I would be interested to speak to any Trinity examiners or anyone in the know on this. My son has just received his grade back and based on the fact that he achieved more than 91% in his 4 pieces I was surprised he only achieved a merit (which is awarded for 86% and below).
I appreciate that final marks have been based on some kind of secret algorithm based on general trends of previous results but I cannot see how he can have dropped so much on supporting tests which make up only a third of the final mark? He would have had to have scored 78% or less on the supporting tests to achieve an overall mark of 86% or less (to get the merit) which is a drop of 13% on what he achieved in his singing pieces which I think is a lot to assume. In previous grades he has never achieved less than 90% in his supporting tests so while I appreciate the tests get harder at each grade, so do the singing pieces in which he achieved 91%, so I feel he has been a bit cheated.
It does make me think what would he have had to achieve to get a distinction then - 94%? 95%? 96%? Distinctions normally kick in at 87%.
I am happy to message with anyone privately about this. I am not sure if we can appeal and although it is not the end of the world it does seem a very odd result and I feel he has been a little cheated after so much work for this exam :(