ABRSM Exams are a prestigious music certification that Maggie highly recommends for her students to take annually. Conducted by highly trained examiners, these exams provide a balanced and objective evaluation. They offer the right mix of encouragement and challenge to spur students on, turning seemingly impossible goals into manageable steps.
ABRSM (The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) is the UK’s largest music education body, one of its largest music publishers and the world’s leading provider of music exams, offering assessments to more than 630,000 candidates in 93 countries every year. In partnership with the Royal Schools of Music, they support high-quality music-making and learning around the world. For more detail, please click ABRSM
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ABRSM Graded Music Exams - Focusing on all-round musicianship
​ABRSM believe in the importance of all-round musicianship and this forms the basis of their exams. To become an all-round musician students need a range of interlocking skills – in performance, technique, notation, and listening and musical perception – as well as knowledge, understanding and creativity. These are the things they assess in their exams.
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​ABRSM exams are music exams rather than instrumental or singing exams. Examiners are assessing the quality of the music-making, not how it is achieved. For this reason they do not restrict examiners to assessing only their own instrument but require them to examine all instruments.
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​They have designed their graded music exams to motivate instrumental and singing students of all ages and a wide range of abilities. They are available at eight levels – Grades 1 to 8 – and provide:
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Progressive goals to aim for.
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Recognition for achievement.
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Carefully structured syllabus requirements.
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One-to-one assessment by an expert professional.
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An objective guide to a candidate’s skills and progress.
​There are no age restrictions and students can start with any grade or skip grades if they want to.