcase - I make them about an inch and a half wide and 12 inches long.

The fluffy stick things which are sold as pad savers shed a lot of fluff which can give problems with the mechanism. Also, storing the flute away with this soggy fluff thing inside it just encourages the pads to peel away.

Perhaps I'm a bit traditional

There's no problem with moping during exams. I'd especially recommend it before any high activities such as the G6/7/8 Trinity Orchestral Extracts.

I love your typo!

Ditto! Although I don't think I'll mope in my exam!

Thanks for the advice. So far I haven't had any problems with my pad savers, but it's a timely reminder to keep an eye on them as they wear. I usually try to remember to take them out before putting away the flute to avoid problems with the pads.

Other flautists I know don't seem to swipe through as much as I do - so just wanted to check it was okay in an exam. No comment has been made when I did it before except to "take my time". One other flautist I know shakes her flute to get rid of excess moisture, but this doesn't seem to work with me. Perhaps I don't shake hard enough!