A bit ridiculous really..

daggy

So we had music practicals in school today and i was actually shocked at the conduct of our examiner.. outrageous.

She examined in a very subjective way, is that fair?
She hated everything except classical music.
She was really REALLY condescending i nearly screamed! I just sucked up to her , manners manners manners .
She seemed more interested in my english accent than my actual playing.

She hardly looked at me while i was playing.
A friend was playing a tricky Chopin piano piece , and deep in concentration was put off by the examiner who was wandering around the room and dropped her books.

The first guy to go in was playing drums with guitar and vocal accompaniment. Sound level and intensity is a big issue but they had set it up (as advised by music teacher ) to be very balanced and as quiet as they could afford it to be.
The examiner went nuts!! Told guitar player to turn off amp and play clean electric and the singer to not use mike... so they did and surprise surprise all you could hear were the drums. So then she told him to leave and sort something out because she wasnt going to put "up with it". poor guy was devastated...

When I went in and set up she looked at my instrument and questioned as to what it actually was! Is that not a bit shocking? I was playing in a group .She assumed oh is it a guitar... i said no ACTUALLY it's an electric bass guitar.
Wary that she wouldnt like it to be too loud I gave her a test of it and asked if it was ok. She asked me to turn it down so low i could barely hear myself in the group. I couldnt complain at the time really..

Before my second song i asked her if i was loud enough and if i could turn up and she said the worst thing yet...

"oh no it's fine, i can see your hands moving i can tell your playing it's fine"

whatever happened to listening to the music?

ARRRGH! I am peeved...:mad:
she is supposed to have been marking very high in other schools so i suppose it doesnt really matter at the end of the day but JESUS that woman needs to work in a sweet shop or something..not as a music examiner. gook bag.feel better after that rant now! cheers haha.

hatrickpatrick

Wow. Recruiting a ***** like that really sounds like a departmental **** up on an EPIC scale.

All I can suggest is wait until you get your results in August. If she screws you up, appeal. In the meantime, I would actually consider lodging an official complaint, because it really sounds utterly appalling...

PurpleFistMixer

How can you tell she examined subjectively if you didn't see the marks?

One of the girls in my music class was put off because our examiner kept staring at her when she was playing, I guess there's no happy middle.

But yeah, that sounds terrible. I don't know if my examiner was like that because we were all playing classical instruments...

Apparently they're meant to really like marking groups because it's less time for the same number of people done, clearly not your examiner though. I'd say get your music teacher to write a letter of complaint... the french teachers in my school sent one off to the department because of our oral examiner being a frigid ice-queen who made people cry.

daggy

Subjectively in that she praised each classical musician afterwards... She actually even spoke to our music teacher briefly and said that she "disliked" "rock" music .Luckily, i wasnt playing that genre.

Just because she enjoyed the music as she happened to like that particular genre... i meant subjective in that way. As in her particular tastes really influenced her examining and behaviour towards the musicians.i think thats the most crucial part of becoming a music examiner really...but then , who knows if that was reflected in her marking but judging from everything she said and did i would think it very possible.
im fuming about this still ! grrrrr :mad: ! 50%!

She was , to put it simply , a big old fashioned BITCH who hasnt tuned into reality in a while.

I probably won't complain.. too chicken. I don't think she was mean on the marks..not that i saw them. stupid old lady.

meeka

Ah, that sounds horrible!

I was a bit put off for mine when I saw my examiner kind of looking around the room while I was singing, but I suppose it doesn't mean much really, better than having her stare at me I think.

Hopefully you got the marks anyway, but really, statements like "Oh I can see your hands moving, I can tell you're playing" are a bit ... well, appalling.

It just occured to me recently, that it's impossible to recheck a music practical - they're not all recorded like the orals. Surely they should be? It is worth 50%, and if you had a dodgy examiner..

KeyLimePie

oh wow! she sounds like a nightmare:(
here's hoping u got good marks anyways

the german oral examiner in my school wasnt paying attention to anything and was spinning around in the chair as they were answering questions
not as bas as urs but it's fun to laugh at :P

Acid_Violet

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

the french teachers in my school sent one off to the department because of our oral examiner being a frigid ice-queen who made people cry.

How do you know she was frigid?:p

Definitely put forward a complaint from the teacher detailing very well all the things that were said and done by the examiner.

I heard that the french examiner in some unnamed posh boys school called one boy a spoiled brat when she found out that he drives to school (with his mums car and drops off his brothers and sisters also, but it's uncalled for anyway) and then reiterating it when he said he didn't know what his sailing boat was made of :rolleyes:

This one is better though. French examiner in an equally posh dublin boys school stopped the tape during the exam and told him 'you're not getting any sympathy marks for that' when he told her that his mum had died last year. When his teacher heard, she came in and absolutely ripped it out of her.

teckoda

That indeed is outrageous. I personally would report her to the Department of Education. Our examiner was really nice, and really made everyone feel comfortable no matter how bad anyone played. He told everyone to enjoy the day and thats what they done.

The funniest bit I found was when a friend of mine sung one of his own songs. Now it had several curses in it which the teacher warned him not to say during the exam. But we all said feck it, and he left them in. The examiner was in stitches laughing and actually enjoyed the song.

But back on topic, That really does not seem fair. And you should do something about it.

Peleus

Acid_Violet wrote: »

This one is better though. French examiner in an equally posh dublin boys school stopped the tape during the exam and told him 'you're not getting any sympathy marks for that' when he told her that his mum had died last year. When his teacher heard, she came in and absolutely ripped it out of her.

that is ****ing rediculous. I would have called her an ugly bitch and walked out. The tapes off so anything goes.

rainbowtrout

I would think you have grounds for complaint. I examine the practical component in Agricultural Science and we have to attend a conference every year before we go out to schools. There are very clear guidelines about how you go about examining. One of them (and I imagine this applies across the board in all subject areas) is that you are not there to tell a student they were good, bad or indifferent, and all students are to be treated equally. An examiner is not there to pass personal judgement on the student or to make the interview/performance difficult. They are there to give as many marks as possible to the student for what they know/what they are able to do. They are meant to try and make you feel at ease if you are nervous, not the other way around. Personally I think that kind of behaviour from an examiner is unacceptable.

The music practicals were on in the school I work in today and the school gym sounded like backstage at Glastonbury for a couple of hours, but from what I understand the music practical is supposed to be about a student's ability to play/sing, not about their personal taste in music.

rainbowtrout

meeka wrote: »

It just occured to me recently, that it's impossible to recheck a music practical - they're not all recorded like the orals. Surely they should be? It is worth 50%, and if you had a dodgy examiner..

I don't think you can recheck the music practical. The interviews I do for Ag Science are not recorded and they can't be rechecked although the set up is a little different as the teacher grades and the examiner monitors....

Anyway, you may not be able to do anything about the grades but you can make a complaint.

PurpleFistMixer

Hm, she recorded me for the practical... I was the first person in so I was standing around setting up my violin as she flicked back over the tape trying to find the end of it. I got to hear snatches of people who'd played before in whatever school she was in. Bit intimidating, but at least I didn't hear anyone destroying me on my own pieces.

It was a bit offputting when we were singing in a group, she'd laid everyone's exam pages out according to where they were standing, so you could see her moving from person to person. Got you wondering if you'd screwed up or something...

Acid_Violet: some of the girls made passes at her, she didn't reciprocate, musta been frigid. (That or I was using it to mean "cold and uninterested")

rainbowtrout

i wasn't aware that (some) music practicals were recorded. maybe it's to ensure standards are kept. We have our own external monitors to make sure we're doing the job properly. Mine sits in on my interviews in one of my schools which he picks at random

must ask the music teacher tomorrow, she's also an examiner

Acid_Violet

They do record the music practicals, they did for the JC at least, I'm 100% certain of that.

Acid_Violet

rainbowtrout wrote: »

One of them (and I imagine this applies across the board in all subject areas) is that you are not there to tell a student they were good, bad or indifferent, and all students are to be treated equally. An examiner is not there to pass personal judgement on the student or to make the interview/performance difficult.

The music examiner told a girl who goes to my singing teacher not to do medicine but to go into singing instead, and not to do music technology but to sing him another two songs. Works both ways I guess....

Jay P

My music teacher told us that theres loads of old biddies like that in the department, but last year they had one of the head examiners who was really open-minded and liked everything, but mostly its exactly like you said, narrow-minded and old fashioned.

Edit: And weird!

meeka

Acid_Violet wrote: »

They do record the music practicals, they did for the JC at least, I'm 100% certain of that.

She definitely didn't record mine anyway - a couple of people in my class said she recorded them, but she definitely didn't record everyone.

I don't remember being recorded for my JC, either... although I did mine a month or so later, I was sick when the practicals were on, so I dunno.

gaeilgegrinds

Interested to know how you know she marked other schools (candidates) highly? Surely she's not giving out marks. Not allowed.

daggy

Ah yes, well my teacher has the connections you see.. kidding.She was speaking to nearby school's music teachers , as they had the same examiner . The teacher said that many of the students saw their marks as they were chatting the examiner up before leaving. Flimsy anecdotal evidence really.. but they all scored A's and B's, from what they saw.

dintbo

Thats really bad behaviour on the examiners part. Both JC and LC examiners in my school were really nice. Int his day and age they all shouls be, especially as most HL LC music students do the 50% practical option.

BTW only 10% of music practicals are recorded in each school.

1huge1

Acid_Violet wrote: »

This one is better though. French examiner in an equally posh dublin boys school stopped the tape during the exam and told him 'you're not getting any sympathy marks for that' when he told her that his mum had died last year. When his teacher heard, she came in and absolutely ripped it out of her.

Thats appalling :eek: