Delay in Piano exam results - any advice!!

[Swarski]

My DD did her grade 3 piano exam on 30th Nov and we were told by her teacher that the results would be through within 2 weeks. On Monday, when she had her lesson, her teacher asked whether she had her result yet. She is now really worried as she thinks that she really messed up her sight reading
DOes anyone know if there is any link between how quickly the results come through and how well they have done? I think that the last ones came through in about 10 days and she got a distinction......

[pinguwings]

No link, it can take up to 6 weeks I think, which is very cruel for your poor DD. Good luck to her though, I'm sure she did fine, sight reading doesn't account for much of the mark at all.

[Swarski]

They have just come through as I was typing! She got a merit, although narrowly missed failing the whole thing as she only got the minimum mark for the sight reading and I think they have to pass each element to pass overall. But she did brilliantly on the other areas, including a 30/ 30 on one of her pieces!
V proud of her.

[caffeineaddict]

well done. Sight reading is the work of the devil!

[santadefiesgravity]

NO delay, maybe snow has held the results up. Which exam board is it?

[snurrk]

well done to her! You don't have to pass all sections to pass overall btw. With ABRSM results usually take around two weeks, but occasionally they send the whole batch for moderation (where they compare marks awarded with comments given) and then it takes considerably longer but you can't read anything into the delay at all, you can still have done well or badly.

[Lancelottie]

I was just going to say that in our unfortunately broad experience, you can fail sightreading AND scales and still squeak through, year after year....

[caffeineaddict]

And in our equally unfortunately broad experience you can withdraw from the examn before failing sightreading, scales and the sodding pieces...

[Swarski]

Have looked again at the marks and she did fail the sightreading! She got 12 out of 21 and it says that the minimum mark is 14.... She got 125 overall so a merit, but am now confused as had told her that she would fail the whole thing if she failed one element...

She did get 28/30 for 2 of her 3 pieces though, so proud but confused!

Any piano examiners out there who could explain?

[santadefiesgravity]

Which exam board is it? ABRSM, Trinity Guildhall, LCM?

[Swarski]

It was ABRSM. Have looked on their website and I cannot find where it says that you have to pass each section, but her piano teacher definitely said you failed if you failed any single element.....

[snorkie]

No you don't have to pass all sections (unless they've changed things very recently) - ds used to fail scales sometimes due to refusing to practice them, but always passed overall. If you have the results sheet though, you should also have the certificate too?

[Swarski]

Yes we have the certificate which definitely says a merit, so am now thinking that the piano teacher was saying about failing whole thing if you fail one element to get her to practice her scales and sight reading!!

[bramblebooks]

Agree, you don't have to pass each element. If you want, you can look at the exam regulations and the syllabus on the abrsm website to clarify matters.

Congratulations!

I would recommend the abrsm publications 'joining the dots' and also one on sight-reading to help her to pick up skills.

[snorkie]

Congrats to her! Yes I suspect the piano teacher may have been telling porkies in order to get her to practice more (the more worrying explanation is that he/she doesn't actually know him/herself). Unfortunately that ruse, if ruse it was, won't work next time. But it is always a good idea to work on the weaker areas, both to squeeze out extra marks in the exams and, more importantly to develop good all-round musicianship. Sight reading is something that can be improved with practice, but with piano it is something that you have to work at alone - with other instruments joining ensembles is a good way forward.

One publication that the ABRSM publish that might be good to look at before the next exam is: These Music Exams. It explains what the examiners are looking for and how the marking is done.

[Swarski]

We had the 'joining the dots' book, but forgot to do it this time round! She is doing it now over the holidays before she starts on the next grade.

Think that the problem with the sight reading is that she is very good at playing 'by ear' so after 2 lessons on a piece she plays it fluently without looking at the music....

She also plays the clarinet and is about to join the school orchestra so maybe this will also help with the sight reading? Although I think for the clarinet she needs to 'transpose' (not entirely sure what that means!)so not sure will help with the piano.

[confidence]

I am a piano teacher and do consultancy work for the ABRSM. I have certainly never heard of any rule that you have to pass every section to pass overall, so I really don't think there's anything in that.

These days teachers can log in online to get results (but only the marks for each section, not the comments) before they are posted out. If your daughter's teacher is not aware of this, perhaps you should tell him/her.

As it happens, my son also did his grade 3 around the same time. As I hadn't heard after three weeks, which was unusual, I logged in and there was a big notice saying sending results out had been delayed because of the snow! I think they were all over the place because many kids had not been able to get to exams and they'd had to rearrange a lot.

Anyway, as it happens he also got a merit!

Sight reading is almost always a massive pain in the butt, for PIANO SPECIFICALLY. This is because you have to read two lines of music at once, which involves a whole layer of cognitive difficulty beyond reading a single line. Most students in the early grades struggle terribly with it. My personal opinion is that many take grade 1 much too early, and they need far, far more experience reading single line music before trying to read both hands at once. Reasonably talented kids learning single line instruments often hardly have to put any work into it, but on the piano even they invariably do.

Your daughter will probably find sight reading on the clarinet incredibly easy by comparison. She will still have to address the difficulties on the piano though, and if she doesn't do so soon she risks never being able to, because her ear will just take over everything.

My son got 18/21 for sight reading, but only because after failing it at grade 2, I sat him down and did virtually nothing else for six months!

Which some might call child abuse...

[Swarski]

My DD got 20/21 for her grade 1 piano, so maybe we were a bit lax about pushing the grade 2 sight reading as she had done so well. It feels a bit luck based though as she had been told to keep going if she made a mistake and she did, even though she started on the wrong note! She is now working through the join the dots books and will focus on this with her teacher before she starts on teh next grade...