I have recently started teaching and so have no experience of how long it would take an ''average pupil'' to prepare for a grade (apart from my own experiences and that was a long time ago). I currently have two pupils both working towards Grade 4 - they came to me in February and therefore have had two months learning the Grade 4 pieces and scales. I'm unsure whether to enter them for an exam this summer (June/July) or whether to wait for the autumn (November). Can anyone give me an idea of some average preparation times? I know it will vary depending on the individual student but I just wanted to ask around for some typical timescales. Both students have made good progress so far, but I'm not sure whether another 3 months will be enough time. If they do take the exam in the summer they would have had 5 months preparation. As these are the first students I will have entered I am keen for them to do well (for there sakes and mine!). Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi there,

The amount of time that your students have had to prepare for exams is really not the issue here. Some students will learn a lot quicker than others, as you know. I usually give my students exam material for a specific grade when they are at a stage where I know they will be able to learn the music fairly quickly - it's not a good thing in my opinion to play exam pieces for months and months and make slow progress.

When I am thinking about entering students for exam I make sure that their pieces are all at a reasonable standard and that they know all their scales and understand the aural etc. In other words, they have to be ready for an exam before i'll enter them, and I make that very clear to them too! If the bulk of your students work for the exam is done, and they are making good progress all the time then I would say go ahead and put them in. If progress is slow and you're not 100% certain that they'll pass, or get a good mark, then why not work on other things as well and then put them in at the end of the year.

Hope this is helpful

I think I would be inclined to wait until november if I had only been teaching the pupils for a few months.

Hi Karen
I agree with Cath. Make sure they are close to being ready before you enter them. A lot too depends on what level they were before you took them on - presumably they were not beginners ?? ! Have they taken exams before? if not, they have much less idea of what is involved.

One other small point - two months is quite a short time (in my book) to get to know a new student and his or her working style. If I were in your position, I would still be building up a picture of their overall weaknesses and strengths.

If they are progressing brilliantly, and if they can play the pieces, scales etc, and you have established that their ear-tests and sight-reading are well up to the grade, then go ahead. But if any of these raises a question mark in your mind, I would recommend exercising a little caution. You can always give them lots of other pieces to play if you decide that autumn would be better to take grade 4. It's not a race after all!

Good luck with your teaching
Maggie

Thanks very much for your advice. I think I'll suggest that my students wait until the autumn as I was starting to feel a little pressured. I'd rather have more time, than too little and as Maggie pointed out I can always introduce some new pieces.

Have to say, this forum is really valuable for someone like myself. I'm due to start the cert ABRSM n October and so acquired some students for that purpose - but I've already got a million and one questions so I'm planning on using this forum until then (and probably after as well).

Many thanks KAREN

I agree with Maggie absolutely.

The closing date for applications is the end of April this year and the first exams are any time from 14th June. That's not very long given that there are May Bank Holidays in between, which inevitably often eat into practise time, especially if the pupils go away for a few days.

I would err on the side of caution. You'll feel much more confident about them going into an exam situation by the autumn....and so will they probably! 2-3 months doesn't seem very long for them to be able to have consolidated all that grade 4 requires. Do you know if they have taken exams before?
What instrument are they playing - I'm assuming it's piano?

Good Luck!