Music majors achieve 100% pass rate on ABRSM exam

Janel Shoun | 

Lipscomb University became the first university in the United States to adopt Britain’s Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) teaching standard in 2006, and this year the first six sophomores to sit for the required exams have achieved a 100 percent pass rate.
Sophomores Anna Horne, Mallory Broadfoot, David Wolfe, Curtis Brandt, Jade Calaway and Amy Mears sat for the ABRSM grade 5 theory exams this past fall and for the grade 8 practical exams this spring, and everyone passed on the first try, an impressive accomplishment for students who have never taken an ABRSM exam before, experts say.

Horne and Broadfoot passed with distinction, an excellence level achieved by only 26 percent of the 2007 examinees in Great Britain, according to the ABRSM Website.

Front row, from l to r: Students Anna Horne, David Wolfe and Mallory Broadfoot; ABRSM Examiner Caroline Diifley; and ABRSM Nashville representative Wes Ramsay. Back row: Jerome Reed, professor of music.

ABRSM is a British registered charity established by the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. The board's chief activity is administering a set of authoritative and internationally recognized exams to assess musicians around the globe.

In 2006, Lipscomb’s Department of Music elected to incorporate the ABRSM standards into its curriculum and require students to pass the theory exam and the grade 8 practical exam as sophomores and to pass the diploma exam as rising seniors in order to graduate.

Lipscomb was the first university in the U.S. to require ABRSM exam passage for graduation, said Wes Ramsay, local representative for the ABRSM Nashville Centre.

“In the UK, ABRSM passage is the standard for university and conservatory admission. Minimal expectations for prospective students in the conservatories is grade 8 with high marks,” said Ramsay.

But in America, the ABRSM exams are lesser known. The organization conducts 650,000 exams each year all around the world, but only about 8,000 exams are conducted in America. Ramsay says ABRSM conducts between 400-600 exams in Nashville and Louisville, Ky., every six months.
American and British traditions of music instruction have evolved along two different paths, Ramsay said. In the U.S., performance is primarily stressed, with less emphasis placed on theory and aural recognition. In addition, most U.S. universities assess their graduates in-house with juried exams by faculty. This system can sometimes cause political and personal factors to affect a student’s assessment, he said.

“Because music teaching can be so subjective, the ABRSM examiner provides accountability between the students and the teacher,” Ramsey said. “The examiner’s job is to administer the examination according to carefully defined assessment criteria, and provide an objective evaluation of the student's performance in the exam. The examiner leaves behind a detailed mark sheet with comments about the student’s performance that both the teacher and student can use to improve.”

Taking on the British standard of musical accomplishment did require some changes in Lipscomb’s curriculum and teaching methods, to the betterment of the program, said Jerome Reed, professor of music. He proposed the idea of adopting the exams as part of the university president’s 2010 Initiative for program enhancement. The faculty had to incorporate explanations of British terminology and additional study of British composers. The music department ordered sample ABRSM tests to help teachers prepare the lesson plans and to help students study appropriately for the exams.

While Lipscomb’s music department has long been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, that accreditation relates to the department and program itself, not to the performance standards set for graduating students, Reed said.

“It has helped our department to have this outside agency reinforcing the standards we have been holding all along,” he said. “ABRSM is not as well known here in America, but it is very popular in the nations of the British Commonwealth. In any of those nations, this designation would show how good our students are because the standard is very rigid.”

The theory exam, which the students passed in the fall, assesses music theory knowledge that every music professional needs to know to succeed in their job, Ramsay said. “That means that all these sophomores at Lipscomb are well ahead of the curve compared to their colleagues at most universities,” he said.

Next year, the six sophomores will sit for the ABRSM diploma exam, the highest standard for the undergraduate student level, and now a requirement for graduation at Lipscomb.

A music student in Britain would have taken the ABRSM exams from an early age, progressing from grade 1 up to grade 8 and then on to the diploma, Ramsay said. So, the Lipscomb students passing the grade 8 exam on their first attempt is really a great achievement, Ramsay said.

“A 100 percent pass rate, especially in the first class, is really extraordinary,” Ramsay said. “The university is right to be proud. It’s a tribute the teaching and the hard work of the students. What Lipscomb has undertaken is truly ground-breaking.”