A Big Relief!

I received two pieces of good news today. First, my sister-in-law Kimberly sent me an e-mail saying that all is well at her house. We'd been hearing about the floods in England, which are occurring in the region where she and Tim live. They're still under a flood warning, but they've taken precautions, and so far, their house has escaped the floods.

The other good news is that I got Julia's revised theory mark today. Julia wrote the RCM Preliminary Rudiments theory exam in May and did her Grade 5 Practical exam in June. The marks appear on the RCM Web site as soon as the exams are graded but it often takes weeks, even months, for the official results to arrive in the mail. We found out, shortly after she'd written the exams, that she'd passed her practical exam but got only 35% on the theory exam! This was a shock to all of us and to Julia's piano teacher. I suspected an error but we had to wait for the mailed copy. In the meantime, poor Julia had to go through a month and a half thinking that she'd failed the exam.

Today, I checked the site again and saw that the theory mark had changed substantially, presumably because someone at RCM spotted and corrected the error, and she did pass after all! We still haven't received the written copy, but I'm assuming the new on-line mark is the correct one. So with both theory and practical exams completed, Julia will now receive her Grade 5 certificate.

Julia is not very keen on continuing the RCM program, though she did agree to continue taking lessons from her teacher, so these may be the last tests she writes. We're glad she wants to continue with piano lessons and are OK with whatever style of music she chooses to play. In the fall, she'll have the challenge of learning a new band instrument as part of the academic requirements at her new junior high school.