Fergus Black

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Music Lessons - Results

I encourage my students to enter exams, competitions and auditions: it gives an independent assessment and encourages practice - after all, no-one would turn up deliberately unprepared for an exam or a festival. Exams and competitions are not for everyone, but I find that those who don’t play in public and don’t take exams, suffer from two side-effects:

• they tend not to resolve difficulties in pieces (on which progress relies), and
• they do not usually follow a balanced syllabus: I think their rationale goes something like this. "Scales and sight-reading aren't are satisfying as learning pieces; I don't see an immediate benefit, and since I'm not doing exams, I'll miss them out for the time being". The time-being of course stretches for ever.
  

The apprehension that naturally comes with testing is offset by the sense of achievement that comes with passing. Even the cloud of failure sometimes has a silver lining - failing is often the catalyst for addressing the difficult decision to stop lessons, change teachers, or to reflect on the student’s own preparation (or more likely the lack of it!).

If these philosophical arguments don't convince you, then take a look at this article from the Associated Board about how exam passes at higher grades earn UCAS points:-

Associated Board - using your UCAS points