I am just bringing this up because one of my Grade 4 candidates yesterday (an adult) swears that in the aural tests the examiner gave her a pitching test (4B) that required her to sing a fourth below the tonic. I think he gave her a Grade 5 one, but my candidate didn't say anything to querie it, and just had a go anyway. Apparently she got two of the notes wrong (he played thwm for her). I am guessing there is not much we can do about this now.

Of course I realise all examiners are human and prone to mistakes, but what, if any, are your experiences with this kind of thing?

Well, it's a tricky one, because it hinges on your student's account. I'm not doubting it for one minute - but the board might feel it's open to uncertainty. However, I think I would certainly let them know, especially as it is as adult.

I had a grade 2 candidate swear to me last year that he'd been given a sight-reading which had something he'd not been expecting. He thought he'd been given a grade 3 test. I don't remember the detail, but I've sometimes wondered if I should have queried it. I actually didn't feel they would believe an 8 year old's version of events.

With regard to the grade 4 / 5 singing test, I have sometimes almost done the same with my current grade 4 adult - because the student's version of the test has 4 on one side and 5 on the other. if the examiner has a similar single sheet it would in fact be all too easy to make that slip.

I don't think you're right here. Surely everyone knows that ABRSM examiners are flawless automata who, as such, are not subject to human error. No?

Yes! Daughter got the wrong sight reading in a recorder exam, the opposite recorder to the one she was playing on.. She did tell me as soon as she came out of the exam and we raised it with the steward. The examiner came and spoke to us and said it wouldn't make a difference to the result. Luckily she knew the higher notes that were required because fio the mistake. The comments on the mark sheet weren't changed in light of the mistake and were connected to it (can't remember them exactly as it's a while ago).

At her Practical Musicianship exam the examiner was in a big rush. She swears the spot the differences were impossible as she didn't know which were meant to be differences and which errors. The whole exam was conducted in 12 minutes from walking out of the waiting room to arriving back.......

There's not much you can do when there is no evidence to support the situation.

Sorry, my bad.

One candidate this session got asked incorrect scales, and he questioned it, and this was with a rather senior examiner/trainer/moderator.

This happened another time, too, with two sisters doing G6 violin and viola respectively. The latter was asked the violin scales transposed down a fifth, and bluffed/hacked her way through several before querying if they were the correct ones!

I've written about this in another thread...

TG Initial grade, a very bright seven-year-old girl who had opted to do general musical knowledge rather than aural, plus sight-reading.

She came out of the exam and said she hadn't been asked for any sight-reading, but that she had been asked all kinds of things in the knowledge, including singing back the last note of a tune and clapping the rhythm. "So I did the aural test" - which was something we hadn't rehearsed over the past few weeks.

I wondered whether I had written the cover sheet wrong, so the steward went in to speak to the examiner who said she had done knowledge and sight-reading. This was only about 10 minutes after she had come out! The stewards said there was not much more that we could do if that was what the examiner confirmed, and that possibly the child had got it wrong. Now I have no way at ther moment of knowing if in fact this slightly precocious child is also a liar for effect, but I don't think I shouold jump to such a conclusion, especially as she described the tests. Steward said it wouldn't be worth the fuss of a complaint as (added in an undertone) the mark was excellent, whatever it was given for; I think this examiner was just covering her back

A viola candidate I taught for a while was given the wrong sight-reading - in two consecutive exams! The test given was for another instrument entirely, and it's not easy to mistake the viola clef. The student looked a bit disconcerted, and the examiner asked if anything was wrong, realised the mistake, and corrected it.

In another Grade 1 traditional fiddle exam (so not AB) my candidate was asked for a slurred arpeggio, which is not on the syllabus. On the marks breakdown sheet the examiner had written that the slurred arpeggio wasn't right, and I took it up with the exam board. They admitted that a mistake had been made, but didn't offer to alter the mark, and I didn't make a fuss as the candidate had a distinction anyway.

I guess examiners are human - but some are more human than others!

In the Session A exams this year, one of my very earnest, reliable, 11yo boys came out of his g3 clarinet exam and said that he had been asked to play a chromatic on D (it should be chromatic on C). I suspect that he misheard the examiner (an extremely quietly spoken trainee) and he said he played the one he knew it should be anyway. The exam was held in a large church hall.

I emailed the Board straight after and asked them to ensure that examiners speak loudly and clearly. They did reply and said they would bear it in mind.

I had two candidates for grade 1 two weeks ago. The first was asked for a scale not on the grade 1 syllabus(unless he misheard) and the other one said the examiners mobile phone rang during one of her pieces. The examiner apologized afterwards, but my pupil just carried on playing anyway.

One of my Grade 2 recorder pupils was once given a Grade 1 sightreading - she noticed but didn't tell the examiner, and then was really miffed when she got a low mark

Years ago I challenged an examiner in my Grade 5 trumpet exam because I thought I was asked a scale that wasn't on the syllabus. Unfortunately he was right and I was wrong

The thing that really annoys me is when examiners change the order of items within an exam. My pupils spend some time deciding what order they want to take the exam in, and examiners should respect that. I always print out a nice clear sheet for each candidate expressing their wishes in big print - sometimes it is ignored and sometimes the examiner is quite explicet in deliberately changing the order around. Grrrr.

I did have the examiner in my G6 ask me for the G flat minor scale - the syllabus actually has written in it "G#/Ab". So I said "G sharp?" and the examiner replied "Yes" as if I was deaf and/or stupid. I should have just played what I knew she was asking for rather than querying (still, I got 9/10 for scales so it can't have been a problem; the lost mark was not for querying G#/Ab, but rather for my playing of it. I included aspects of both melodic and harmonic minors )

When I did my G5, the (young) candidate before me came out and said to our teacher that he'd had to do sight-reading rather than improvisation. It turned out that teacher had accidentally ticked the wrong box on the form. There was a brief consultation with the examiner. The candidate was given the option of doing his improv, but decided not to when told that it wasn't going to affect the overall outcome. The examiner also said that in the future he shouldn't be scared to speak up or correct the examiner if anything wasn't right or as expected. I know good teachers tell their students over and over again that they should do this, but it is different when you are a child faced with The Examiner (who is scary and thus deserves Capital Letters!)

Can your student remember if 4B or 5B was at the top of the page?

I heard, threw the door, one of my G2 candidates playing an arpeggio hands together.

I'd been listening because I wasn't sure that the G1 candidates had been asked the right scales/chords either.

Can't say for certain re the G1 (the kids were a bit confused too) but the G2 was confirmed because there'd been a translator in the room (an experienced piano player) and she said, yes, the examiner had asked for hands together (which my lad had played fine, luckily).

So when the G3 boy went in I told both him and the translator that the only arpeggios hands together were A major and G minor and NO others.

Sure enough, a few minutes in, I heard one arpeggio and then talking - pause - rustling of paper - more talking.
And, yes, he;d been asked for the wrong one hands together - and had confidently but politely pointed it out.

Actually, I had lots of other issues with this examiner but, leaving that aside, I have no sympathy for asking the wrong scales/aural requirements whatever.
It is not rocket science, it;s the bread-and butter of their job, the aural requirements are the same for all instruments, low grade piano exams must account for a big block of their time - how difficult is it to ask the right three or four scales or aural tests or pick up the right sight-reading tests ????

I have to agree with you when it's common instruments and low grades. However, there's exceptions: take a look at the Grade 8 tuba syllabus and tell me how quickly you could pick out a suitable selection for a candidate for, say, E flat bass clef?...

And you were so incensed that you threw the door??
Sorry - couldn't resist!!

I was given a grade 5 singing sheet for my grade 4. At the third note I sang, she played a piano note. I said "why did you play a note?" "You made a mistake" she said. "No I didn't", I replied, and showed her my sheet, as I knew I'd sung the correct note. Then we both realised I had been given the wrong sheet. She apologised and looked a little embarrassed, and we started the element again with the correct sheet.

If that had happened to one of my kids they would not have had the confidence to question it.

My teacher thinks it's hilarious that I corrected the examiner!
They are only human, and usually do a great job. I'm sure she won't make that mistake again!

The examiner for my Grade 8 singing nearly missed out the cadence and cadential progression questions from my aural. I sang back the bass line and then he went to give me the sight singing test. I said, 'I hate to say this, but I think you've forgotten to give me the cadential progression!'. Luckily I did get the chords correct. I bet some of my pupils would have breathed a sigh of relief and not said anything.

When I did ALCM way back in 1963, I had prepared a whole Beethoven Sonata as required, indeed from memory. The examiner stopped me after just the exposition and development sections of the first movement. I thought he was then going to ask for the next movement (cos the recapitualtion wasnt much different from the exposition), but then he asked for the 'C' Piece. Anyway he gave me 17/20, and I passed the exam overall so no reason to complain.

A violinist I know got given a viola sight reading in grade 5 violin... and neither the candidate or examiner noticed until after the exam

TG Grade 3 piano candidate was given the improv stimulus for Bflat intruments - ie in keys in which he had never practised his improvs, and the scales for which were not even in the technical work for the grade. We queried it and got a whole 2 marks added to the total which was rather a pyhrric victory as it took him just a mark off a distinction I seem to remember!

I got given grade 5 scales for my Trinity grade 4 clarinet. I initially attempted the first scale, before saying that I hadn't learnt that one! He realised his mistake and I ended up with full marks in that section!

In one of my son's exams (TG) the examiner forgot to take the sight reading book back, and at the end on the exam son gathered his things up and walked out, complete with sight reading book. We had a phone call from the teacher that night to say the steward was looking for the book and did we have it? I wonder how the examiner got through the rest of the day without the sight reading book.

Whoops ! Yep, that's right - I threw the door right across the room, smashing into 'nasty examiner's' antique desk . . .

And well done to katemorrisviolin for correcting the examiner - my son, age 11, went back into the exam room, at the gap before the next entrant, to inform the examiner that he'd been asked a B scale which he said he didn't know, and having checked in the book, he wasn;t expected to know.
Turns out the examiner had asked for 'D' - both had a laugh about needing to talk clearer and listen better . . .

Hands up anyone who never makes a mistake in their "day job"?

Examiners are human beings too so, presumably, are just as prone as we can be to making the occasional mistake. It's happened to some of my own candidates entered for exams from time to time.

FWIW, I always tell my students to check carefully what they are being given to do (and know which scales they are/aren't supposed to know) and then, very politely, query it in the exam at the time if it seems wrong. When I give them "mock" exams, I often slip in a deliberate error to see what they do. Interesting how many don't seem to notice and go on and complete the requested scale etc.

When I ask them later what I did wrong, they often haven't a clue or pick on completely the wrong thing!

Definitely stealing that idea!

Inspired! I will be trying that one too.