[mrehler]

> 4. It seems very unlikely that the keys would literally be chosen out of a hat. IME of these kinds of exams there's no need for randomness. Students tend to be asked for the less familiar keys because they're less likely to know them well. If someone gets C major and someone else gets Gb major for random reasons it's really not much of a fair test.

Music teacher – the scale portion of our state's band All-State auditions are one by choice, two by random draw (for a total of 3).

[smelendez]

It makes sense in a way. If you preannounce the scales, people will (theoretically) only practice those. If you have the same for everyone and don’t preannounce, the scales will leak during the day and the later students will have extra practice/memorization time.