I access the FORUMS usually when on vacation and I tend to browse thru several ideas that are being suggested.

I'd like to get many more persons to consider some thoughts regarding Examinations. There is plenty of discussion about exam results anxiety, delayed results, exam nerves, examiners, marks.

As Christine (Board official?) has brought to our notice, this is a public space and we need to be conscious about what we say, and how we say it. Sure, we need to express concerns and fears and hope. For certain specific purposes, there are appropriate means to address issues (for eg. exam concerns/or woes...the "Appeal" route).

With regard to exams, there is a tendency to become very grounded in 'marks' and 'comparisons based on marks obtained'. I live and teach at a college in Mumbai, India. The system of education here is also, sadly very 'marks driven'... to the point of it becoming a source of stress for the learner, for teachers and educational institutions too sometimes. [Of course, not all students/teachers and school administrators are obsessed with getting pupils to obtain high scores as the only objective of education.]

TODAY, we need to encourage excellence in education, sincerity in learning and teaching; we need to perhaps compete more with ourselves than others...and more importantly...in the context of music education...grow to love our music learning, group music activities, music experiences...and Board Examinations (any board) ought to be A MEANS TO AN END. We should never allow exams to 'dictate' our music content and musical growth.

Some learners detest exams, some enjoy them; some don't like palying in front an assessor(examiner), some are forced by teachers to sit exams (perhaps due to vested interests of teachers themselves).

Each learner ought to ask oneself, through introspection...WHY one is doing the exam?
Is it to seek an assessment from an expert; for validtion purposes; for UCAS points; to add to one's collection of certificates; because one has the financial resources to do exams; for parents' or teachers' sakes...the list could go on. And we need to challenge ourselves, to question our decisions (for WHY we do exams) as well.

At the end of the day, its not really the exam certificate or diploma that matters (of course, they have their value and purpose)...but really, in the final analysis....its the love of music and music making; music for its own sake...that lingers on (if it does, that is)...perhaps because it is pleasurable, or it gives you scope to be your creative best...

EXAM "FAILURE"
Failure at exams can never mean, one has 'failed' for life or that your musical growth has stopped.

Failure or Below Pass or Unsatisfactory (whichever way you put it) - it just means you just have not worked hard enough(!!!) , OR that you need to put in more effort to rise up to the level of expectations of the grade/diploma OR that you may have lost focus OR that there was a difference in expectations OR the teacher who has tutored you may not have done a good enough job (there are those types, alas!).

The criteria for marking and the descriptions against each band of marking give us a very clear idea of what is the expectation for every grade/diploma, and 'level of performance' for each component within the grade/diploma (ie. Pass, Merit, Distinction).

So, when you get the Report of an examination, make it a point to relate the remarks, to the critieria of the 'level' obtained esp. and then the mark/numerical score.

I strongly am in favor of not using the word 'fail' (though this is extremely common in Indian Board Exams)....because like many other words in language, 'fail' has become a 'bad word' - it has become a label that can injure one's self-esteem, or one's feeling of self-worth. Any Examination Board ought not to damage the self-esteem or the psychological/emotional/mental health of its examinees.

'Below Pass' is not just been 'politically correct' nor escapist - it states what it states ...that a candidate has not attained the level of expectation of an examination...(and yes it means fail)...but still 'below pass' is a remark of encouragement...positively loaded.

Even if some examination boards call it 'fail', nothing cn porevent you from thinking ..."well, I have not failed anything....I have not attained the minimum level of expectations and I can do better the next time round'! Read "fail" but think "below pass". {The glass can be perceived as half-full or half-empty..its a matter of perspective really.}

Best wishes for the year ahead, musically and otherwise.

Hi Ivanmus29,

I agree with much that you say, but not what you mention about competing with ourselves, although I understand the sentiment behind it. Sometimes such competition can be constructive and make for high levels of achievement, but in other instances it is just not possible, or desirable - for instance, a child who is intellectually challenged, or a child who merely wants to play for their own pleasure. Goals are not always needed, or wanted. Furthermore, sometimes competition - even with oneself - can merely cause personal disappointment or frustration at not attaining the levels sought.

I would also like to say that I (along with many other teachers on this forum, I am sure) never enter students for exams for the sake of it, or to gain high marks, or for any other reason unless it is in the student's interests to do so. The only time one of my pupils has been entered against my wishes and advice, it was done by the father behind my back, on the basis of "it is better for him to take the exam and fail than not to take it at all". Needless to say, I do not subscribe to that sort of belief. I think it goes without saying that exams are only a means to an end and not an end in themselves. Most teachers, I believe, seek to maximise a student's creative potential, whether that is through exams or not.

But for those who do choose the exam system, for whatever reason, there will always be practical issues about marks, performance nerves, examiners, results, etc. That is part and parcel of the system. It doesn't make it a bad system, or that the teacher or candidate have entered for the wrong reasons, and discussion about these things can be very positive and helpful.

....And best wishes, likewise!

I think the problem with exams which won't go away easily is consistant marking.

I agree that marking should be as consistant as possible and I am one of the lucky ones who - so far - over the last 13 years have never had any cause to complain about inconsistencies. I am not saying they don't exist as others have had different experiences. Neither am I saying that there have not been different emphases in the way my pupils have been marked - but I see that, over a period of time, as positive. I think, however, that unacceptable discrepancies are are in a minority and that the mark scheme in "These Music Exams" is usually a good guide for both examiners and teachers.

The thing with exams - and here it may be useful to look at what is being said on the thread about physics
(Café) is that you can either tick meaningless boxes or have some sort of intelligent human interraction between the candidate and the examiner. This applies as much to essay writing as it does to playing muisc.

I think to some degree, if we enter into a system of examining something artistic we must expect to encounter certain differences of approach and interpretation. Art is not a yes/no subject and heaven forbid that the box ticking mentalitiy should ever enter into the examiners" assessments.

[quote name='ivanmus29' date='Jan 1 2010, 05:01 AM' post='909928']

With regard to exams, there is a tendency to become very grounded in 'marks' and 'comparisons based on marks obtained'. I live and teach at a college in Mumbai, India. The system of education here is also, sadly very 'marks driven'... to the point of it becoming a source of stress for the learner, for teachers and educational institutions too sometimes. [Of course, not all students/teachers and school administrators are obsessed with getting pupils to obtain high scores as the only objective of education.]

TODAY, we need to encourage excellence in education, sincerity in learning and teaching; we need to perhaps compete more with ourselves than others...and more importantly...in the context of music education...grow to love our music learning, group music activities, music experiences...and Board Examinations (any board) ought to be A MEANS TO AN END. We should never allow exams to 'dictate' our music content and musical growth.



I strongly am in favor of not using the word 'fail' (though this is extremely common in Indian Board Exams)....because like many other words in language, 'fail' has become a 'bad word' - it has become a label that can injure one's self-esteem, or one's feeling of self-worth. Any Examination Board ought not to damage the self-esteem or the psychological/emotional/mental health of its examinees.

'Below Pass' is not just been 'politically correct' nor escapist - it states what it states ...that a candidate has not attained the level of expectation of an examination...(and yes it means fail)...but still 'below pass' is a remark of encouragement...positively loaded.

E

The first paragraph strikes me as being very wise and worth bearing in mind when we fuss over a few marks or even contemplate re-taking the exam to get a distinction.

I'm not so sure about the other two, though. Exams should be treated as a yardstick only - not an end in themselves, but it is a good thing to take disappointing news on the chin and accept when our best is not good enough. We are learning about more than just music when we progress. Failing a music exam does not equate to being a failure as a person.

To suggest that we should avoid all reference to the mere concept of failing by referring to it as "not passing" is not a positively loaded mark of encouragement: It's a positive load of politically correct . . . nonsense. The system, by it's nature, is competitive. That means that some people will fail/lose, just like any other competitive environment be it music exams, music festivals, chess, football, cricket or warfare: If you don't like it stay out but don't enter and then try to sweeten the pill of failure with saccharine nonsense like this: If you don't want to fail, don't enter a competition. On the other hand (and this is the important bit) if you don't entertain the risk of failure you will never win - anything.

Apart from this there are some wise words.

I am glad this post generated some discussion. I hold the view that obviously differs from yours and I am okay with this difference.

(a) I cannot club a competition (economic, political or cultural or anyother), festival or match... in the same mould as a 'system of assessment of learners'.

(b) The term 'competition' has several connotations and interpretations. In my usage, the intention was not "to compete with oneself" to make such competition... a cut-throat, stressful, or obsessive activity.

© Whether to have a goal or not, is a matter of individual taste and socialization. For some people, goals help to focus on'es behavior/activity. For some, they'd rather not be goal-driven. And..one can keep goals without letting the goals driving one crazy.

Thanks for your responses.
Cheers!

Personally I think it's ok to fail. If you don't put in enough work to pass an exam then it's fair enough. I don't think failing an exam is a complete personal failure and it should never be judged as such. If everyone passed music exams there would be no point in taking the exam at all. The failure can be positive in that something can be learnt from it. However it should be a reasonably accurate measure of the persons standard on the day.

I don't see not winning at a festival or being accepted at audition as a failure at all. This probably indicates that at that particular time for that person you were not at the standard they required.

For me the biggest problem with AB exams (I don't know about other boards) is lack of a reliable appeal system. It doesn't reflect good quality control. Art is subjective and musical performances fall inside that realm. I do feel that examiners should be as far as possible following the "rules" of the exam board and that the exam setter should monitor this.

We've had one situation where the examiner was harsh. As a parent I don't really have an idea of expected mark so I wouldn't be able to say if it's wrong. Even if I did, a couple of marks in either direction would be perfectly acceptable (not that we get or seek predictions). There does seem to be more instances of harsher marking particularly in the last couple of sessions. I'm talking here about whole batches of candidates not just an individual.

As for re-taking I'd only want my daughter to re-take if there was something surrounding the exam circumstances (conduction or preparation rather than her playing) that didn't sit right. Even taking an exam in the same session wouldn't mean the examiner at the time's instinct was wrong.

We always approach exams from the improvement point of view. They give you an indication of where you are at with your playing at a particular time. If handled properly and correct feedback is given then they are informative about where improvements can be made. For me that's why it's vitally important that the examiners are working towards the advised criteria.

Exactly. The examiner's comments are far more valuable to the candidate's musical development than are the marks themselves (unless all you're after is UCAS points).

"Failing" or "not passing" an exam, or whatever you want to call it (I believe the AB refer to it as "below Pass standard"), is part of the learning whole learning experience, and we can take lessons from it - whether the lesson be that we put in for the exam before we were ready, whether we have not yet learnt to cope with performance anxiety or whether we simply did not do enough work for the exam - and those of us who fail for this reason tend to know who we are. If we are to succeed in music, or in life in general, we need to acknowledge those areas where we fell down, misjudged or whatever and try do it better the next time. The examiner's comments - and yes, the marks too - are one means of helping us to identify those areas.

One of my favourite extracts:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better. (Beckett, Worstward Ho)

'No matter'.