Teacher Page

Step 1 - the level

Have a look at our free syllabus and work out which level suits each of your students. For early levels, this method book chart will really help! You can see booking info and pricing here.

Let’s use the ‘Preliminary Piano’ level as an example. Everything you need to know can be found on the Piano syllabus page. There are several things you should take a look at:

• Start by reading the Preliminary overview

• Then click on the ‘detailed notes’ PDF on the left to see the requirements for each element in Preliminary

• Open the PDF of the Preliminary Set Pieces to see the actual music. (These are FREE PIECES - You can print these or send the link to students regardless of whether they’re preparing for an exam or not.)

• You can also click on the videos of the set pieces to help you choose - these are great for sending to students when they’re learning the piece.

Step 2 - prepare

Once you’ve decided on a level for your student, begin to prepare in lessons

• Let the student and parent know which level they are doing and discuss an approximate time frame. Send them the link to the UME website so that they can read all about it. Some teachers like to print out the detailed notes PDF for the level and stick it into the student’s folder or music book - this is great for quick reference for parents as well as teachers.

• Here’s a cute ‘planning sheet’ that is a big hit with students. Start with a blank one of these for each student - they love to add to this sheet as their exam material starts to come together!

• Use the UME pieces in your lessons. These work well as stand alone material or alongside method books or whatever you’re already using. Just choose pieces from our list that you think your student will enjoy and get started! Gradually decide on which pieces each student will perform for their exam. For levels with ‘free choice pieces’, you can present any piece of a similar difficulty and length to the set pieces. Here’s a useful website with lists of lots of suitable pieces for each level (The books itemised here may not be available globally but keep scrolling - its the lists of pieces that you’re after).

• Work through the ‘technical work’ in lessons. The great thing here is that you’ll build the scale list around the keys of their pieces. This is a how you’ll make sure your students are understanding the theory and harmony of the music they’re playing. (Makes much more sense than a random list of scales, right?) Make the most of the ‘free choice’ technical element. Students love scales in 3rds, interesting modes, double octaves for higher levels - anything you like!

• Begin looking at the ‘Essential Skills’ section. These are wonderful concepts that are important to learn and fun to teach. We suggest all students cover all skills - but when it comes to the exam, they choose just one essential skill to present. We’ve added additional ‘Essential Skills Examples’ to the syllabus page so that you’ve got plenty of material to use in lessons.

• Practise the ‘General Knowledge’ section. It’s fun to incorporate this into lessons - a good ‘off the bench’ activity. We enjoy seeing the student’s presentations of this section and we’re happy for this to be done in an informal style. The requirements are very straightforward and the goal is to help students learn more about their pieces.

Step 3 - the date

Decide WHEN to do the exam

There’s almost no risk in booking an exam with UME, as our rescheduling and cancellation process is so easy! Read more about it here.

Some teachers like to prepare all of their students for exams at a certain time of the year. Others love the flexibility of being able to work through the material and once a student is ‘ready’, book an exam date only a few weeks into the future.

Whatever your approach, we suggest that you inform the parent / student that you’d like them to do their exam and SEND THEM THE LINK and ask them to book. This means that:

• The parent / student can select a day that suits them (or a location and day and time if it’s for an in person exam!)

• The parent / student pays for the exam (no need for teacher to be involved in this process)

• The parent / student receives confirmation and follow up emails. They will be prompted to enter the teacher email so you should receive all communication as well.

• The parent / student can make changes to their exam booking if they need to - they can reschedule for free by clinking on the ‘change’ button on their booking email.

• The cost for each exam level is on the booking page - you can also find it here.

Step 4 - finishing touches

Time to get ‘Performance Ready!’

• Read through the Performance Guidelines - these are for ALL exams (video submission or in person)

• Read through the Video Guidelines if they’re booked for a video exam.

• Do a few ‘practice runs’ either in the lesson or at home - playing for a little audience is always wonderful experience.

• The Essential Skills pieces for the exam are emailed out 10 days prior to the chosen exam date. Watch out for this email and run through these in a lesson leading up to the exam.

• Get all PDF requirements ready. The details of these are on confirmation emails and reminders.

• Record the exam or be ready to turn up to the in person exam.

Step 5 - wait and then celebrate!

UME Exams are marked within a 2 week window - results are usually out about 10 days after the exam date. Click here for a sample exam report and certificate.

• Discuss how the exam went with your students as soon as you can after they complete it. Questions like ‘How did you feel? / What went well? / Did you have fun?’ tend to get a nice conversation started. We’d suggest that you focus on the positive experience of having learned and prepared all their exam material and avoid projecting what ‘mark’ they may end up with. After all, the big idea here is setting goals, working well and getting detailed feedback on a report!

• When the report arrives, talk through it with your student. We do our best to offer constructive and positive feedback to help with future learning.

• Make sure they print their certificate!

• Make a fuss of your exam students, congratulating them on your Facebook page, putting their certificates on your studio wall or announcing them at concerts and recitals.

• Share in their success and use it to encourage other families to join your fabulous studio or music school.

Additional Resources

We encourage all students to learn lots of different pieces in different styles from different sources. To help with this, we’ve got plenty of ‘extras’ on our ‘Additional Resources’ page. There are solo pieces and duets and most of them are free. You can send the link to students to listen and print the music or watch the video for early levels. We add to this page regularly so be sure to check back!