Hi everyone!
I'm a newbie to this I just got back my grade 8 violin results and I failed by one mark, and I was really upset because this year I worked really hard!Also I was just kinda shocked because on the day of my exam my examiner was just so nice and I came out of my exam all smiles....yet I failed!My teacher said that this year a huge amount of students failed, just wondering wether anyone else felt hard done by??

That's really tough.

From my lowly grade VI perspective, hat off to you for trying, though!

I suppose the mark you get doesn't alter the player you are - it merely gives you some information, together with the comment sheet, which you didn't have before. So if you were happy with yourself yesterday, you're still the same person today, but with new horizons (or mountains!) to look out on!

I understand that many musical countries, including Germany, don't have grade exams at all. Try not to be discouraged from your enjoyment of music, which is so vastly wider than a mark on a piece of paper.

I'm sure when you do eventually get your grade VIII your achievement will seem all the sweeter. Plus instead of the crowning glory of your years of work being 100/150 "the end", you can have a crack at improving here and there getting a rather more comfortable mark.

Anyway you'll soon be able to drown your sorrows with fellow violinists in the "forums cafe" - do stick around!

well i learn with a good teacher who entered 4 of us to do grade 8 last term and we were all examined by the same examiner- i know the other 3 and have heard them play several times and theyre all very good but 2 of them failed! i have no idea why though because i did fine and i dont think im any better than them.

but as one of them said, its a pity she didnt pass, but she did her best and can continue to enjoy playing, and i hope this is the case for you too - it isnt all about exams!

QUOTE (unhappy grade 8 @ May 25 2005, 05:11 PM)

Hi I just got back my grade 8 violin results and I failed by one mark.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you couldn't fail by one mark. You had to fail with 98 or pass with 100, just like you can't get 119 or 129.

hey yeah I know I got 98 but thats the same as failing by one mark!Im still not a happy camper though

QUOTE (Appassionata @ May 26 2005, 07:32 PM)

QUOTE (unhappy grade 8 @ May 25 2005, 05:11 PM) Hi I just got back my grade 8 violin results and I failed by one mark. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you couldn't fail by one mark. You had to fail with 98 or pass with 100, just like you can't get 119 or 129.

Thats what I always thought too. The same in theory exams - you would never get 65. 79, or 89.

How come you can't fail by one mark? I'm intrigued as I'm not used to the AB marking system.

[quote=Appassionata,May 26 2005, 07:32 PM] Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you couldn't fail by one mark. You had to fail with 98 or pass with 100, just like you can't get 119 or 129. [/quote]
Thats what I always thought too. The same in theory exams - you would never get 65. 79, or 89.

[/quote]
you CAN get 65, 79, and 89. With practical exams, most examiners don't give 99, 119, or 129, they add or minus one mark somewhere.

Surely it is like this ( but I do not know!):

If the sum total of the component parts of the exam come to 98 then they will keep it at 98.

If the total comes to 99 then they will try their best to find an extra mark to give you 100 and therefore a pass, only if they are overall satisfied that you you have met the grade criteria. It would seem that in this case they were unsure in a number of departments that the overall performance merited a pass.

I think that if the total came to 99, then normally they would just give or take 1 mark on the general feel of the exam performance, and would probably do this in the marks for one of the pieces. So if they didn't feel you were quite up to pass standard then they would give you 98.
Also, I have often found that the "smiley" examiners are the harshest markers, watch out for them!!

I have found this as well - the examiners who seem the nicest give me the lowest marks, and most critical comments! strange.

I totally agree with that. I did a piano exam & a flute exam in the same session - different examiners. The piano one was really quite un-nerving because he was so distant but I got a distinction. The flute one was very pleasant & chatty & yet i seemed to lose marks where even being a very self critical sort of person I couldn't understand it.

When my teacher entered me for my grade 5 (last session i think or it might have been the one before it) the examiner marked very very harsly, not just with my teachers pupils but with everyone he had on the fist day. including 2 flautists who were well above grade 8 standard and had achived distinctions in every exam. HE FAILED THEM! I think he must have just been having an off day or something because he was fine with everyone else

The nicest examiner I ever had, which was for an LRSM in school music, in the days when they had that exam, failed me on EVERY SINGLE section.

All the boards say that examiners all mark to the same standard but I don't believe a word of it. I have failed exams I deserved to pass and passed exams I deserved to fail, and there have been so many anecdotal examples of this that I have heard that I am sure it is common.

Liz

Hi everyone!
I'm a newbie to this I just got back my grade 8 violin results and I failed by one mark, and I was really upset because this year I worked really hard!Also I was just kinda shocked because on the day of my exam my examiner was just so nice and I came out of my exam all smiles....yet I failed!My teacher said that this year a huge amount of students failed, just wondering wether anyone else felt hard done by??

I think if the total comes to 99, following the rule 'the examiners WANTS you to pass', you will most likely get 100.

Not ALL examiners "wants" you to pass. If you really played badly but your total adds up to 99, they will fail you. I agree that the examiners never ever mark at the same standard. They should have like 2 examiners marking you so that they will have 2 opinions just in case someone is having a bad or happy day or whatever.
Once I had this examiner who was playing the aurul part thing and I was looking at her play, n she was like putting lots of bitterness in the piece though her facial expression and I thought "oh...no"....true enough, when the results came out, my I lost count how many failed(but I passed )

It probably would follow that if an examiner is listening to a string of poor performances they are in a bad mood; therefore the bad mood might have been caused by all of the people failing and not the other way around!

I hated my examiner. he smiled and everything and looked like he was gonna pass me but he failed me by 18 marks!
I didn't even play dat badly!
Three days before my grade 7 exam, I had to perform one of my pieces for my music GCSE and my music teacher gave me 27, but my examiner gave me 17 for dat very same piece, and u'd think I would have done better since I did my exam after myu music exam. I know wat u'll probably thinking 'da standard for GCSE music is lower den for grade 7 piano exams' but there was no way he could have failed me by 10 WHOLE MARKS! I mean dats taking taht to da extreme. I was well prepared compared to my grade 6 and 5 exams but I passed dem. Also, I know I messed up my aurals but my examiner didn't even give me another chance!
I knew dis examiner was being ahrd becasue he failed my little sister by 4 marks and she's only a grade 2! She was better prepared den me when i was a grade 3 and I got a merit for dat.
I'm sorry, but some examiners are just too mean! I'm not annoyed dat I fialed becasue Iw ould ahev failed myslef, but it was da fact that I failed by so much and da fact that I think I would ahev passed if i had my grade 5 or 6 examiner!

My grade 4 flute examiner was mean and very distant, I knew I would have failed; lo and behold, I did. With 98 marks. I know exactly how you feel! It's really upsetting isn't it, I think I was crying for about an hour .

My sister passed her grade 4 piano with 100 marks, does that mean she might have failed with 99, but the examiner didnt want her to so he passed her with 100? O dear!

It means that he felt on the day that she did well enough to pass. If the marks add up to 99 the examiner will consider whether or not he/she feels that you deserve to pass: if he/she decides that you deserve to pass you'll be given 100 if not then 98. It will be a very carefully considered decision, not a mathematical fluke. On the other hand if you get arithmetically 98 or 100 they will make the same consideration to be certain you're in the right category. I'd bet they arrive at an category before they even add up the marks then make sure the marks fit into that. By giving 100 the examiner is probably saying you passed but beware only just make sure you work hard in the future!

The standard for GCSE music really is that much lower than grade 7: I played recorder and piano for GCSE music and got around 26 or 27 but wouldn't have stood a chance in a grade 7 exam: the way they mark GCSE music is that the performance is recognisable; grade 7 is marked based on musicality and techinque, not always apparent to the non discering listener.