To appeal against my DD's Grade 3 piano result???

[Sticklebug]

Please tell me if IABU and just being a precious mum or should look to appeal (not even sure if I can).

My DD had her grade 3 piano exam a couple of weeks back. Her piano teacher predicted an easy distinction for her (134 and 138 in 2 mock exams - her teacher is also an examiner) and my DS's teacher who has heard her play agreed she should get a distinction. I could hear her playing in the exam from the waiting area and although I am completely unmusical it sounded exactly as it had at home and she made no mistakes.

She went in confident and came out beaming with the view that it had gone well. She knew that she had made a minor mistake in her B piece and she had to start one of her scales again, but apart from that she believed that she had done well. She got a merit in her grade 2 (4 points off a distinction but failed sight reading) and a distinction in her grade 1 and she felt that it went as well as her grade 1.

I have just received her results online (which, unfortunately I let her read with me as we had every confidence they would be good) and she has scrapped a pass with a score of 105. She cannot believe it - she tried so hard and played so well and her confidence is knocked completely. Her friend got exactly this score in her grade 2, but she knew she messed up completely and had to restart one piece twice and did not complete another.

She is so confused and now says that she wants to retake it but would be so nervous as she thought she had done so well.

She has always been so confident in exams that I do not want this to affect her.

We have not had the details yet as they come in the post a little later. Her teacher is 'gobsmacked' and will ring me tomorrow to discuss.

Is there any right of appeal?
Am I just feeling so awful because I hate to see my quiet, confident little girl so destroyed? Or should I look to take this further for her?

Just celebrate her pass and that her best on the day was good enough.

grade 3 is more of a step up from grade 2 than 1 is to 2 ifyswim. They're a lot more forgiving with grades 1 and 2 because these are just beginner grades. By the time you get to grade 3 there's more expected from you in terms of technical accuracy and musicality.

Sort out a lovely treat to celebrate her passing the exam and move onwards and upwards to the next level...

We've had ballet examiners who are allergic to giving out good marks and perfectly reasonable ones. It's life, but very hard when the candidates are so young.

The comments will hopefully solve the mystery. I think it is brilliant that she wants to take it again to achieve the mark she is confident she can get. That shows her confidence is still holding up, I'd be surprised if this breaks her stride for long, it may spur her to greater heights to "prove them wrong"!

I would try to get her to move very swiftly past it. After all, the exam was passed. Sometimes things happen that our outside our control and that we cannot explain - I think it would be better to aim for a good mark in grade 4, rather than get upset over grade 3, which you can now say is in the past.

Honestly, part of being a parent is teaching them how to handle results that are disappointing. It's part of life. Music is often difficult and frustrating and she needs to learn how to cope with this. If you're getting all hett up about this result and she sees it, then she won't learn how to cope and each exam will become more and more stressful until she doesn't want to play anymore.

Ok, am now feeling confident that I did the right thing which was to say that it was really good that she had passed and not get into conversations about how she felt that she had done really feel. I saved that for on here once DD was in bed . Will sort out a treat for tomorrow and move onwards.....

She has always done well in exams and this is an important lesson. Agree that best not to retake grade 3, although I admire her tenacity. We will focus on enjoying music and playing Christmas songs! She has not seen me heat up - I was clam and listened to her crying. To be fair she only cried and ranted for 10 minutes and then asked if we could play a game to take her mind of it and went to bed with a smile.

It was only when she was in bed that I had my precious mummy comment....

Probably the teacher knew she was borderline but didn't want to destroy her confidence.Her friend who got the same score may have done really well on the scales and sight reading.

Teachers should always be truthful and supportive. They should never build a student's expectations up and should always be realistic. You can never tell how an exam is going to go on the day. Even the most capable student can stumble.

Well, to be fair she doesn't sound anything like a "borderline" pupil! I don't know really OP. It does sound weird and will be interesting to see what her teacher makes of the result. I don't think you are being overly precious but on the other hand it might be better for all concerned if you continue to be positive with your dd about it and move on. Annoying though.

She passed, you should both be pleased.

Oh, poor her.

TBH, I'd be more concerned that the teacher built her up when perhaps she shouldn't have done.

The other thing - and I don't know about this personally as I am not musical - is that you can play something and hit every note, get the timing more or less right - and still it doesn't have the right sound to it. I mean, that is what tells apart a brilliant musician at a high level from someone who is just technically skilled. I don't know if it'd apply at grade 3, but maybe when she plays for the teacher she adds that special musicality, and didn't quite manage it in the exam?

Whatever the reason, I am sure she will be fine ... she passed, you cheered her up ... she deserves to feel good about passing TBH, it's an achievement.

Tell her I'm 41 and I'm taking my grade 2 viola next Thursday. That should give her some hope, she's better than me and I'm a heck of a lot older than she is

YABU. Playing pieces is only one part of the exam and you say yourself you don't know much about it. She could have cocked up the aural and oral and the sightreading. You weren't in the room - you didn't see the piece she was asked to play. The examiner gives nothing away. I have never heard of anyone asking for an appeal.

You cannot make your daughter brilliant at everything because you are determined she will be. Sorry.

DD is grade 6 now, but she messed up her grade 3 with aplomb, starting with weeing all over the floor when the evil old git of an examiner refused to let her go to the loo.

Many congrats to your daughter, she passed.

When she's grade 8 she will have forgotten all about this and lets face it who ever asks for your passmark?

Sounds like a talented kid. My sister went to AMEB Matric level and another friend was a concert pianist with the ABC in Tasmania - take the sheet music away and you might as well cut their hands off. That your daughter can play and read "the dots" as well as playing by ear is great! She'll discover boys in a few years, but then one day she'll pick up a keyboard cheap on eBay and have a lot of fun with the skills she's learning now. As Jimmy Page said - It doesn't matter what you play or how you play. What matters is that you play.

I'd agree that results based on one exam are so incredibly subjective - even though she's normally confident she may have been affected by nerves, or the examiner might have been of the "perfectionist" school. I got to grade 8 on piano and cello and remember having very variable marks that weren't always expected or agreed with. Ultimately you have to shrug and accept that examination by an individual is not a perfect system, and hope that the written comments give some insight into what this particular examiner was looking for.

Just picking up on a couple of comments you made (and probably managing 2+2=2,577 ), I wonder how much you daughter is relying on playing by ear rather than actually reading and interpreting the written music. It sounds like she's very skilled at picking up music by listening to it - which isn't a bad thing - as long as she's also developing skills to learn music by reading it. Her marks for sight-reading make me wonder a little whether her teacher is building those skills up enough, although sight-reading is something lots of people struggle with for a long time however hard they work, so may mean nothing at all. I'm not saying this is your daughter/teacher at all (as I say, picking up on a couple of comments and extrapolating wildly!), but I have heard from more than one source that there are a few too many teachers who skip over the theory and fundamentals of reading music with their beginner/novice students as you can make much more rapid progress that way. To a point. But then you hit a wall and can't progress until you've gone back and put in the basics, which is not so exciting as you seem to then make very little progress for as long as it takes.

Glad she cheered up before bed time, and I hope she carries on and thrives in music as it sounds like something she has a real passion for :)

your teacher probably scored her too high in the mocks by marking sight reading out of 30...sight reading is only worth 21 and aural 18 in the exams. There is no point in you putting in a complaint as you were not in the exam room, and unless there is a pattern of disputed results from the same test centre nothing will be done. As a piano teacher myself if a pupil admitted to making mistakes in the scales and errors in one of the pieces I would certainly not be expecting a distinction! Trinity exams have a lower allocation of marks on sight reading and you can actually opt not to do that in the exam but do musical knowledge instead(up to grade 5) It might be worth switching boards for future exams.

I wouldn't bother doing it again. Exams are expensive and they're not important in the grand scheme of things. No one will ask what she got in her grade 3 by the time she gets to grade 8. And if she wants to do anything with music, then grade 8 is the starting point. Passing exams is nice and good, but is only an indicator of a standard. There is a lot more to life than passing them - for example, expanding knowledge and repertoire and gaining all round musical experience. I'd use the time to learn more pieces, practice sight reading, really enjoy the music rather than just working to exams - and get her scales so good that she hardly has to think about them. That should stand her in good stead for whatever she wants to do in the future.

To quote Vin Deisel- "It doesn't matter if you win by an inch, or a mile. Winning's winning."

*Diesel ???? I don't bloody know.

I personally wouldn't agree with retaking the exam, what she should be concentrating on is starting her prep for the grade four with variety of different materials, and also putting more practice into her sight reading, good practice for sight reading is trying to read different examples of sheet music so to gain in confidence.
As for getting the lower score, different examiners look for different flair in a performance already from that age, so I am afraid it is not only mechanical playing so to speak, getting the notes right, but rather the whole performance and of course technic.
Do not let stress about it too much, it can be passion killer, but do have a word with her teacher and try to work out different strategies for improvement, technic wise, material for grade four can already be in places quite virtuous, so technic as well as very good ear and feel for the instrument is essential.
Eloborate scale practice in should kick in at this stage as well as Hannon exercises for fingering so to prepare her for more demanding pieces.
She sound as a hard working girl, she should be more then able to get into grips with more detailed practice, good luck.

Wait to see the detailed comments that come with the certificate.

I know she must be disappointed but it is best to take seriously the advice given in the examiner's comments and to move on. After 18 music exams taken by my DD I am sure that the examiner will have found much to comment on positively and the criticism will be constructive.

She passed and it's done. Congratulations, and good luck for grade 4. The best is yet to come.