Level Discovery!

I've recently been looking at the RCM syllabus for piano. The technical requirements are quite detailed and seem to indicate that my current level (Sept. 14, 2016) is the seventh of their system. 

I currently have all major keys under my fingers pretty well in parallel motion, all white keys in contrary motion and I've started on the black. I don't have all the black minors down yet, and I haven't truly started on the melodic minor. But judging from the above list, it seems I'm about 70% complete with all RCM requires for level 7, and I already play them at a faster tempo than their minimum, so that also indicates this might be my current level. This is heartening because I remember looking at the technique for as low as level 3 several months ago (and level 1 two years ago when I started) and finding a lot on the list I hadn't even covered yet. So if I ever wanted proof of progress, here it is. 

The arpeggios I've also covered, although there's plenty of room for improvement in that department. Arpeggios are fiendishly difficult! I certainly have the tonic four-note chords down—always have had from my days of playing by ear. I've recently learned the cadences from the method books I've been using for sight reading, but even though the chords' inversions per se are no problem either, I really should practice playing them in succession—if only for the sake of being comprehensive. 

My dominant and diminished seventh arpeggios need some attention. I've only practised them sporadically in the past, just enough to realize how fun the diminished seventh is in the way it sounds and the way it's played. 

I've also identified a video of a student playing her Level 7 RCM pieces rather well. I'm going to try some of them, since I own the repertoire book that contains them. I tried a bit of Maykapar's Toccatina and it's fitting pretty easily under my fingers, so this fact supports my hypothesis as well. 

Sept. 21, 2016 Update: 
I've been practising the first couple phrases of the Maykapar for about a week (since Sept. 13, missing one day, I think) and even though it lay pretty well under my fingers from the beginning, since several of the figures in the right hand are variations of each other, it was hard to play the right note group at the right time and not get it mixed up with an earlier or later one. Today, finally, I felt my hand relax into the pattern, so that I no longer needed to worry about messing up. I'd played the entire portion correctly several times before, so I'm not just talking about the sort of fluke accuracy that is really a memory-aided phenomenon. This level of accuracy actually feels different in my fingers themselves. It's a little weird and difficult to describe, but it's a state I've been waiting eagerly to attain. I have been wondering how many repetitions it would take to reach it—for without it, I could never feel justified speeding up the passage. So... it takes 7 to 8 days for a passage of this length, then? Naturally, speeding it up introduces new instabilities, but that's all part of the process, I guess.

Nov. 29, 2016 Update:

I've got this pretty much up to speed, even though I'm not quite finished memorising. I need to work on the recap of the opening theme and the descending arpeggios at the end. But the problematic "note groups" still trouble me. These can be found in measures 2, 3, and 5, where fatigue and error are the main hazards. Yesterday I practised playing them with the proper aesthetic motion, but at speed. First it was necessary to slow it way down to have my hand learn the behaviour. It's coming along but not easily and not without the not-so-occasional relapses into error. (Sigh...) 

Still, I keep on.