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This is the excruciating part of the process: blaming yourself for everything that went wrong, especially those you swear you could play them blindfolded. Then you go through the entire exam in your head over and over again.

But like you said, what's done is done and there's nothing you can do about it. You have done your best under the circumstances. It is an achievement itself for having the guts to take the exam and actually show up! You should celebrate it. Then when the exam result is out and you pass, celebrate again!

Well done and good luck with the results! I hope you don't have to wait long.

well done and thankyou for sharing this

pianofan1017 - Congratulations for sitting your Grade 6! I am sure you did better than you think you did. We always remember the mistakes, not the good parts. I think the examiners are used to adult candidates being quite nervous, and can hear the quality of the playing behind the nerves. Good luck with the results!

Congratulations pianofan1017 for perseverence and all the practice you did to sit for the exam. THAT is the real score. Good for you.

Torquenale and Cathryn, I just went back through the thread and see that you took and did very well on your exams. You are my role models. Great accomplishments. Maybe my life will settle down and I'll do another exam. I just don't feel ready for some of the components. I know you rarely feel totally ready.

WiseBuff, so far I only passed the theory exam... easier than a practical one, because there isn't any performance anxiety!
I would like to sit ABRSM 5 next year, probably in winter session (November or December, I think). I need one year to work on my weak points, sight reading and (especially) aural test!

Torquenale, I did RCM level 5 both theory and repertoire/practice and I think I actually did better on the practice. I made stupid mistakes on the written work that I really do know. LOL. BUT I have had the goal of level 6 for the last year or so and haven't set a date. I think that I am (unrealistically) hoping to find perfection before I test. Probably should just set a date and do it.

I just got my score back. I thought it is going to take about a month. But It was only couple of days. I passed it, but barely.
My Mozart sonata, I got 20, which is a minimum of passing score. The Russian piece, I got 20. I thought this should be somewhat higher though. The Chinese piece, the disaster one, I got 18 which is kind of expected. Scales, I got 14 which is also expected since I messed up Bb minor and a few others have to be replayed. I got 15 in sight reading and 15 in aural test.
So, overall I got 102. Just barely over the 100 mark for passing. Woo, I would wish for a better score, but I will settle for this one. I thought I might fail. Now, I can have a great Christmas and learn new pieces.
I am planning on taking a break from the exams. I will learn as much technical skills and prepare myself to get to the further levels as possible. And once I am ready, I am going to take the grade 8 exam next. I plan to just skip grade 7.

Congratulations for passing! Now you can relax, celebrate, and move forward :-)

Congratulations on your pass! That is a wonderful accomplishment!

Forget the score and enjoy your success!

Congratulations on the achievement. There is SO much that goes into preparing and performing for the exam. Way to go!!

Finals are done and I only have final papers to grade. Tonight is our Christmas Piano Party at my house and I'm looking forward to that. I pulled out all my study materials for the Intermediate Rudiments Theory Exam. Good grief. It looks like a foreign language to me today. Each questions requires thinking through multiple steps. I do have the practice exams and found a youtube video that walks me though it...good thing...I was way off on what they want. I know it will come back to me but when??? LOL.

I'm studying the workbooks and practice exams for the Intermediate RCM theory exam. Question 10 is an analysis of a short piece of music. It asks to name the root and the quality/type of a couple of chords. What do they mean by quality/type??? Tonic, subtonic etc? Inversion type??

Heeeellllppp Please.

Chord quality means whether it is major chord, minor chord, diminished chord, augmented chord, dominant chord etc. I believe there are about 9 different chord quality or type.

Thank you pianofan1017. That helps. Merry Christmas whereever you are on this beautiful day.

My teacher and I decided to enter for the Spring session for my ABRSM grade 7 exam. I am a little scared and a lot excited! My pieces are in the polishing stage, all the scales and arps are learned, and the sight reading is close. The aural is terrifying, but we are going to work on that. I have a lot of fine tuning that needs to be done in the next few months, but I am glad to have a definite deadline!

Is anyone else planning on taking an exam this year?

SwissMS, I'm sure you will do well!
I'm considering ABRSM 5 for the Winter session; I'm learning the three pieces with the teacher, and scales and arpeggios are not a problem because I've already learned all of them, including melodic minors and contrary motion in all keys.
My big concerns are sight reading and aural test; I'm working on the first one and I hope to see the results at a certain point, but I hate the aural part. The teacher makes me sing, but it's so painful. I can't even imaging doing an aural test al level 7!!

Thanks for the encouragement, torquenale! It sounds like you are in pretty good shape for grade 5. What pieces are you playing?

I use e-musicmaestro.com for aural and find it helpful. It is a subscription service, but it is very inexpensive. I have also used AuralBook, but the recordings are horrible. However, if you can get a good score on AuralBook, you should do really well. I hate the singing part too!

congratulations SwissMS on making such a big commitment, and finding a great new teacher.

I am sitting AMEB grade 5 in November and AMEB Grade 3 theory exam, (which can be done anytime online), at some point before the practical exam. I was only able to embark on this process once I found a great teacher capable of helping me meet the challenges. Ear training has been harder than expected and in particular I have a way to go with melodic dictation which is a feature of the theory exam. But with the holidays over it is down to some serious work and I know I will get there.