I am in a bit of a quandry here as I had planned to do Grade 5 Theory in February. My Mum who has been ill for sometime now and I have been full time caring for her had to go into hospital on Saturday for an operation nothing to do with her past health problems. I think yesterday a breakthrough has been made and hopefully now she will recover, whereas over the last week I thought we would lose her several times. There have been so many tears. Now I have to make up my mind by tomorrow whether I do the exam or not or leave it to June. Part of me says "go for it" as it will give me something to concentrate on whilst I can't get back to work as I will be caring for my Mum, but part of me is tellng me to leave it to June. I think maybe I could put in for the exam and then if I find I am not up for it just don't do it, I will have lost the money, yes, but it would give me some buying time rather than making the decision now. I am anxious to move on with the theory as I have decided that I would like to do a degree and my teacher says that I need to get up to Grade 8 before starting that as she is thinking that a course in composition and transposing would fair me the best.

Can you all put in your twopenneth to help me out here?

Thanks.

Trish
x

Poor you...you are having a hard time. But you do sound very strong and level headed. Am pleased your mum is improving.
I can't tell how old you are...and so how far decisions like degrees and so on are away. Also...have you done theory exams before... all those things bear relevance to your decision. How ready did you feel before your mum went into hospital? If you were confident then,then perhaps you should go ahead. You're the only one who knows that. And you are right it might give you something to work to and focus on. If you did pull out it is possible you could get a doctor's note ...and get some of the fee back.... I assume it is the same as with practicals.
No answers I know...but maybe some more ideas.
Look after yourself though

How well do you know the stuff?
If you really know it then you'd be likely to do well under most circumstances.
If you feel it's at least partly at the 'things I have to learn for an exam' stage then you maight be better waiting.

Hoping that things will improve for ypu all now.

In my culture (and undoubtedly in many otherse), family is priority number 1, always. If you think you can handle both a music exam and caring for your mother, you should go for it.

My mother suffered from spontanous cyst attacks which almost neutered her entire spinal cord. She's ok now. I sympathize 100% with your situation. Just remember, know your limits.

For what it's worth I would say - go for it. As you say, it will give you something else to think about. At the end of the day, you may find you don't have enough time to tackle it properly, but even so it is probably worth having a go at the exam having entered for it. If you manage to pass, you can give yourself an extra big pat on the back. If not, you can have as many more tries as you need.

Hope your Mum carries on improving. All the best and good luck,

Sue

I think I too would say give it a go - if you already felt moderately confident.

I sympathise - I have a couple agonising over similar decisions (although not with family illness in the equation).

I have to say I dislike this need to decide coming so soon after the beginning of term - necessary though I know it is.

Best of luck whatever you decide - and all the best to your mum for a return to better health.

Hi eldatom

I was in a bit of dilemma too as to whether to enter for it, and in the end I went with my instinct. I tried to think how I would feel if the deadline passed and I hadn't entered for it, and I knew I would regret it.

If you enter now, you've bought some time... as you say, you don't need to take the exam if you don't get much chance to study over the next few weeks, but if you don't enter, you don't get the choice...

Take care x

Dear All

Thank you all so much for your input, it appears that on the whole that most of you seem to be saying to Go for it! I can't say that I fel confident about it at the moment, and my mind appears to have gone totally blank, I know I still have quite a lot to learn, but before all this I thought that I had plenty of time to learn what I needed too and was confident on certain aspects. I managed to do the Grade 4 whilst my Mum was in hospital and I did get through that with a merit, I know had it been under better circumstances I would have got a much better mark. I did Grade 3 the term before that and received a distinction with 97% and allowed myself only 5 weeks to study for that which was from scratch.

The short melodies that I have composed so far, my teacher has said are excellent and I enjoy the chords and cadences. Transposing is an issue with me at the moment, I am fine on transposing up and down octaves it is when transposing down the intervals that I have a problem, which in a way I know is sraightforward and I am sure with a lesson just spent on doing that I will be up and running on there.

I am 53 years old in March, so time is of an essence for me to get through if I want to get a degree, as I my target to get this is before I get to 60! (Oh dear this makes me feel so old!)

I have let my teacher know that I woud like to go ahead with the exam, at the end of the day I can always decide not to sit it, but I have at least bought myself some time.

Once again thanks to you all.

Tricia

Good luck to you! I think you'll be fine. It isn't much of a jump from G4 to G5 - it's just an extension of things you've learnt before. Transposition is glorified intervals - you just have to concentrate harder and try not to fall asleep!

Sounds like you'll be fine....best of luck