"The annual grading examination of China Conservatory of Music is held once a year in July or August. The grading method is to recite the music to be played, basically two groups of scale arpeggios, one for etude, polyphony, sonata and music. The registration fee is about 2 yuan each time. The certificate won't be available until the second year. The grade examination is not very difficult. You can skip grades in the first five levels, and then you can only take the first-level exam. In the past few years, the highest level was level 9, but in recent years it has been raised to level 1, also known as performance level.