Ok, my teacher told me that the primary reason that the other adult students do the exams is to get another opinion on their playing instead of just relying on her assessment alone. But when I said I was fine just having her opinion, and YOUR opinion, and the opinions of my Facebook group, (and I suppose if I must I'll ask for opinions Over There), she said she totally understood. Because she herself is not interested in playing the same two pieces for years on end, polishing, any more. So we're in agreement that just because you CAN take the exams, it doesn't mean every student has the same needs, and that's TOTALLY FINE.
We're going to use the books for structure so we don't have to use a bunch of time deciding what pieces to do, and that's that. But we will also do other pieces not in the book if I want, which I do, all the time.
Thank you everyone who participated in this thread. I feel really lucky to have a community of all different people who do all different things. ❤️ When everyone does the exact same thing, with the same standards, I think it's actually very boring.