AS level music - stupidly difficult??

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me....

My sister just got her AS results and her music was a bit of a surprise/shock. She is very musical, has passed her grade 7 piano, 6 violin and 5 clarinet. She spends her life (!) playing something or other.....

For her performance part of her AS she submitted one of her grade 7 pieces which her teacher said she played "perfectly". Then, come results day, she discovered that her performance had been marked as a C, bringing her overall grade down when she is easily capable of an A.

Since results day her music teacher has emailed her saying that in order to get an A as AS-level music you need to have passed your Grade 8 in an instrument. To me this seems completely ridiculous and I'm (almost) sure it isn't true.

Can anyone help me by shedding some light on this matter? If anyone has had similar experiences can you offer any advice? Or what would you do if this happened to you? Or, does anybody know what standard is required for what grade at AS-level?

I appreciate any advice you have to offer. Thanks.

Reply 1

musicbloke

17

acisejica

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me....

My sister just got her AS results and her music was a bit of a surprise/shock. She is very musical, has passed her grade 7 piano, 6 violin and 5 clarinet. She spends her life (!) playing something or other.....

For her performance part of her AS she submitted one of her grade 7 pieces which her teacher said she played "perfectly". Then, come results day, she discovered that her performance had been marked as a C, bringing her overall grade down when she is easily capable of an A.

Since results day her music teacher has emailed her saying that in order to get an A as AS-level music you need to have passed your Grade 8 in an instrument. To me this seems completely ridiculous and I'm (almost) sure it isn't true.

Can anyone help me by shedding some light on this matter? If anyone has had similar experiences can you offer any advice? Or what would you do if this happened to you? Or, does anybody know what standard is required for what grade at AS-level?

I appreciate any advice you have to offer. Thanks.

It depends on the board but I know that for OCR you can get full marks in performance module with a grade 5 piece at AS and a Grade 6 piece at A2. On the other hand the people who get really top marks do tend to be playing post-grade 8 level stuff.

MB

Reply 2

Jamie Frost

6

From what I know of the AS syllabus (edexcel):
Grade 5 is the minimum standard for a C
Grade 6 for a B.
Grade 7 for an A
These grades correspond to "easy", "medium" and "more difficult" levels.

It then depends on how well you play the piece. Even the slightest of glitches costs a lot of marks. I kinda had this problem at AS, but didn't repeat the mistake at A2 by re-recording my chosen piece again and again until it was perfect and fault free.

The performance mark can vary greatly from examiner to examiner I think (could be wrong). It could be a matter of your teacher not being able to spot weaknesses in the performance which the examiner picked up.

Reply 3

musicbloke

17

Jamie Frost

From what I know of the AS syllabus (edexcel):
Grade 5 is the minimum standard for a C
Grade 6 for a B.
Grade 7 for an A
These grades correspond to "easy", "medium" and "more difficult" levels.

It then depends on how well you play the piece. Even the slightest of glitches costs a lot of marks. I kinda had this problem at AS, but didn't repeat the mistake at A2 by re-recording my chosen piece again and again until it was perfect and fault free.

The performance mark can vary greatly from examiner to examiner I think (could be wrong). It could be a matter of your teacher not being able to spot weaknesses in the performance which the examiner picked up.

You got to record your AS and A2 performances? That's a bit unfair considering that I had to play mine live.

MB

Reply 4

Jamie Frost

6

Well what annoyed me about AS was that it almost was live, but didnt need to be. We had an informal concert for all the AS performances and our families/friends were invited. I made a few nasty mistakes I shouldn't have, but was told not to bother re-recording them again (many people did though). I got 72/90 in that module but would have liked higher, considering they were all Grade 8 pieces.
As I said, I didn't repeat this mistake in A2 and chose from a bunch of recordings: 90/90 for me! :biggrin:

(although it was a diploma piece this time though)

Reply 5

AllergicToFairydust

1

I had a C which brought my overall down when I was predicted an A/ high B too.

I played Grade 7 pieces as well but there are 2 kinds of Grade 7 pieces as my piano teacher believes. Grade 7 pieces which are heavy techincal and Grade 7 pieces which modern or have something which makes them the most enjoyable to listen to.

I played to Baroque pieces both fairly long and repeative which probably why I got marked down. I think it depends on the examiner - most of the ones who visit my school perfer singers over pianists.

Your sister will have another chance if she resits the performing so all isn't lost. I'm preparing an AS program of one grade 8 baroque and one jazz. Then for A level doing a post-grade 8 baroque piece, which one of my teachers ex-pupils played for an exam in their first year at uni, followed by a jazz piece and then a romantic piece.

Fingers crossed it will work.

Reply 6

musicman

acisejica

For her performance part of her AS she submitted one of her grade 7 pieces which her teacher said she played "perfectly". Then, come results day, she discovered that her performance had been marked as a C, bringing her overall grade down when she is easily capable of an A.

Maybe it was perfect in terms of notes, but not musicality, in which case she probably wouldn't have achieved an A. Even so, a C does seem rather unusual if she is of grade 7 standard, though it may just have been nerves etc.

acisejica

Since results day her music teacher has emailed her saying that in order to get an A as AS-level music you need to have passed your Grade 8 in an instrument. To me this seems completely ridiculous and I'm (almost) sure it isn't true.

That's not true to be honest. It's grade 5 for AS and if you do grade 6+ pieces you get a multiplier (i.e. marks scaled up), so your sister will have had her marks scaled up, perhaps making it even more of a mystery.

I think the trick is to play stuff which is well within your limits, though wrong notes here and there don't seem to detract from the marks if the performance is musical and thought-out in detail. I got 90/90 on my recital and there were some wrong notes, though overall it was musical and studied in-depth, which is top-grade criteria.

AS level music - stupidly difficult??

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