Examinations | 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 Licientiateship in Teaching (LTRCO) and the Choral Directing Diploma (DipCHD) validate ‘professional expertise’ in those particular skills..
This year sees further 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. 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) have now been removed: a simple aggregate pass mark will be required. All papers at ARCO, FRCO and DipCHD are now separately passable and resittable: an especially welcome development we believe. As a result, the ARCO paperwork tasks have been reordered with a revised schedule of marks. At DipCHD the Viva Voce has been deleted and the exemption of ARCO and FRCO diploma holders from the Chorale/Counterpoint question in Paper II has been removed, placing all candidates on an equal footing. We believe these changes will be warmly welcomed as have the new complete series of examination criteria, introduced last year, with their improved focus and indication of artistic and technical priorities. At the time of writing, new organ playing repertoire lists at CertRCO, ARCO and FRCO are now being prepared for implementation in July 2011.
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 2010–2011
The examination regulations and requirements for July 2010 to January 2011 are now available (> click here). The application deadlines, provisional examination timetables, and fee schedules for examination year July 2010 to January 2011 may also be found in these regulations.
Candidates are asked to note a number of changes. From July 2010 onwards the following regulations will come into effect:
1. All marking strictures for the Organ Playing and Keyboard Skills parts of Practical Examinations will be removed. To achieve a satisfactory pass mark it will no longer be necessary to pass two out of three pieces (Organ Playing) and three out of four tests (Keyboard Skills).
2. The two written papers set in the ARCO, FRCO and DipCHD paperwork sections will be separately passable and re-sittable. A pass in any one paper will be valid for a period of four years and, as elsewhere in the College’s exemption scheme, will be conditional upon continuous membership of the College during that period. Until such time as one of the two papers is passed, both written papers must be taken together. In line with this regulation, the format of the ARCO Written Papers will be modified; this will affect the delivery and the mark schedule, but not the nature of the tasks set.
3. The Viva voce in the DipCHD Practical Examination will be removed. As a consequence the mark schedule for the DipCHD Practical Examination has been altered.
4. Holders of the FRCO diploma and the ARCO Written Papers will no longer be able to claim an exemption from sitting the Bach Chorale/Three-Part Counterpoint question (Question 1) in DipCHD Written Paper II. This question will be obligatory.
5. The melody of the Figured Bass test in the CertRCO Keyboard Skills examination will be played by an examiner.