ISTD advanced levels - too hard?

[DanceMum25]

DD has been dancing for 12 years and is now 16yo.
She has been doing ISTD Modern Jazz and Tap (also RAD ballet).
She consistently achieves Distinction grades for her exams.
Her teacher is changing to a new syllabus, and in trying to convince DD to stay and change to the APDA syllabus, she has said the Advanced 1 & 2 levels are much harder and DD is unlikely to pass.
Could this be true? Is there a significant step up in difficulty and challenge? Would a Distinction student at intermediate level fail at Advanced 1?
DD would like to finish her ISTD syllabus grades.

[FruitBowlCrazy]

I've never heard of APDA, are you in the UK?

[Numbersarefun]

My DDs went on to Advanced levels when they had finished the previous grades - seemed quite normal for this to happen. I don’t remember which grades came immediately before. I’m sure they got similar results to what they got before though.

[FacingTheWall]

DD says that the Adv 1 for ISTD modern and tap are both easier because there isn’t so much to learn as there is in the huge intermediate syllabus. There’s been no noticeable massive step up in difficulty apparently.

Is her teacher not wanting to hold any more ISTD exam sessions maybe? If she’s moving mostly across to a new board then the ISTD session might be too expensive to run.

[toomuchfaster]

Advance 1 and 2 used to be the requirement for teaching so yes, the standard is higher. But it's irrelevant if the teacher is changing exam board, DD won't get the opportunity to do them.

[FruitBowlCrazy]

@DanceMum25 What grade is she currently doing in her RAD ballet?

[MomOfTwoGirls2]

Can only talk for RAD. But thinking it might be similar for ISTD, as I believe levels between the 2 are similar.

My DD went from Intermediate to Advanced 1 (skipping Advance Foundation), and it was a huge step up. The class took 2 years to prepare rather than usual 1 year. Her mark was a bit lower than her Intermediate exam but she worked a lot harder for it.

And Advance 1 to Advance 2 is another huge step up.

My DD is now on dance degree course. They are not at all interested in her exam qualifications. But the hard work she put in preparing for the exams helped make her the dancer she is today.

[Yarple]

ISTD Dance teacher here- there is a vast difference in standard between intermediate modern and advanced 1 modern. This is because the syllabus for advanced 1 and 2 was updated in recent years, and the intermediate is the original syllabus from the 80s. Dance has evolved greatly since then, and therefore the intermediate modern is 'easy' in comparison to more current dance trends. I wouldn't expect a student to go from a distinction to a fail between the two grades, however.

Intermediate tap has been updated recently, and is much harder than previously, so there isn't such a big jump between the two grades int gis genre. The same applies to ballet, though ballet is such a challenging and exacting genre, many students score lower in their ballet exams than modern and tap, and can drop marks between their grades exams and vocational exams.

It's worth considering that advanced 1 and 2 are considered vocational grades, with the expectation that candidates will be doing many hours of classes each week, so the standard is high.

I've not heard of APDA, do you have any more information on them?