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Original poster

Grade 1 piano exam help

36 replies

thekarlie · 14/11/2018 17:38

My 9 year old daughter took her grade 1 piano exam today and is now very upset and panicking.

She said her scales were perfect apart from 1 note she hit incorrect in the broken chords.
Sight reading was easy (her words) she played the sharp, tempo and dynamics.
Aural she was very happy with.
La Donna e mobile and when the saints she played very well and was very happy with.
Dans la forget lointaine She said was going fine until half way through she hit a wrong note and then she said she panicked and played it terrible, she just couldn’t get it back. Played most wrong thereafter. She said that was the worst she has ever played that one

So she has been very emotional and thinks she has failed - she is so frustrated as the rest of it was almost perfect.
Does anyone know if she’s still could pass? I’m not musical and have never experienced music exams so am unsure how strict or perfect you need to play. Any help or advice on this would be much appreciated.

OP posts:
keiratwiceknightly · 14/11/2018 18:01

Pass mark is 100/150 so she can lose nearly a third of marks and still pass.

Anythingforacatslife · 14/11/2018 18:04

She’ll probably still pass, doesn’t sound like she made too many mistakes on the rest of it. However if she doesn’t pass it’s not the end of the world, she can just move on.

GoodHeavensNoImAChicken · 14/11/2018 18:05

She will most likely pass. Tell her not to worry, it’s a good experience either way and to carry on enjoying playing the piano

MeltingWax · 14/11/2018 18:23

Each part of the exam is marked separately. Each piece is worth a maximum of 30 marks so even if one of the three is a disaster she will pick up some marks for it and then combined with the rest of the sections am sure she will be just fine. Smile I know it's frustrating for her as she feels she could have played better. That's just the nature of the exam process - it can only ever be a snapshot and what might have been played perfectly at home can get affected by nerves, etc.

MeltingWax · 14/11/2018 18:25

P.S. both of my DCs played 2 of those pieces for their Grade 1 exams. I was sick of listening to them by the end Smile

Original poster
thekarlie · 14/11/2018 18:58

Thank you so much, fingers crossed she’s done enough to pass. I just know she will be so upset if it comes back that she has failed.

Ditto, if I never hear them again that will be too soon lol
I don’t think we will bother with exams from now on as I feel it has taken all the enjoyment out of it for her.

OP posts:
whenwillthetwitchstrike · 14/11/2018 19:06

If it is at all possible for an examiner to pass a grade one student then they do as they know how disheartening it would be to fail. As PP have said, your DD can lose 1/3 of the marks and still pass. Even if the notes in the final piece were wrong, if the rhythm or expression or something was right, she will get some marks for that.

horseymum · 14/11/2018 19:33

These are exactly the pieces my DD is playing in two weeks, will be glad to see the back of them. Honestly it sounds like she had done fine, you can see how they mark pieces online, it describes what they are looking for. Even if she had not played one piece to her best, the rest will make a difference. Hence the reason teachers want them to be confident in all the sections to give a bit of leeway for one part to go badly on the day! It's nerve-wracking waiting though! Can she get a chance to play at assembly or something similar to experience performing for fun rather than just an exam. Shame not to perform the pieces now they are so good!

Original poster
thekarlie · 14/11/2018 22:46

Fingers crossed it will be fine.

I think nerves had a big part to play in it, my daughter suffers with anxiety anyway. We did try a few times to get her to play for the school in assembly but she bottled it both times.
She also sat her theory exam last week and came out all smiles and was really happy how that one went so hoping that we get the marks at the same time and we can focus on that one if the worst happens and she fails the practical

OP posts:
NotMusicAgain · 14/11/2018 23:11

Believe me, she will pass, absolutely fine. You will be celebrating in two weeks time.

Original poster
thekarlie · 14/11/2018 23:21

Thank you so much to everyone for all your help, support and advice x

OP posts:
MeltingWax · 15/11/2018 05:36

The results of the theory papers are released at the same time for everyone sitting ABRSM papers on that Tuesday evening. For the spring & summer sessions in 2018 and last year's autumn session results were released 4 weeks after the exam date. ABRSM put a message on their Twitter & Facebook pages on the afternoon the results come out telling people they can check their online accounts from 5pm ish onwards for results (or your DD's teacher can if it was the teacher who made the exam entry). Each time our results have been available from about 17.10.

Hopefully you should get your practical results more quickly than that but that's more difficult to predict. The quickest we have had practical results has been 8 days and the longest wait we have had has been 2 weeks. But some people wait much longer. I think it depends on whether anyone in your batch of exams reports an issue with the exam itself - that can then hold up the results for the whole batch.

Good luck for your DD - am sure she will do fab Smile

Wafflenose · 15/11/2018 09:27

Wow, if 5/6 sections went as well as she thinks, you are looking at a merit or possibly distinction I think.

Original poster
thekarlie · 15/11/2018 10:01

Thank you for all the information that’s very helpful, she is doing it though a teacher but she didn’t tell us when to expect the results. I will let her know after school that fingers crossed we won’t have to wait to long.
She was so upset, crying again this morning about it. I feel so bad for her. It’s just hard to know how bad it was, as I wasn’t in there and I know that she is so tough on herself. But she keeps telling me it was that bad, so bad that she couldn’t even mess up that much at home to show me what she did on our piano

I thought I had heard the last of those pieces as well but there she was this morning drilling over them again.

Could I ask you another question meltingwax?
Do you get a break down on the marks you get in each section or is it just an overall mark?
I think if she see that she did well in the other section and her other pieces she could put it behind her.

OP posts:
MeltingWax · 15/11/2018 10:15

Ah poor thing, it's easy to fixate on the tricky parts of an exam & forget about all the bits that went really well. You will receive the examiner's mark sheet with commentary on each section and a breakdown of the marks. The mark sheet will be in the post after the online result but the breakdown (but not the detailed commentary) will also be available online. Each piece is marked out of 30, scales/arpeggios are out of 21, sight-reading is out of 21 and aural is out of 18. Each section is marked independently so a mess-up on one area only affects the mark for that area. The total is out of 150, you need 100 to pass, 120 for a merit, 130 for a distinction.

Original poster
thekarlie · 15/11/2018 10:27

Wow! Thank you so much for all the info and the time you have taken to write this - I really appreciate it.
Have a great day :)

OP posts:
Violinboymum · 15/11/2018 13:00

She will definitely pass, might even get a merit. DS froze during his exam in the middle of one piece and still got a high merit for it. Good luck!

happylilac · 15/11/2018 13:30

DS even skipped a whole line (a few bars) and still got a distinction for his grade 1 piano. Shock DS was cheerfully happy but I still suspect the examiner may have been day-dreaming or sleeping for a moment (!). After all they are all humans... I also hear they don't mark grade 1 harshly so you really have to do extremely badly to fail.

Sounds like a definite pass or as PP said more than just a pass to me. Smile

Original poster
thekarlie · 15/11/2018 14:58

thank you all - my mind is a little more at ease now.

OP posts:
highby · 22/11/2018 11:24

Did she pass?

Original poster
thekarlie · 22/11/2018 13:44

still waiting on the results - will post as soon as I find out.
She is a lot better in herself now as well. xx

OP posts:
Original poster
thekarlie · 22/11/2018 19:29

My Daughter passed with a Merit score of 125 yay!!

OP posts:
MeltingWax · 22/11/2018 19:45

Yay! Well done to your DD! Smile Star

Hopefully she's pleased?

keiratwiceknightly · 22/11/2018 19:51

Good news

HoHol · 22/11/2018 19:52

That is fantastic news, well done her 🤩

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