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Australian Institute Of Music - Music Theatre Review (1 Viewer)

thelillmango

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Hi,

This thread is for anyone who plans to audition for the music theatre course at the Australian Institute Of Music. I just want to tell you my experience of being in that particular course.

Long story short: I'm quitting and I'm not coming back.

Long story: I've come into contact with a lot of bad and indifferent teachers whose methods of teaching are ineffective and bordering on emotional abuse. In this trimester in particular, I've had a teacher come into my coaching session ten minutes before it ended. We had a class rescheduled and we weren't told about it (we all got up early for a 9am class to be told in that class that it's been pushed back to 1pm). Also in the same class, we've had our week 11 and week 12 lessons cancelled because the space we're usually in was booked for something else which was fine but they don't plan to make up for it. We paid for 12 weeks of classes not 10. As a result of our classes being cancelled, our assessments were pushed forward resulting in us putting together a big performance assessment literally within a week. And while I'm on the subject of assessments, most universities are required to provide a course outline or in the case of AIM an EUO (extended unit outline) so students can see what outcomes they are expected to achieve at the end of the course, outlines for assessments and possibly even a schedule. AIM's EUOs are subject to interpretation and the assessment dates and tasks often change which I find defeats the purpose of a course outline. Also, the outcomes are not always made very clear either. Another thing I've found that was quite common in the music theatre stream at AIM was their constant use of the phrase, "It's what happens in the industry" as an excuse for bad organisation and low quality teaching. Sure that may happen in the industry but if it happens in the industry, we at least get paid for it. This is an educational institute and we haven't paid for sub-standard teaching and to be tossed around because of someone's inability to get organised.

Anyways, I'm not going to go so far as to say everything was bad. I've had some great teachers too, in particular Tony Cogin and Tyran Parke who are really invested in the education of students and will really help you grow as a performer but I'm not willing to pay a couple thousand dollars per trimester for just a couple of good teachers.

This is just my experience and I'm sure others have positive tales but as a student I'm not pleased. I reckon if you want to get into music theatre and want to study it in Sydney, probably best to steer away from this school and look at the places that the successful performers went to. If you look at most commercial music theatre shows anyways, you'll find there are few possibly even no AIM students present in the cast.

I just want to also state that this is the music theatre stream in particular.

EDIT: I've had a dance/movement teacher there for the past two trimesters who has no clue how to teach. She has a habit of picking on students and humiliating them in front of the class and goes on to say, "You're not in trouble" as if this justifies her behaviour. The students haven't been improving under her tutelage as she is such a bad teacher. It's no surprise that AIM is not well known for its dancing. She's had a number of complaints from students but she still remains to work for this school. I know dance teachers can be tough and I've had my fair share of tough dance teachers but there is a difference between a tough love teacher who is really invested in your education and learning and one that just abuses their power in the classroom and quite clearly has no clue on how to teach.
 
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