Cost of music grade exams, have they inflated more than gold?

[WestLondonmumfromtheNorth]

OK so this is just a nostalgia post but I looked up cost of grade exams tonight…. Grade 8 £130 plus venue fee, plus accompaniment 😵‍💫.

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this expensive when I did them back in the late 80s. Not least the venue fee and accompanist was free. Can anyone remember the cost of doing grades back in 80s and 90s as I just can’t see my parents paying the cost of a weekly food shop just so I could get a certificate at the end of it!

I have a hazy memory that they would have been £50ish top end grades, but my parents entered us and didn't really discuss the cost.

I don't remember free accompanists, I thought we had to bring our own. Or maybe if there were free accompanists my teacher didn't think they were very good?

(Lot of words to say I don't really remember very well, but I'm now curious to see what other people remember!)

What's a venue fee and who is it paid to? I don't remember having that the last time my kids did exams but it is a couple of years ago now.

For me the exam venue was the local sixth form (who didn't charge a fee for those at other schools). Guess it would be the 'exam centres' fee rather than performance fee. Several seem to charge it round my way (if you are not part of the school, which is usually a Saturday music school rather than a day school).

In my day the accompanist was usually the local piano teacher who did it for free, as all the music teachers were mates. Now people are paying for an accompanist for rehearsal time and the exam. It all seems to have become very expensive.

Looking back we didn't prepare as well as they do today (maybe one run through with said piano teacher before the exam) but that didn't seem to matter as we usually got the pass/merit/distinction we were predicted.

I saw they are now going to charge £3 for a paper certificate so looked up the cost and couldn't believe how much the grades cost. It's not often I'm genuinely surprised but I really was. Have they gone up massively (like house prices and school fees) or am I under estimating what they used to cost?

I've just had an email that ABRSM are going to charge an extra £3 for paper certificates. I know it's not a lot but really when you consider the price of the exams, I'm very disappointed with them.

Yes, I’m an instrumental and the cost of exams is appalling. Goes up and up and up, and the service from exam boards is terrible. Now £3 for a hard copy of your certificate!!!

I did my exams in a local church hall, there was no venue fee. The school smy son used to go to held exams as a private centre and external candidates could join the exam session, they may have had to pay a fee.

Accompanists were never free.

My accompanist was always free. It was the same for all my friends taking grades. We obviously had a good bunch of music teachers who supported us all (this was a comprehensive in the North during the 80s-90s).
I appreciate times have changed and musicians, quite rightly, want to be paid for their time. I never said accompanists were included in the grade fee, just that my friends and I never paid anything.

Everything was free otherwise hardly anyone at my school/town would have been able to learn an instrument and yes I mean everything (1:1 orchestral instrument lesson, instrument hire, school bands, Saturday wind band, local orchestra and county orchestra which included transport there and back on a coach)... the only thing we paid for were the grades and everyone seemed to be doing them yearly without it being a big deal.

That's why I wondered how much they were back then as I can't imaging our parents being able to afford to pay very much - and if they had they'd would have made sure we knew how lucky we were.

Someone would have paid the accompanist, if you personally didn't it would have come from the music centre/whatever LA provision was in place budget. There have always been set MU rates for accompanists - musicians don't work for free. Possibly that funding has been cut now, same as all music education funding.

I did grades back in the 90s and we definitely had to pay for accompanists unless you were lucky enough that your teacher could do it. Can’t remember about venue fees, I think my cello teacher just told my parents the total cost for the exam / exam centre.

My daughter did Grade 8 in 2020 and that was £99. As it was the piano there were no accompaniest fees.

I've just paid for DD's grade 8, and decided it made a driving test look really quite cheap! She hasn't done an exam since grade 5 (pre-covid), so quite a bump up from that.

I think you don't pay a venue fee if you do the exam at a public centre - one of the ones that ABRSM runs. However some schools/teachers organise "private visits" - usually primarily for their own pupils, but they may take others for a payment towards the costs (hire of a space if needed, and someone to host/steward). Accompaniment has always been "bring your own", but some teachers will play for their own pupils, and some schools will provide an accompanist for their own pupils.

There's someone near us who runs a private visit every term, hosting for kids from lots of local teachers, with the deal being that they are paid to do the accompanying - they don't do piano exams!

When DD did a non-piano exam, their teacher block-booked an accompanist, who needed to be paid - DD had to go first or last as I was playing for her. Same with DH, who did an exam as an adult.

In the old days, Our venue was free and accompanists were free doing it favour or experience.
We were part of a music school so fees covered all.
Now, the grade teachers are not part of music school fees they are separate teachers bit everything is gone absolutely mental cost wise.