Does anyone know what the current average mark for ABRSM theory exams is? Quite a few times we have mentioned the average practical mark on the forums but I don't remember ever reading the theory one. This term my students average mark for theory was 92. Yaaaaaay!! I'm so pleased.

92 must be a popular result!! 2 years ago, every single one of my students scored 92 and this was ranging from grade 1 to grade 5. Also read somewhere else on this forum the other day that someone received 92 for their theory exam.

Well done though, most pupils certainly couldn't achieve that standard without a good teacher behind them

It doesn't give actual average marks but the statistics for theory fail/pass/distinction is here:
http://www.abrsm.org/?page=press/factfile/theoryStats.html

From those stats, it seems that lots of people don't take any theory exams until they get to grade 5! The amount of candidates for grade 5 way out-strips all the others and accounts for almost half of the total entries!

I haven't started yet, but I plan on taking theory exams every so often. Perhaps every other grade or so. Maybe 1, 3, 5 and then see if I want to carry on.

Just can't WAIT to start music lessons.

Elisabeth

As a teacher I've never entered a candidate for anything before Grade 5. I have asked pupils to work past papers with the appropriate time limit and I have then marked them. I wouldn't feel justified in asking them (or their parents!) to pay exam fees for the earlier grades.

Mine take all the theory exams up to Grade 5 - then they have the option of continuing with the syllabus and taking the higher exams (very few want to do this, and I don't actually mind, because I've found that going over and marking the work set takes a sizeable chunk of the lesson once you get on to Grades 6 - 8, and I'd rather be doing other things with them!)

For my candidates, the average mark in theory exams is probably in the low 90s - though I haven't checked; I just know that there's the occasional lower mark from the ones who don't find it so easy, and a fair number of mid-high 90s too. I would imagine that this is fairly representative.

Thanks for your replies! Most of my students insist on doing all the theory exams up to grade 5 and then they have a choice so most of them opt not to continue. I don't stop them if they want to do the exams but I like them to do at least one exam before grade 5 (normally grade 4) as a mock.

Most of my students do the theory exams if they want to. But most of them want to do them anyway. Yes, last years' results were really good. All merits and distinctions. Not bad, since all my student's mother tongue isn't English. This year... well.. you know about the student working shifts and stuff and not doing much revision.. so my lowest was 66 and the highest was 96.

That is a huge problem with the higher grade theory. They take up a lot of time. Just to do one question or mark. If my students want to do them, then all I can do is to mark them OUT of class. We normally have two books. So that they can bring home some work while I mark one on the spot so that they won't make the same mistakes again and bring home the rest to mark.

Grades 6 and above do take a lot of time and for any of my students who want to do it, we extend the weekly lesson by 15 minutes. There simply isn't time when they are doing grade 6 practical or above.

When I did grades 6 - 8 theory it wasn't with my piano teacher.
I had half hour or hour long lessons just on theory.