Preparing for your Rockschool exam

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. Okay? It can feel a little bit stressful, maybe walking into a room and playing all these pieces that you've performed in your bedroom or to your friends, in front of a complete stranger.

Just remember:

• The examiner wants you to do as well as you can possibly do.
• They're not there to catch you out.

From your perspective, make sure you're extra prepared for the little extra pressure you will feel on exam day.

Practice Performance

So, what do I mean by that? Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Perform in Front of Others: Try performing your pieces in front of your parents at home or your friends as a little warm-up exam.

• Run a Mock Exam: You can run a mock exam with your teacher under exam-style conditions. This will help you mentally prepare for how it will be different from playing alone in your bedroom.

Technical Exercises

Another way to enhance your preparation is with your technical exercises:

• Rather than just learning them up to the required exam tempo, why not push that just a little bit further?
• For instance, if the required tempo is 100 bpm, aim to perform them at 120 bpm.

This way, you enter the exam knowing that you can play these exercises confidently, even when feeling a bit more pressure on the day because it's your exam.

Conclusion

Those are two really simple things I think you can do to make your exam day go a little bit smoother. Good luck!