oh boy...... wot do i do???
Exam nerves are just a pain in the backside.... i'm alright usually, but i am going for distinction this time, and i'm feeling the nerves....

Any advice?

Try to imagine yourself as a professional violinist giving just yet another, but brilliant, concert. There is no better violinist than you, you are the best and you have the world at your feet. Whatever your life has brought or may bring in the future you are an outstanding violinist right now (to have got to grade eight) and you will be superb on Wednesday. You and your violin are a unique team and the examiner is just waiting to admire you - you are about to give him/her a performance to remember.

Feel better?

I have my grade two next month and I will spend some time just hugging my violin before the exam....

Best of Luck!

You should do alright on your aural now (hope the notes are useful)

Go for it! Believe in yourself and your violin and things will just happen!
(Found before my recital that deep breathing and frantic jumping up and down, alternately, helped me to relax...think that makes sense!)

Good luck, and let us know how you get on

xoxox

Best of luck!!! what are you playing??

Good luck! I'm taking mine in September. Just keep calm with a smile on your face when you walk in, and speak confidently with a good body posture.

I'm playing:
List A: Handel Sonata 1st and 2nd movts.
List B: Svendsen Romanze op. 26
List C: Bartok Rhapsody no. 1 Prima Parte (Lassu), Moderato

You?

ooh... thanks for all the advice.... its very inspiring.
I think i get most nervous when playing slower pieces, because i have too much time to think about my intonation... like in the "Le Printemps", my intonation just goes a bit out when i'm a bit nervous. But i can get the intonation perfectly when playing on my own... Any tips on not losing intonation in slow pieces??

and i'm playing::

Vivaldi - "Spring" (Allegro 1st movt.)
Wieniawski - "Dudziarz" (the Bagpipe Player)
Milhaud - "Le Printemps"

chevvychev.... Jumping up an down frantically sounds like a great technique, i must try....

Best of luck for Wednesday and let us know how you get on.

Just try and keep calm and be confident. Imagine you are your favourite Violinist - this sometimes does the trick.

Good luck, good luck, good luck!!

I do this!!! ....last week I was Joshua Bell playing 'Moon Sprites' and this week I'm Nicola Benedetti playing Dminor scale, one octave

Good luck!

I will have mine on september as well. Wishing you all the best.
Good luck.

Tried&tested here and elsewhere, a banana about half an hour before you go in (perhaps make it a big one for Grade 8?).

For pieces that start on a down bow, make sure you breathe in deeply before you start so that the down bow comes on an OUT breath. Even if you are a little tense beforehand, releasing a breath like that at the start can release a lot of tension (do try this at home first!)

Other than that, Eat well, Sleep well, Play well.

Visualise yourself playing well and enjoying the experience. You will remember the day for ever so plan to make it a good one to remember.

Remember, it's the MUSIC that counts, the notes are only a way of getting there - don't let an odd note slip break your concentration on communicating your interpretation and performance to the examiner.

Good luck....

Enjoy yourself.

Good luck for today - hope you enjoy your performance.

Let us know how you get on.. and how you're going to celebrate afterwards

Yes, best wishes!

Good luck, keep calm, and knock the examiner dead with your wonderful performance (well not literally!)

oooo...It's the Big Day!
Lots & Lots of Luck from FF
you'll be great (how about a nice big cake afterwards )

oh my god....

My Grade 8 vioin went really well.... i'm really pleased....

Just want to say thanks for all your inspiration and a special thanks to Flute Fanatic for those really helpful Aural notes.....

Now i just need to wait 4 weeks for results......can't wait.....


Thanks.

Yay, go you

(Results should take 2-3 weeks)

YAY! good on you, hope the results come back soon!!

Do let us know!



xoxox

so glad that all went well, this has been a great thread to read, so thank you for starting it.
Hope the result is all that you would wish.

Yay!
I knew you could do it
So pleased it went well for you

Now it's just the wait.....Good Luck with the results.

Well done! Glad it went well! Hope your wait is a short one

I tried this today on my grade two pieces and it really works - I started the pieces much more calmly and cleanly!

Thanks for the tip!

well just got results today...and me and my teacher were quite disappointed with the marking...

so i was aimin for distinction... my teacher said i was easily capable of getting a high merit (she said this because another grade 8 student did their exam recently and got 126 merit..and she said i play pieces better than he does and everything etc...)

I ended up gettin 116 (PASS) !!!!!

Such a nice examiner....but turns out he was a ******* ( as you can see - i'm very annoyed -(sorry))
I hate examiners.....because my exam went really well....and my accompanist thought so too...
My teacher is going to see what she can do about this mark... she may make a complaint... i'm not sure yet.....but either way.... i may have to resit the exam. (not looking forward to it)

What is worse, is that, some of the comments dont add up to the marking:

Here is a quick overview of my marksheet:

A - Vivaldi - Spring - (25/30) --- content with..
B - Wieniawski (26/30) ...content with
C - Milhaud - (23/30).....Examiner wrote comments along the lines of: "Very beautiful playing, pizzcato a little on the flat side, lots of expression used, however vibrato not sustained throughout..".....

Sorry...but 23/30???? he didn't even justify himself fully...its not like my rhythms and intonation were incorrect.... and as far as i'm aware.....vibrato is used at the candidate's discretion...and is not an element in the mark scheme....it is simply a requirement for grade 5+....

Scales and Arpeggios - (14/21)....... This was the worst mark - doesnt make sense....
Examiner wrote -- "All scales and arpeggios well known and promt responses, arpeggios were played with caution, and need to watch precision on double stop scales..."

If anyone can explain to me where my other 7 marks went...please do... because like it says by the examiner (who i hate right now)...."All Scales and arpeggios well known and prompt responses..."
I thought the point of scales is that i know them, can play them with reasonable accuracy....... surely, if and single one of them was inaccurate, he would have commented... but he didnt...

Sight reading - (16/21).....He said, "dynamics were less heard"..... but i did put in a lot of varied dynamics.... other than that, he said it flowed smoothly and continuosly, and upper registers of the violin handled very well"...... i just think it should have been an extra 2 marks at least...... because my articulation, such as stacatto and accents etc was all there...majority of it was correct....intonation was fine....etc...

Aural - (12/18)...... "Some singing difficulty, although all other parts were completely correct".....

Again....where did my other 6 marks go?........

Sad to hear you were disappointed with your result......it's still a pass! Remember gr8 is said to be extremely difficult to get even a pass. It sounds like your examiner was a little confused , or whatever word you want to use.
I'd just put this one behind you and move on; if you really want to do the exam again then I see no problem (if you're willing to pay the amount again). Just to let you know, I did my gr 8 twice, 1st time round was c***! , but I was pleasantly suprised the second time around.

I agree about the comments not quite adding up....strange!

Would you settle for a secure pass or do you really want that distinction?

It's a shame if you didn't do as well as you and your teacher thought you would. Grade 8 is hard and a pass is a good result. Well done.

It is not easy to compare comments with marks. Some examiners make it very clear in the comments why they have not marked higher, or how you could improve, then some candidates complain that they are too critical and discouraging. Other examiners take the view that you are playing at a pass standard and a pass is a good thing so only say the positive things, running the risk that a candidate does not understand why they have not got a high merit or distinction as nothing much has been criticised. So it really is a no win situation for examiners.

i've had time to calm down, and i think i'm happy i passed....atleast it wasnt a fail....but i'm going to reattempt in early November, and i'm going to change one of my pieces.

I Better keep practicing scales etc...

And i think i need higher than a pass really, considering i want to do music at Uni...

wise choice......not that I think a pass is bad. As you want to go to uni to do music, i'd have probably made the same decision.

Some of the marks it sounds to me like a matter of taste, but much sympathy with that: surely the singing only affects one part of test A, and test B. According to "These Music Exams" 12-14 is "approximately half the tests correctly answered" (which you have - and only part of test A incorrect, as only one out of 3 parts is singing) and "evidence of awareness, despite hesitation and error". So to put you at the low end of that band when it was basically 2/4 completely correct, and even within one of the "not completely correct" tests, presumably it was only the singing that wasn't right, from his comment, it does seem harsh... 14 would be fair and would fit with the mark scheme, even though when essentially there are 6 tests and you got 4 of them spot on it would still be on the low side, but 12 seems really low Similarly with scales, sounds like the mark is just about justifiable, but only with the harshest interpretation of the mark scheme of 14-16 (cautious, moderate tempo, keys known but some errors, OK momentum - from his remarks, yes, he could put you in that band, but it's a little tight to start with: when the scales are "well known & prompt" and the only problem was "caution" in the arpegs and a little lack of precision in double stops... you could have been borderline with the band above, at a push, so to put you at the low end seems very harsh. Essentially, only just passing both those sections even though you got reasonable-to-good comments

It's all justifiable by the mark scheme - not completely ridiculous - but it does sound a little like the guy got out of bed on the wrong side...

Ah well. If you really feel it doesn't reflect your playing, and you're determined to retake anyway, you might as well appeal as then at least the retake would be free!

if i appeal, does that mean the "pass" i got for my grade 8 is scrapped?
Because i'd prefer it if i did the exam the second time, knowing that i still have the "grade 8 qualification"...

Hmm! Sounds like the examiner was overly strict. I'd expect you to get 17-18 for scales with that kind of comment. Aural, maybe 15? Sight reading should be higher too. Maybe the examiner feels this way, and could put the bad part of your playing very succintly.

For my grade 8 piano, even though I faltered under the pressure and couldn't complete my F minor 6th apart, the examiner still gave me 15, and moreover my arppegios were a little unsteady.

My friend got full marks for aural for his grade 5 double bass, although he had "occasional slips". His singing and others tests were in perfect pitch, but he sang a couple of wrong notes at the end, and the examiner just laughed it off! She still awarded him full marks.

I would appeal. Especially with those comments it's extremely hard to justify the marks. Grade 8 or not, you're entitled to a fair assessment according to the guidelines and it sounds as if your examiner was overly harsh.

I don't know, sorry.

Good luck!

If not too late already