Common Abrsm Exams Mistakes to Avoid

Every year, thousands of candidates sit ABRSM exams and come away knowing they could have done better. Some of that is simply nerves or a bad day. But a lot of it comes from preparation habits that looked fine on the surface but had subtle gaps in them — the kind of gaps that only show up when you're sitting in front of an examiner or pressing record. Here are the mistakes that come up most often in ABRSM exams, and what to do differently.

Mistake 1: Only Ever Practising from the Beginning

It feels natural to start a piece at bar one every time you sit down to practise. The problem is that this creates a performance that's most reliable at the start and increasingly fragile as it progresses. In an ABRSM examination, a small slip at bar 30 can lead to a much longer unravelling simply because the candidate has never practised starting from bar 31.

The fix is straightforward: practise starting from different points in each piece, regularly. Work through difficult passages in isolation. Then put them back in context from a bar or two before the problem point. An examiner should hear a confident, flexible performance, not one that's been drilled exclusively from the top.

Mistake 2: Leaving Scales and Technical Work Until Last

Candidates often treat scales as something to learn for the exam rather than as part of ongoing musical development. The result is a frantic few weeks before the exam trying to memorise requirements that should have been absorbed gradually over months. Scales practised under pressure rarely sound as fluent as those learned steadily over time.

The better approach is to integrate scales, arpeggios, and technical work into regular practice throughout the preparation period — not just as a box to tick, but as part of building the technical foundation the pieces depend on. A well-controlled scale at the right tempo, with a clear tone and even articulation, demonstrates musicianship that feeds directly into everything else.

Mistake 3: Neglecting Aural Tests Until the Week Before

Aural tests are consistently underprepared. Many candidates arrive knowing their pieces well but with only a vague sense of what the aural requirements involve at their grade. In ABRSM exams, the aural section can cover singing back a melody, describing musical features, identifying changes in pitch or rhythm, or responding to questions about a performed extract. These skills don't develop overnight.

Building aural awareness into every lesson — singing through intervals, clapping rhythms from memory, discussing dynamics and character in pieces currently being worked on — is far more effective than a last-minute rush through past test examples. The aural work that helps most in ABRSM exams is the kind that's been embedded into normal practice for months.

Mistake 4: Not Recording Practice Performances

The exam is a performance. Most preparation is practice, which is a different state of mind. One of the most effective ways to bridge that gap is to record complete, uninterrupted run-throughs and listen back critically. What does the timing sound like? Where are the continuity gaps? Is the musical shape clear from bar one to the end?

Listening back to a recording reveals things that are invisible in the middle of playing. A phrase that felt musical in the moment can sound rushed or shapeless when heard from the outside. Regular recorded performances, treated like the real thing, make the actual exam less unfamiliar.

Mistake 5: Misunderstanding What "Performance Grade" Means

Some candidates choose Performance Grades with the assumption that they are simply easier than Practical Grades because they remove scales, sight-reading and aural tests. That's a misunderstanding. The performance standard for a Performance Grade is comparable to the equivalent Practical Grade, and the requirement for four well-prepared, musically coherent pieces is a significant undertaking. The format is different, not easier.

Choosing between Practical and Performance format should be based on which plays to your genuine strengths, not on avoiding components that feel uncomfortable. If sight-reading, scales, and aural work feel like weaknesses, the preparation time is almost certainly better invested in building those skills than in avoiding them entirely. Both formats are real ABRSM exams with real musical expectations.

Mistake 6: Underestimating the Theory Prerequisite

Candidates aiming for Grades 6, 7 or 8 must have achieved Grade 5 in Music Theory, Practical Musicianship, or an accepted equivalent before booking the exam. This catches students out when they've worked to a high performance standard but haven't sat the Theory exam, or assumed the prerequisite could be satisfied by a different qualification. Confirm the exact accepted equivalents with ABRSM directly and plan the Theory pathway well in advance.

ABRSM's online Theory exams at Grades 1–5 are accessible and results are usually available within about four weeks. There's no good reason to delay them.

Mistake 7: Using Old or Incorrect Editions

ABRSM syllabuses specify permitted editions for each piece. Using an edition that isn't on the permitted list, or one that hasn't been checked against the current syllabus, can mean playing a version with different articulations, dynamics, or even notes from what ABRSM expects. This is a small but entirely avoidable source of marks lost.

Check the exact permitted editions from the current official syllabus — not from a friend's older copy, not from a well-meaning forum post, and not from a previous syllabus period. Syllabuses change, and the official PDF is always the definitive source.

Mistake 8: Underusing the Examiner's Written Feedback

ABRSM provides written feedback with all Practical and Performance Grade results. It is one of the most useful things the assessment process produces, and it's frequently either skimmed once and forgotten or not given to the student at all. An examiner's written comments on a specific performance offer exactly the kind of targeted guidance that's hard to find elsewhere.

Read the feedback carefully. Work through it with your teacher. Use it to set specific preparation goals for the next grade. It's not criticism for its own sake — it's a professional assessment of what was achieved and what needs more work, which is precisely what progress requires.

For a thorough overview of how the ABRSM grade system works and what each pathway involves, the complete guide to ABRSM exams is the place to start before preparing for any grade.

The Bottom Line

Good preparation for ABRSM exams is mostly about consistent, varied practice over time — not cramming. The most avoidable mistakes are the ones that come from wishful thinking: the scales will learn themselves, the aural will come naturally, the old edition will probably be fine. They won't and it probably won't. Start earlier than you think you need to, practise from every point in every piece, and use the examiner's feedback properly. That's most of what separates candidates who improve steadily from those who plateau.

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