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?

Sticklebug, I have just found this thread after googling abrsm appeals. My dd has also just received a mark lower than expected. Funnily enough we are also in Surrey and the examiner was a lady (slightly older I seem to remember) - I wonder if it is the same one? DD's teacher is also considering appealing, although dd is keen to retake her exam in any case.

You are not being precious, ABRSM exams can be harsh and mechanical, and very discouraging...

Sticklebug - I was wondering if your dd's teacher won the appeal. Or has it not been confirmed yet?

We've had 5 children through at least 2 subjects each most up to grade 8 over 20 years and sometimes you do get an examiner who is meaner than others. Our view has generlaly been just to let it go and move on to the next exam. One of ours didn't pass one this year. I just put him in again. His twin passed, same pieces, say day same examiner and I would have yes the one who passed was better but better enough to get a good mark and the other a pass but in stead the better one just got a bit over the pass mark and the other failed. It didn't really matter as he passed the next term - this was a grade 7. If it's lower grade as yours I'd just go on to grade 4 and forget the grade 3 result.

Exams are a pain in the backside, especially music exams.

Accept the pass mark and move on, use it as a tool to motivate your daughter to do better. I'm sorry to hear it's knocked her confidence though, that is upsetting for any parent to see.

The teacher has compiled the comments from all those who did not do as well as expected and, with another teacher whose pupil had a similar experience with the same examiner, has written to ABRSM with a suggestion to check the marks of this examiner. She has also sent a recording of DD playing.

There was no point in a formal appeal - DD passed and we will move on. Even if you win an appeal the best outcome is that they re-sit for free.

Lebkuchenfan - I did not see the examiner and my DD is unreliable on age so really have no idea on age of examiner!! She was in Woking in mid December.

DD has loads of general music to play and regularly dips into 'Les Mis' and 'Adele' to sight read pieces.

Just putting it all down to experience.

She is currently saying that she wants to stop with exams for a while (teacher not too happy as she thinks best to crack on with grade 4), but we will see how it goes....no pressure from me!!

Hi Sticklebug, I'm in exactly the same position as you last year. My DD, age 10, just took her Grade 3 and came back with 109. Was expecting a merit too. We were lost as she has worked so much this time round compared to Grade 2. So it's not worth complaining as she would only resit it. I just feel so bad for her as she is naturally a good reader and never had a problem with aurals, and the worse she said was that she was asked to do scales that were HT instead of individually that was what made her " hesitate" as they wrote in her scales. As you say too, it does put them off the next grades. Sorry, so I was wondering have you heard anything from ABRSM? Is it worth me appealing?

havent read the whole thread, but i rembember getting a really bad grade in violin in grade 5, once (deservedly so as i didnt really practise). however, this was on a musical grammar school, where the first foreign language was latin and one had to major in an instrument. up until then i thought of myself as musical, and had a great time at the school, but after that i was convinced that it was all for nought and got my parents to transfer me to a technical grammar school what was i thinking. fast forward a few years i fell into the wrong crowd (my best mate to this day;), got kicked off and had to do an extra lap through vocational a levels to get to uni. result: im decidedly less posh today than i could have been, AND i dont play the violine. one bad grade! fuck my life.

sooooo YANBU if you want your kid to be posh, this stuff has wings ala butterfly effect....

At uni I was told my dissertation would definitely get a 1st, and it got a 2:2. Sometimes these things happen. Hopefully she will have a better experience taking her grade 4.

I would agree with other posters, just move on to grade 4. I failed grade 6 then passed grade 7 with a good merit only about 6 months later.

I know this thread is a year old, but I wonder what happened in the end.

Ha ha ha this is a very rediculos thread!

Why the fuck would you appeal against a grade THREE which she passed anyway????

Grade 8 you might have a point. But grade 3? Madness.

Move on, chalk it up to sometimes exams don't go as you think, and start working on grade 4.

Oh zombie thread. Oops

Complete waste of time appealing. Big lack of consistency in examining. Always recommend that the children are rewarded for the work they put in for the exam, not the result, as, after thirty years as a music teacher, I am still surprised by results- good and bad.

Yeah, km, I think probably THREE YEARS ON the OP has actually figured out whether she wants to appeal or not!

Yep, would def be a waste of time appealing now, don't do it op!

Personally, I wouldn't make a huge deal out if it. Congratulate her on passing and celebrate that but appealing etc might tarnish the pass for her. At 10, she is quite young to be so hung up on scores and grades.
I took violin lessons for a few years as a child but moved to an instructor who didn't believe in exams and taught me how to play chart music etc which I loved. Just try to encourage her love of the instrument rather than the competitive side of the exams

Hi @Sticklebug
I just came accross your post from quite some time ago :) I was wondering what you did in the end about that result. I hope your daughter is still playing today.

Fhs!! Why resurrect such an ancient thread, I'd got quite invested until I saw it was 2011! Little girl in question is probably married with kids by now......

It's a good life lesson. Music examiners vary in what they look for and your teacher was completely out of order in predicting a grade of Ny kind.

It's a shame, it sounds like the examiner was really harsh... but life isn't fair and it's important for your daughter to build up resilience.

For what it's worth, something similar happened to ke at ecsctly the same stage and I just sat two grades together next time round, gaining a higher mark in the higher grade.

You'd be better off starting your own thread instead of resurrecting old ones, the poster might not even on here any more.

Apologies for responding to this ghost thread - I tried to delete the post but it was too late.