The Salt Lake City chapter is one of only four chapters in the AGO West region that serves as a testing center for all of the AGO exams: Fellow, Associate, Choir Master, Colleague, and Service Playing. Because these exams are conducted in confidence, many members are not aware of how busy our chapter is in administering these various exams. This past year, we had a dozen candidates take exams through our chapter. The October issue of The American Organist has a list of this year’s successful candidates, two of which are members of our chapter: Mary Beck and Scott Mills, both of whom obtained the Colleague certificate (CAGO). Two other successful candidates who took their exam through our chapter were John Harris, who obtained the Service Playing Certificate, and Daniel Kerr, who obtained the Associate certificate (AAGO). Congratulations to all of them on their achievement, as well as to all of the candidates who spent time preparing for an exam this year.
If you are considering taking one of the exams this coming year, the national Committee on Professional Certification has recently made a number of resources available, free of charge, on the AGO website. These resources were previously available only via mail-order and for a fee, but they are now available as free PDF downloads on the AGO website. These resources include the Service Playing Test Study Guide and Sight Reading Examples, as well as the Colleague Study Guide. Previous exams and solution books are also available, free of charge, for the CAGO, AAGO, FAGO, and ChM exams. There are also a number of TAO articles and other resources available (for free!) to further assist you in your preparation for an exam. If you have any questions about taking an exam, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I promise that you won’t regret taking an AGO exam!
Ryan North, AAGO, ChM