ABRSM Practical vs Performance Grades: how to choose

ABRSM offers each grade in two forms. A Practical Grade is taken face to face: three pieces, scales and arpeggios, sight-reading, and aural tests. A Performance Grade is a video: four pieces played as one program, with no scales and no tests. ABRSM says the two are equal in demand and in value. The choice comes down to what your child does well and where you live.

Side by side

	Practical Grade	Performance Grade
How it is taken	In a room with an examiner	On a video that you send in
Pieces	Three	Four
Own-choice piece	No	Yes, one of the four
Scales and arpeggios	Yes	No
Sight-reading	Yes	No
Aural tests	Yes	No
Total marks	150	150
Pass	100	100
Merit	120	120
Distinction	130	130
Grade 5 rule for Grades 6 to 8	Yes	Yes

A student can switch between the two forms from one grade to the next.

Where the marks go

Practical Grade

Part	Marks
Three pieces, 30 each	90
Scales and arpeggios	21
Sight-reading	21
Aural tests	18
Total	150

This split is from ABRSM’s bowed string syllabus. Check the syllabus for your child’s instrument.

Performance Grade

Part	Marks
Four pieces, 30 each	120
The performance as a whole	30
Total	150

In a Practical Grade the pieces carry 60 percent of the marks. In a Performance Grade they carry 80 percent, and the last 20 percent is for how the whole program comes across. ABRSM lists communication, interpretation, and delivery as the things it looks for there.

How a Performance Grade works

The program. Three pieces come from the syllabus, one from each list. The fourth is the student’s own choice. It can be another piece from the syllabus or any published piece of about the same standard. The student sets the order.

One take. The four pieces are recorded in one continuous video with no edits. A video made from more than one take is not accepted. A pause to retune stays in the recording.

The opening. The video starts with a short announcement: the student’s name, the instrument and grade, and the pieces. An adult may make the announcement. The first page of the own-choice piece is shown to the camera.

Identification. For Grades 6, 7, and 8, the student holds photo identification up to the camera for 10 seconds.

The form. The person who sends the video fills in a program form online.

The camera. ABRSM says most modern phones, tablets, and laptops will do. The examiner marks what can be seen and heard, and cannot make allowances for a poor recording.

The timing. Performance Grades are on demand. There are no sessions. The video can be sent at booking or within 28 days after.

Performance Grades are offered at Initial Grade for piano, bowed strings, and drum kit, and at Grades 1 to 8 for a range of instruments and for singing.

The Grade 5 rule applies to both

Before Grade 6, 7, or 8 in either form, a student needs a pass at Grade 5 or above in Music Theory, Practical Musicianship, or a solo Jazz Practical Grade. Read ABRSM Grade 5 theory.

Which one fits

A Practical Grade fits a child who:

• Is steady with scales
• Reads new music with some ease
• Does well with a person in the room
• Lives within reach of an exam venue

A Performance Grade fits a child who:

• Loves to perform whole pieces
• Has a piece in mind that is not on the lists
• Finds a stranger in the room hard
• Lives far from an exam venue

A Performance Grade is not less work. It asks for one more piece, and the whole program has to hold together in a single take.

A child who takes Performance Grades gets no exam practice in sight-reading or aural tests. Ask the teacher to keep both in the lessons.

Tips for the recording day

• Record in the room where your child practices
• Tune the instrument first
• Run the whole program twice in the week before, with the camera on
• Check the sound on the first test video before the real take
• Plan for two or three full takes, and send the best one

Do the two count the same?

ABRSM says yes. In a Music Teacher magazine feature, Michael Elliott wrote as ABRSM’s chief executive that Performance Grades at 6 to 8 would carry the same UCAS points as Practical Grades. UCAS points are used for university entry in the United Kingdom.

For the whole ladder, read ABRSM grades explained. To compare ABRSM with the Canadian system, read RCM vs ABRSM.

Sources

Checked in November 2026.

• ABRSM. About Performance Grades.
• ABRSM. Performance Grades: key information.
• ABRSM. Introducing Performance Grades.
• ABRSM. Performance Grades guidance.
• ABRSM. Music Performance Grades qualification specification.
• Music Teacher magazine. Share your love of performance: ABRSM, a sponsored feature by ABRSM’s chief executive.