MMAConferencerevisited

An effect of good quality assessment criteria is that they can be owned by everyone. ABRSM's revised marking criteria are designed to be useful for everyone involved in the exam experience - and of course that isn't just the examiner! It's the teacher, candidate and beyond that, parents, applicants, stewards, accompanists; everybody involved in the team-effort needed for every candidate to come through the door for their ABRSM exam.

When we began revising the marking criteria for our Graded Music Exams, we focused on what the examiner can hear and see in the exam room on the day, rather than any aspects beyond the exam room, for example preparation or promise. We wanted criteria which make it clear and easy to assess the degree of control shown in the playing or singing over the various natural parameters of performing. It helps examiners describe the elements of music making that they hear, ensuring that the full range of aspects of the playing or singing are taken account in their assessment.

Music making exists in real time, so any valid assessment of playing and singing must weigh up strengths and weaknesses simultaneously, as it goes along. This is very much the ABRSM model of assessment. Our criteria encourage examiners to think about each of the essential elements of musical performance and give an indication of what's going well, and not so well. This is a diagnostic

process, up or down from the pass mark, weighing in the balance the strengths and weaknesses that are manifest in terms of musical outcome, during the exam, on the day.

When assessing musical progression, you need to make sure you're measuring the right thing. Marking criteria based on the fundamentals of music itself, will ensure that you're assessing all the skills of a well-rounded musician. Effective assessment needs to be meaningful if it is to have any motivational impact or value. Our revision of the criteria provides descriptive benchmarks for measuring progress, from one attainment level to the next.

It's tempting to see the musical progression as something linear, as in progression through the Grades; 1 then 2 then 3 and so on. In fact, a more significant measure of progression, is the journey from dependence to independence, from reliance on the teacher to have responsibility for the learning, to becoming the student's own responsibility. An independent learner needs to how to 'self-assess'.

The ABRSM criteria are designed to be insightful in this way, and lead onto the next stage of learning - providing clear descriptors, so that a learner can see for themselves the different levels of attainment in each area of their music-making.

Ultimately, the role assessment plays in musical progression is part of a virtuous circle. The first stage is progression, getting better at something, to the point where there's a sense of attainment. This is then recognised and formalised by a summative assessment, which in turn then provides motivation, inspiration and guidance onto the next stage. This triggers the next stage of progression, and so the 'virtuous circle' continues! There is a very important and valuable relationship between assessment and progression, and ABRSM's hope is that through our diagnostic approach to assessment we can sustain and encourage, support and inspire musical learning and progression more effectively than ever.

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Ensemble Magazine

StatementsJohn Holmes

S

John Holmes is ABRSM's Chief Examiner, providing leadership and direction to all ABRSM examiners, with responsibility for achieving and maintaining the highest standards

of examining. As a clarinettist, he has performed with professional orchestras, and for many years the focus of his work was instrumental and academic teaching at Tonbridge School.

The role of assessment in musical progression

“Marking criteria based on the fundamentals of music itself, will ensure that you're assessing all the skills of a well-rounded musician.”