Introduction
Examinations have been central to the College’s work since it was founded in 1864.
The College’s original Royal Charter of 1893 and revised Charters charge it to promote the arts and practice of organ playing and choral directing to the highest standards of competence and artistry, and empower it to implement such standards through examinations.
Both in the United Kingdom as well as abroad, the College’s diplomas remain as highly prized now as they were more than a century ago, not least because they continue to demand the combination of technical and interpretative skill with stylistic, analytical and historical understanding that marks out the truly accomplished musician: the Certificate (CertRCO) validates ‘reliable and confident musicianship’, Associateship (ARCO) ‘professional competency’ and Fellowship (FRCO) ‘professional expertise’, while the Licentiateship in Teaching (LTRCO) and the Choral Directing Diploma (DipCHD) validate ‘professional expertise’ in those particular skills..
Recent years have seen continuing development and refinement of the College’s examination syllabuses by the College’s Academic Board, which consists of leading practitioners and teachers working in the school, university and conservatoire sectors. Last year a number of welcome changes were introduced. The conditional marking strictures in organ playing and keyboard skills (by which it was previously possible for a candidate to achieve an aggregate pass mark, but still fail) were removed: a simple aggregate pass mark is required. All papers at ARCO, FRCO and DipCHD are now separately passable and resittable. As a result, the ARCO paperwork tasks were re-ordered with a revised schedule of marks. At DipCHD the Viva Voce was deleted and the exemption of ARCO and FRCO diploma holders from the Chorale/Counterpoint question in Paper II was removed, placing all candidates on an equal footing. New complete series of examination criteria were introduced two years ago, with improved focus and indication of artistic and technical priorities.
This year new organ playing repertoire lists at CertRCO, ARCO and FRCO have been introduced. We very much hope that candidates’ enthusiasm and imagination will be fired by the wonderful stylistic breadth of the classic organ repertoire contained in these new lists, with works familiar and less familiar and over a wide range of technical difficulty. In conjunction with these changes I can also announce that general pistons will be allowed in all organ playing examinations (previously only FRCO candidates were able to use them). It may also be noted here that in July 2011 only, candidates re-taking the organ playing part of a Practical Examination may choose some or all of their examination pieces from the previous lists (i.e. those stipulated until January 2011). If a candidate wishes to exercise this concession they must notify the College at the time of their application.
The actual process of sitting the component parts of an examination for RCO qualification may seem daunting to the candidate. However, the College's aim is to encourage and nurture candidates towards success as much as possible. All the College's qualifications are structured in a modular fashion so that they can be gained cumulatively; many candidates now successfully progress towards RCO qualifications in this manner. The College runs preparatory day-courses and workshops, it offers library resources to candidates, and past written and organ test papers are readily available from this website. I cannot emphasise enough that the most vital and valuable part of the process is the preparation and study before the examination.
The pages below this webpage give access to the General Regulations and the specific requirements for all the College's examinations. Information about examination centres, application deadlines and written paper schedules are also given. The annual publication Diploma Examinations contains all this material in one document. It is available as a download on the 'Diploma Regulations' page of this site click here, or in print on request from the College's Administration. Further details concerning examination schedules and fees are published periodically. Again, such information is available from the College website or in print on request from the College's Administration. Any further enquiries about College examinations should be addressed to the College's Administration.
Patrick Russill
Chief Examiner
Announcements
Examination Regulations 2012–2013
The examination regulations and requirements for July 2012 to January 2013 are now available to download here. The application deadlines, provisional examination timetables, and fee schedules for examination year July 2012 to January 2013 may also be found in these regulations.