OCR A-Level Music: listening and aural skills overview quiz quiz

2 hours 30 minutes, 120 marks (40 percent)

1 hour 30 minutes, 80 marks (30 percent of the A-Level)

3 hours, 200 marks, taken across two separate sittings

1 hour, 60 marks, with audio played once only throughout

Two; Section A is the prescribed work studied in depth across the course

One; Section A is a single extended essay covering every area of study

Three; Section A is unfamiliar listening on Area of Study 1 and your chosen area

Four; Section A is a recorded performance submitted alongside the written exam paper

Unfamiliar extracts drawn only from your chosen area of study

Two extended comparative essays on contrasting works from your areas

A short composition written under timed conditions

The prescribed work, with structured listening and a dictation

The rhythm, because it frames where the pitches fall

The pitches, because they are far easier to hear than rhythm

The dynamics, because they reveal the underlying harmony first

The instrumentation, because it fixes the metre before anything else

Guess the top notes and assume the bass simply follows the melody

Hear the bass first, then use cadence logic, then fit chords to the key

Name the loudest chord and repeat it throughout the whole passage

Ignore the bass entirely and label every chord purely from the melody line

Blanks score higher than a wrong note because they avoid lost marks

The examiner fills in any blanks for you by checking them against the printed score on the paper

Partial credit rewards a correct contour, rhythm or chord, so a fitting answer can earn marks

It saves time only and makes no difference to the final mark awarded

One essay on one area of study, worth fifty marks overall

Three shorter essays, each on a different area of study you have studied

Two essays on the same single area, each worth fifteen marks

Two essays on two different areas of study, each worth 25 marks

As an argument by theme or style, with each paragraph a point, named evidence and evaluation

Piece by piece in strict date order, retold as a chronological narrative

As a list of composers and their dates, with little discussion of the actual music or the question set

As a general description of the style with no argument or conclusion

Length alone, since longer answers always reach the top band

Named musical evidence and evaluation (judging how, why and how effectively)

More composers' names, listed quickly to show off the broad breadth of your reading

Avoiding the question and writing instead about pieces you know well

Spend almost all the time on the first essay to make it strongest

Leave the second essay blank if the first one runs long

Roughly equally, with a few minutes to plan each

Allocate time at random and stop whenever you run out

Describing each piece separately in turn without drawing them together

Describing only the prescribed work in full detail and ignoring the unfamiliar extract completely

Listing the instruments heard in each extract without further comment

Comparing element by element, with similarities and differences and evidence from both

Little-and-often practice across all three sections, ideally in the styles you study

Cramming the night before the exam in one long intensive session

Only reading about music without ever listening to extracts actively

Avoiding past papers entirely so the real exam questions feel fresh and unrehearsed on the day