My children's piano teacher entered several children for exams in this session. I had a chat with her today and she showed me a leaflet that the examiner had given to some of the children advertising a book that he's written. Is it just me, or does this strike anyone else as a bit cheeky?

I was at a highest mark awards ceremony a few years ago where the examiner presenting the trophies took the opportunity to push his book at the audience. I thought it was a bit cheesy and desperate.

Not at all. What's the point of writing a book and not promoting it? As Shakespeare said, something to the effect of "only a fool and an idiot stage a play without an audience". I am in the process of writing a book myself and will be proud to promote it to anybody. Books are not written in 5 minutes and if they can be helpful to somebody then no opportunity should be wasted.

I think this is dreadful and would report them to the board. They are being paid by the board to examine, not to go on a nationwide tour promoting their book. It's totally unprofessional.

So when I am teaching piano am I not allowed to give out any of my own cards or leaflets to other people because they are not paying me? I have never heard of such nonsense. It is the only way to get business otherwise I would never get any new pupils. Why is it "unprofessional"? Presumably the examiner had aready done what he was paid to do, i.e. examine the pupils.

That's totally different, and I think you are being disingenuous if you say you can't see the difference. If you worked for a company you wouldn't expect to give details of a book you had written to their clients.

Private pupils are YOUR clients, therefore you have no obligations to act professionally on someone else's behalf, only on your own. The examiner is representing the board and therefore all their actions are a reflection on the board.

If you were handing out your cards to pupils in the waiting room at the exam centre I would think you were acting unprofessionally. Putting them through people's front doors would not.

Yes, I agree, it's not the same thing at all.

I think that this is an abuse of the examiner?s position of authority and would definitely have something to say about it to the Board.

Er ..... I do work for a company and I do give information about my two books (so far) to clients, with the full permission of my boss. He has even bought copies himself! As long as I do the work which I am paid to do, professionally and competently, I see no problem with that whatsoever. It is called free enterprise. I presume that any examiners who are doing the same, being employees of ABRSM, would have sought appropriate permission too. How do we know that the examiner in question did not have permission? Did anybody bother to ask? I agree with Andante that handing out cards to pupils in a waiting room is unprofessional although I have witnessed that happening on many occasions. Once I came back from an exam session with two of my pupils and had been given seven cards by different people!! They must have thought I was the children's dad!!

They should have their mind on the job, and not on selling their book.

Candidates might feel unduly pressurised to buy the book, or at least express some enthusiasm for it in the context of an exam where the outcome depends on the judgement of the examiner. Perhaps it might be acceptable for the examiner to leave some promotional materials in the waiting room (our local exam centre used to have cards from teachers and all sorts of other bits and pieces), but handing leaflets to candidates in an exam is unacceptable an inappropriate in my opinion.

I feel it's particularly inappropriate giving it to children.

I agree too.

I agree.

I suppose, as porilo suggests, the examiner may have had the Board's permission, though this seems unlikely to me. However, I have decided not to make a fuss about it - at least, not this time.

I agree with everyone who suggested this was unprofessional on the part of the examiner. I also think it shows little respect for ABRSM as I really couldn't see the board granting permission for leaflets to be handed out in the exam room. Placed in the waiting room would be acceptable.


Having recent experience of LCM and TG it was surprising that the Rep is actually at the exam centre. I wonder if this would deter examiner self promoting and poaching teachers. I think it might make the whole experience more professional.

But if no-one says anything, he/she will carry on doing it. Surely it is no big deal to send a quick email to the Board, not ?fussing? or complaining, but just querying if this sort of thing is regarded as acceptable. I would imagine the whole thing could be sorted in a few minutes with a few emails, and the problem is solved. Otherwise every candidate who crosses this examiner?s path is going to end up being given a flyer, and that, I think most of us are agreed, is not on!

I think that I would report the examiner to the Board.

Did you mean "not" actually at the centre? I have only been to the TG exams here once, since my exams have all been piano and the parents said they didn't particularly feel they needed me to be there. But the rep, whom I'd spoken to on the phone many times, as there the day I went, I went to every session in Liverpool for years, though, and the rep was there on almost every occasion.

Was your children's piano teacher at the exam centre? Does she know that the examiner gave the children the leaflet in the exam because she was actually there? I ask this because, I understand, piano teachers often do not go with their pupils to exams.




I don't see how candidates could feel pressurised to buy the book unless the examiner actually had a heap of them on his desk. Do we know for certain that the examiner handed leaflets to candidates in the exam? I'm not sure it's safe (or fair) to assume that.




Do we know with complete certainty that they weren't placed in the waiting room?

Muffinmonster (who was not at the exam centre) has his/her information from someone else (who may or may not have been at the exam centre) who is in possession of a leaflet that a child (not Muffinmonster's) brought back from the exam centre. Yet apparently we all know from the scant information provided exactly what happened, and the examiner is certainly guilty until proven innocent.

Yes, OK, it sounds unprofessional to me too BUT...

Notwithstanding all of the above, something untoward does seem to have occurred, and I do think someone should raise it with the Board. If they are happy, and the examiner is deemed to have behaved in a professional manner, then no problem.

I?m not saying that the candidates would have felt pressure to buy the book there and then, but the fact that it was recommended by an examiner who is seen to be an expert, makes the recommendation that bit more powerful. And I stand by my previous comments.

I'd be very surprised if the board would give permission for that kind of action. Not only is it not particularly savoury to hand leaflets to children in an exam situation - it could leave the examiner, and therefore the board open to all kinds of ethical questions.

In a situation where the examiner is the sole judge on the exam taken by the pupil, it wouldn't be wise to put yourself in the position of being accused of failing a pupil because they refused to take a leaflet promoting the examiners book.

It would only take one overly zealous music parent to make a fuss, if they thought their little prodigy had been failed because of it. Plenty of industries guard very heavily against this kind of thing, and as I'm sure most of the teachers that post here are aware, allegations, even if completely baseless in fact, can damage careers irretrievably.

These are fair points, Halka. I was at the exam centre; my DS's piano teacher was not. I spent half an hour or so in the waiting room and I didn't see any leaflets there. However, I'm not 100% certain that the leaflets were handed out in the exam room. My DS didn't receive one, which is why I am hesitant about making a complaint. However, our piano teacher may well do so, and I will check with her whether the leaflets were directly handed to the children or not (although I won't now see her until after the holidays).




I think that would be quite an extreme supposition, and I certainly don't think it was the case with this particular examiner.

He was quite a tough marker, though!

Oh, absolutely, it would be very harsh indeed - but not beyond the realms of possibility. It would be one of those 'World gone crazy' stories that come up every now and then. And they do come up, that's for sure!

No the AB reps are never at the centre and when I had to contact one about a flat Piano he rang me 3 weeks later as he was out of the country.......

Emotions run very high around exams, and nerves do very strange things to people. Any unexpected event, including a chance remark intended to put the candidate at their ease, in the case of one of my adult pupils, can be extremely off-putting. I dare say the examiner was only handing out the leaflets at the end of the exam as the candidates left, but it would be the examiner?s word against the student?s. Any conduct by the examiner that is out of the ordinary could definitely be latched onto by a determined complainant.

Dear all

We thank you for bringing this to our attention, and will be investigating further. Exam experience is an important issue for us, so if anyone has any doubts about the conduct of ABRSM staff members, stewards or examiners at an exam centre, you are welcome to contact us directly with your concerns.

Kind regards

Soprano

I don't see the problem with leaflets being left in a waiting room to be lifted if people want to look at them. I think this is quite different to handing leaflets to candidates personally in the exam room, and this should be clarified. If I tell my pupils' parents to buy a book or cd they do so without question, as they assume I have a good reason for asking them to. If an examiner handed a recommendation to a child to pass on to parents the response could be the same - it could be assumed that this was an important purchase rather than them taking on board that it was merely a suggestion made through advertising.

On the same sort of subject, it annoys me when leaflets come home from school, and it is unclear whether these are trying to sell goods or services directly provided by the school, or endorsed by the school, or whether it is simply somebody using the school to make contact with a potential market. Private maths tuition was advertised through my son's school recently, and it appeared at first that this was being strongly advised by the school. I sent the form back and the company rang me, and it was only after a lengthy sales phone call that I established that this was not something that the school deemed necessary and that only a small minority was taking it up. I think institutions like schools (and exam boards) should be very careful when advertising on behalf of others, and it should at least be made very clear what is directly endorsed by the organisation itself and what is simple marketing by outside bodies.