RAD grade 5 ballet exam any tips?

[nickstmoritz]

My DD is taking her grade 5 exam in June. She always just misses out on a distinction and is desperate to get one. I never did ballet so I am not really able to help. Can anyone more knowledgeable give me some tips to help. I think last time she lost some marks for character and they don't seem to do much of that at her class. Any general tips gratefully received. DD is 12 btw

More practice/more lessons?

DD's ballet teacher was telling me that in the recent lot of exams she did, those who just had one lesson a week had all got passes and those who did two lessons had got merits and distinctions, and that as my daughter had got such a high merit on just one lesson a week, and no practise at all, it boded well for her.

Now of course, statistics can lie, and those who took two lessons a week may just have been more interested in ballet, and prioritised it and were therefore better as a result of that.

But I do think that like practising a musical instrument, the more the better really.

I think you are probably right. They will have a few extra exam practice lessons and I have got the DVD from RAD so that might help. When she took the last exam it was at Christmas and DD was right in the middle of a 2 month panto season with shows every day plus school so she did miss some of the extra lessons and was probably a bit tired. Hopefully this time will be less hectic and she can concentrate. I think that small details can make the difference for the exams. I just don't quite know what those details are and apart from saying "point your toes" I am rather useless...after 10 years I think she might know the pointy toe thing!!! I could probably ask DD to look at the exam sheet with the break down of marks with her teacher to see what to concentrate on. DD has always managed a high merit with one lesson a week too but after 5 of these (one was I think 1 mark short of distinction!) she is desperate to achieve the elusive distinction.