Lesson 43 of 43GuitarBeginner

Preparing for your Rockschool exam

1:28

James Barratt gives some final exam-taking tips that will help you ace your Rockschool exam.

Part of the courseRockschool Guitar Grade 343 lessons (3h 11m)

This lesson is part of the full course. 1 lesson is free to watch.

from$13/month

Subscribe to Watch

Explore the course

Cancel anytime30-day refund

What's in the course

43 lessons (3h 11m) · 1 free

- 01. Welcome to the online course
  1:33
- 02. Meet Charlie Griffiths
  1:23
- 03. Meet Rob Luft
  3:02
- 04. Meet Stuart Ryan
  1:52
- 01. Overrated
  2:03
- 02. Old Bones Blues
  1:56
- 03. Indecisive
  1:55
- 04. Maiden Voyage
  2:03
- 05. Reggae Island
  Free lesson
  1:56
- 06. Fallout
  1:59
- 01. Overrated
  11:37
- 02. Old Bones Blues
  15:12
- 03. Indecisive
  9:55
- 04. Maiden Voyage
  12:22
- 05. Reggae Island
  10:50
- 06. Fallout
  12:10
- 01. Intro to technical exercises
  2:44
- 02. Tech advice (early grades)
  3:10
- 03. Rob Luft on how to practice exercises
  3:28
- 04. Group A: Scales
  2:45
- 05. Group B: Arpeggios
  0:47
- 06. Group C: Chords
  3:08
- 01. How to hold guitar and pick
  3:47
- 02. Picking hand position
  2:22
- 03. Fretting hand position
  2:44
- 04. Alternate picking
  3:08
- 05. Legato (hammer-ons & pull-offs)
  5:29
- 06. Barre chords
  6:15
- 07. Vibrato
  7:37
- 01. Intro to Approaches to improvisation
  1:00
- 02. Getting started with improvisation
  9:22
- 03. Improvising over chord tones
  10:18
- 04. Assignment: Finding chord tones
  4:05
- 05. Adding rhythmic interest to your solos
  4:11
- 06. Assignment: Improvising over a chord change
  2:52
- 07. Challenge: Submit your improv
  0:24
- 08. Embelleshing a melody
  5:36
- 09. Challenge: Submit your melody
  0:26
- 10. Rhythmic improv & comping
  9:55
- 01. Sight reading tips
  1:51
- 01. Course outro
  0:32
- 02. About Rockschool exams
  0:30
- 03. Preparing for your Rockschool exam
  You are here
  1:28

Lesson transcript

Tips for Exam Preparation

If you are thinking of doing the exams, I've just got a few tips for you from an examiner's perspective.

Be Prepared

The first tip is to be as prepared as you can possibly be.

It can feel a little bit stressful to walk into a room and play pieces that you've performed in your bedroom or to your friends, in front of a complete stranger.
Just remember that the examiner wants you to do as well as you can possibly do, they're not there to catch you out.

Mental Preparation

From your perspective, here are some ways to make sure you're extra prepared for the pressure you might feel on exam day:

Perform for Family and Friends: Consider performing your pieces in front of your parents at home or your friends as a little warm-up exam.
Mock Exams: You can run a mock exam with your teacher under exam-style conditions. This will help you mentally prepare for how the examination setting differs from playing alone at home.

Technical Exercises

Another way to prepare is with your technical exercises:

Rather than just learning them up to the required exam tempo, push yourself a little further.
For example, if the required tempo is 100 bpm, aim to play them at 120 bpm. This way, when you go into the exam, you'll have that little bit of confidence, knowing that you can play these exercises at a higher tempo, even if you feel additional pressure on the day.