How to Get High Marks on RCM Exams
In 2007, the Royal Conservatory of Music published a blog detailing eight ways to get higher marks on their practical exams.
These suggestions were excellent, although they were mostly focused on obvious, but commonly
neglected preparation strategies. It certainly goes without saying, for example, that a failure to focus on critical exam requirements will result in forfeiting marks. And it’s also true that students often knowingly forfeit marks by failure to learn selections by memory, or by selectively neglecting attention to certain exam requirements such as technical or ear tests most often due to self-imposed time restraints.
However, there is one additional very important factor that may be at the heart of some of the challenges that
students face when performing for an exam. And that is the tendency of parents, students, and sometimes even teachers to put the proverbial cart before the horse, which always creates dysfunction.
By that, I mean that if the primary focus for lessons is first on skill development, rather than exam preparation, and not the other way around, highly successful achievement on exams is a natural outcome. The metaphorical cream always rises to the top, and the cream in this case is always the product of thorough time spent in preparation of all exam details, together with the benefits associated with receiving frequent, intense, and consistent expert professional training.
And so it is that the most common enemy of great success on RCM exams, is an ill-advised haste to get to a higher grade level in the shortest possible amount of time, with the smallest possible amount of money spent on lessons with an expert teacher. Going into an exam with the mindset that you know that you are so well-prepared that even on your worst day you are going to achieve outstanding results is an exhilarating feeling that is without equal. Whereas, students who are hastily or less than fully-prepared tend to go into the exam with considerable anxiety and doubt. And, these mental and emotional liabilities further undermine their already mediocre skills. As auto-
maker Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right! Success,
therefore, necessarily begins with the right mindset
.
The outstanding success of Talent Canada Music Academy students on their RCM practical exams comes in large part from the knowledge that they have been prepared to achieve greatness. As a result, they almost always do.
