Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante
Scherzo 2
Scherzo 3
Ballade 1

The Scherzo no. 2 is my last piece, the Ballade 1 is the new piece I'm working on (started two days ago, working on the fifth page now. Good enough pace?) BTW, I'm a college student studying advertising, and the past few days, I've been ignoring my studies and practicing like 4 hrs a day after school. Why I'm so inspired to practice? I played my Scherzo 2 in a recital the other day, and a girl after me (17 years old) played the grande polonaise brilliante. My Scherzo kinda looked liked cheap stuff compared to what she played. I'm 18 btw. The Scherzo 3 is what I'm planning to play after the Ballade. Am I technically competent to play this ballade? I think so. Musically mature? Definitely not yet.

Here are the rankings, in no particular order:

Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante - very hard
Scherzo 2 -- very hard
Scherzo 3 -- very hard
Ballade 1 -- very hard

Some people might say one is harder, some might say another. If you can play any of these (I mean play it well), you're able to play any of the others. If we were forced to put them in some order, probably most people would put the 3rd Scherzo last, and that's sort of right. But it would be misleading. To "really" play the piece -- I mean really play it, and do what's needed, and not screw up -- it's at the same basic level as the others.

Also....they all challenge different aspects of technique, and the ASGP is the "most different" of them. But they're all basically at the same level of difficulty. Play whichever you want, in whatever order you want.

BTW....congrats on the 2nd scherzo.

Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante > Ballade 1 > Scherzo 2 > Scherzo 3

hard to easy...

I only played Scherzo 2 and Ballade 1 out of the four you listed, so I can't rank them, but I found Ballade 1 more technically challenging than scherzo 2

I wouldn't attempt to rate these pieces, one against the other. At this level, each of these pieces presents its own difficulties; moreover, the technical aspects some find extremely challenging are less challenging for others and, similarly, what some find less challenging, others find more challenging.

Good enough pace? What's a "good enough pace"? That you have done five pages in two days says nothing except that you have done fine pages in two days. This says nothing about the quality of work you have put in nor the results that work has produced.
If you think you're technically compete to play the Ballade, then what are you asking others to tell you? You know better than we do what your technical competence is. We have no idea of your technical competence.

Good luck.

Regards,

Yes.

We have threads like this so often.....and I really don't understand them. I know it's fun doing "rankings" and "ratings" of almost anything; it's an interesting exercise, and it makes us think. And really I wouldn't have much trouble putting these pieces in an order that makes sense to me.

But when people ask questions like this, usually they're looking for some kind of guidance about which one to work on -- and IMO that's completely mistaken. They're all just so close in degree of difficulty that there's no guidance to be had. If you can play the 2nd scherzo, it's reasonable to work on any of these pieces, in any order you want. The differences in difficulty won't be an issue. And that's how it seems to be with most such threads that we have.

I feel like just telling him, congrats on the 2nd scherzo, it's great that he's interested in playing these other pieces, and go right ahead however you want.

From personal experience:

Andante s.
3rd scherzo
1st ballade
2nd scherzo

From hardest to.. well, hard. None of them are easy. The thing is, this might be completely different for someone else. They're all difficult in different ways, I find.