Music Exams - No idea where to put this! - does anyone know about the different examining boards?

[ElenyaTuesday]

Ds1 is doing Associated Board exams for piano but ds2's piano teacher has turned up with a book for the "London College of Music" examinations - part of Thames Valley University apparently. Does this matter? Is one examining board any different (or better regarded) than another?

Associated board is the most common one, but the others are valid-I did mainly AB ones, but did a Guildhall exam and my degree was London College of music!

AB is the most common one and probably best regarded. I did all AB apart from grade 5 I think, when for some unknown reason I did Guildhall. I think it's fine to go with whatever board for most of the grades but I'd probably do the AB grade 8!

I did tell the teacher that I wanted ds2 to do AB (only because ds1 does it!!). I had heard of Trinity and Guildhall but this one was new to me - no offence, Jossie!!!!

I've compared the Grade 1 books for LCM and AB and they look identical (except for the three pieces, obviously, but the standard looks the same), which is reassuring!

DD's violin teacher says Trinity Guildhall is about half a grade higher than AB. In fact, a piece she did at G3 TG last year/year before with a pupil appears in the current G4 AB exams.

Don't know if this applies across other instruments.