just sat down for an hour and worked out my grade schedule.
I’ve got 11 weeks to the exam, and 8 weeks to put in for the exam (cant afford to waste $90 doing it, includes paying the piano player).
Lots of tactics in exam marking – out of 150 marks.

3 songs each carry 30 marks (total of 90 marks) one song is a solo piece not accompanied by the piano.

1 sight reading song, allowed 30 seconds to practice 21 marks (total of 111 marks)

play some scales & arpeggios from memory 21 marks (total of 132)

Aural tests in 4 parts 18 marks (total of 150 marks)

i need 100 marks – pass
or 120 marks – merit
or 130 marks – distinction.

When i did grade 2 last year i only got a merit.

If i did the grade 3 today i would get roughly about 40 marks in total. So for the next 8 weeks i have to up my game in each of the 4 areas – just to get enough marks for a pass mark. 8 weeks is a long time, but in terms of lessons its only 8 lessons with the teacher to judge/correct.

To practice/play the sight reading part, would be the equivalent standard of the upload i just did, but it would only be 3 lines of music (max 24 bars) – id get 30 seconds to run through it, and like kevin says everthing would be marked on correct speeds in the bars, dynamics, articulation, tone etc… sight reading tests are very challenging, compared to playing 3 pieces youve spent months on.

The downside of doing grades is for those few months everything else gets put on hold and it does take the fun out of playing an instrument. As no one wants to hear practing.

I look at it from the point of view if your playing is at different levels (novice, amateur, pro etc) you should have no problem passing the different grade levels if you find playing stuff at a specific grade level quite easy.

Its quite common to work through the various grade levels, and just do the final grades.

Working through the grades is a nice progression of learning – you then get to judge sheet music whether or not you are expected to be able to play it properly at the grade you have completed. The upload i did would be classed as the grade 4 above me, so i wouldn’t be too concerned about the playing standard of it, but i would expect certain areas of it to be a lot less sloppy.

When i do grade 4 next year, if i pass it with a merit, then if i played that upload like that, i wouldn’t deserve to be in possession of a grade 4 cerificate. I should be able to play that perfectfly after an hours practice.

Hi Jeffrey

yeah he’s a great player, watched most of his videos sometime ago.

The backing track i used is the one from JF’s site, well worth the money as you can get the sheet/sheets, track/tracks that work for alto and tenor. Unlike music books – you often may have to buy one book for each instrument.

out of 25 pieces the 3 pieces i’ve selected are ‘waltz for Emily’, ‘thoughful sax’ & ‘morning’. I can play all 3 of them now in terms of notes, but i shall have to spend a lot of time getting in time, correct dynamics, expression, correct speeds in the bars etc..

in terms of progress the pro that teaches me is the first port of call for grade exam feedback, he knows all about the grade marking system, and what the examiner is looking for in terms of marks (makes a huge difference when you know what they are looking at when they mark you).

But honestly the higher up the grading system you get, you become less dependent on people correcting errors, as you should
start to notice them while you’re playing.

one of the things that surprises me is you don’t get any extra marks for playing from memory.

I now mainly putting my uploads up to encourage other learners to put their stuff up in case they are holding back if they think they aren’t worthy of listening to. A rough diamond isn’t of any use until its cut & polished.

Hi Jeffrey

Morning
http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Classic-Experience-Alto-Sax-Piano/595433

Waltz for Emily
http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Rae-James-Blue-Saxophone-for-alto-or-tenor-saxophone-and-piano/615951

Thoughtful Sax
http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Bullard-Alan-Sixty-for-Sax/904956

A fantastic grade 3 song practice book is
http://www.amazon.com/Grade-Alto-Saxophone/dp/0851629830

I would recommend this to anyone thinking of doing Grade 3,
If you are struggling to play any of the songs in this book,
or if you can’t play any of them with these with ease,
then i would safely say you’re not quite ready for grade 3.

Bear in mind, the tunes in these books could be rewritten,
for someone doing grade 3, and the original tunes may even be harder.

In the exam, you would only 8 marks out of 30 just for playing ‘Thoughtful sax’ all the way through without stopping, even if the timing was out, and the dynamics were wrong, and it was expressionless. Obviously it’s important to get all the other stuff in order, to get the full marks.
So if you played all 3 songs like that, you would be lucky to get 24 marks out of a possible 90 marks. But it’s not something to make a big deal about, couple of weeks practice and you would soon bump it up to 75 marks out of 90.