Andrew I should make myself clear, I didnt mean beginners as beginner pieces for normal people who are starting out, I meant that  a student trying to get into the royal college would be expected to play this or some other piece of similar standard, as a starting point for the studies that they would then undertake during their time at the college.  As you point out they would probaly go to chethams first  and apply for the royal college after a few years, mind you, those who learn at Chethams are all excellent musicians, only h othe week I was listening to a young fellow in Manchester who studies there , he was busking and playing paganinis caprice 24, he was brilliant he looked about 13 or 14 but these days its hard for me to guess age, if hes there again I will film him and put the vid on here

JohnG said
It's nice to know our expert(?) assessment of their talents is supported by the musical world! Pretty impressive careers.

  

Actually there is a lot of truth in what You say John I have seen Buskers who are incredible musicians, reduced to playing for pennies on street corners, and at the same time I have  walked past people screeching out Adele tunes with a backing track playing in the background and people love them, sing along and throw the fivers in there bucket, it all in the end comes down to the cloth ears of the audience and what they like.

When I played in  a group years ago, if I hit a bad note, i would play the same bad note when  it came round again  and the audience would think I was playing it correctly. the vast majority of people wouldnt know an a from a, b, and wouldnt care either as long as they were entertained.

I have a video somewhere that I will post if I can find it, of a busker in Chester, top notch Irish fiddle player which wasnt good enough to grab audience attention so he played the fiddle while standing on one leg on a tightrope, absolutely true, and even though its funny I find it quite sad.