DanceTeacher

Thank you to everyone for your feedback. It's been a great help to me. For the time being, I think I will continue with free work and not enter any candidates for exams. I haven't given the results to my students yet. I wanted to reflect on the situation and get some feedback from other teachers first. However, I will leave it to each student if they wish to have a result enquiry. On a final note the whole thing has left a very bad taste in my mouth....

Anna C thank you for your message. As a teacher you know roughly where each student falls (distinction, high merit, low merit, pass etc). I don't compare theses students with previous ones. Based on the amount of work (2.5 years, 3 hours a week plus a lot of extra coaching) we did for this exam and yes, taking into consideration they are doing a vocational exam and not a grade, I believe they should have come out with higher marks. I do think it is very important to be objective and reasonable as a teacher. As I mentioned in a previous comment above, I wasn't expecting four high distinctions but they got very low merits which I cannot justify after so much work and attention to detail (free work prep, performance, music, use of space etc.). My original enquiry was if I should appeal or not however, reading other comments and based on other teachers' experience, I don't think it will lead anywhere. All the best,

Thank you everyone for your replies. It's much appreciated. LaCamargo thank you for letting me know. I was watching videos of my students when we did Zoom lessons and then going over every section of their marking, thinking 'am I going crazy here?' Again, under no circumstances I was expecting high distinctions. But after 2.5 years of hard work (they studied three hours a week plus exam coaching) such low merits came as quite a shock! I haven't decided yet either.

Thank you very much for your replies DD Driver. I really appreciate it. Yes, I have seen this video, it's lovey and so inspiring. The exam took place at Headquarters and my students were the 2nd group of the day, so the examiner had seen only one group before them. Unfortunately, as you say mostly likely I will not get another result and the whole process will take so long it will be pointless. I was just wondering if anyone had a similar experience. I think it's very difficult to give an accurate description of the students over the internet. But we spent a good two and a half years learning and preparing for the exam and did a lot of Zoom over the summer so they could stay in shape. Most students who take these exams don't have the perfect classical ballet physique. It's all about the training, the students understanding, progress, work ethic etc. As their teacher I feel we did give our best (if I can say that myself). Again, for me it's not why they didn't get a 90/100 (past marks were way better than what they got this time). It's a vocational exam and as a teacher you have to be realistic. But giving every student pretty much the same mark makes me wonder if she was really paying attention to them. I am very sorry I don't mean to sound rude or ungrateful (especially considering what's going on in the world right now).

Hello dance teachers, I have just received the results from the RAD for a group of Inter. F I entered back in November. Naturally, live classes cannot be replaced by Zoom but I have to say I was very disappointed. I wasn't expecting all students to get high distinctions (especially given the circumstances) but they had 3 zoom classes per week plus all the work we had done before lockdown. I felt they were very well prepared as they were going to do this exam back in March but we went into the first lockdown and they missed it. The results were three low merits and one high merit. Looking at their results most of the marks are the same for each candidate. Mostly 6/10. They all have very different bodies, sense of performance etc. so I find it very strange that most of the marks in almost every section are the same. One of them was a clear Distinction (she always gets a distinction and has a good physique for classical ballet) and got 71/100. I was wondering if it is worth asking for an appeal or complaining about it. I don't know if anyone has ever done that before (I feel it will be a total waist of time and money) but I would really appreciate some feedback. I have been entering students for RAD and ISTD exams for many years and roughly I know what to expect each time but these results don't represent the students. Thank you in advance!