Thank you to all students, parents, colleagues and others who have responded to my request for views and opinions on the various music exam boards, in particular ABRSM and Trinity College London (TCL), in relation to the lack of examiner’s name or identification number on recent feedback reports fromTCL.
Some of you want to stay with TCL, listing scales and technical work as being foundational to the assessment.
Some people prefer to go with ABRSM’s digital performances, in which you offer four pieces and there is no technical requirement. (I should add that TCL also offer this option.)
A few people have no strong view either way.
One of my adult pupils had a very cogent and relevant point to make, and it was this:
You wouldn’t allow an accountant to audit your business accounts and not sign the report with their name. You would want to know who was vouching for your accounts to the taxman or wherever they were presented. This, of course, is called accountability.
To this student, who has run successful businesses of his own, it was simply unconscionable that an exam board could present a report on someone’s performance without owning up to who they were. If we don’t know who has watched the performance, who has made the comments and who has allocated marks – then how do we know that anyone has? How do we know, in this day and age, that it wasn’t generative AI?
So I contacted ABRSM to find out what their policy is on this, and I was given this response:
Candidate’s [sic] and applicants cannot see the examiners name for performance grade exams.
In other words, we have the same problem, whether we use ABRSM or TCL. Unless, of course, we do face-to-face exams. This brings up different issues to consider, but at least we do have accountability, in that you perform to a real human being. Examiners no longer handwrite their reports, as they did until very recently – instead you hear them tapping away on their laptops – but you know your performance has been heard and watched by a real person.
With face-to-face exams, the other factors to consider are these:
- You will have to prepare twice as many scales as in a TCL digital exam.
- You will have to do a sight-reading test.
- You will have to take an aural test, which involves listening to and responding to music by singing, clapping or answering questions.
- You will have to go to a venue and play a piano you are unfamiliar with.
- You will not have the flexibility of recording the exam when you’re ready, but will have to work to a pre-ordained date and time. This means you won’t enter for the exam until you know you’ll be ready on that set date, but there’s an entry window which, if you miss it, means you have to wait another three months for the next exam date.
I’ve replied to ABRSM to ask about accountability. To ask, in fact, about the involvement of AI in the exam process. I will let you know what they say. It always amuses me to see the email address: Customer Support Team. Are they supporting their customers? You and me, in other words? Or are they justifying their actions and their decisions in the light of their own priorities?
At one time (until COVID, in fact) all music exams were face-to-face and in the time-honoured format I’ve outlined above. We accepted it, because there was no alternative.
Now we have choices.
But with those choices come restrictions, trade-offs and compromises. And, perhaps, short-cuts – or even a degree of dumbing-down.
Prepare more work, and know you’re being marked by a genuine musician? Or prepare less work, and trust that the exam board is honest and fair?
Perform to a camera, where you can do several takes if needed? Or to an examiner – you get one go only!
Opt for playing pieces only? Or add in the technical work?
Where do we place the value? What are our priorities?
Do you just want that certificate, no matter what? Or do you want to have faith in the process as well? I don’t mean this cynically. Both TCL and ABRSM are highly regarded, and both carry equal weight in terms of UCAS points, university requirements, personal statement value, pride in your achievement and so on. The fact that you didn’t know who marked your Grade 1, Grade 5 or Grade 8 exam won’t bother your next employer or your university admissions officer.
The question is: does it bother you?