← Music syllabus

WalesMusic

Appraising: the listening exam and how it is marked

2 dot points across 2 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

What are the musical elements and vocabulary used to analyse music in the WJEC Appraising paper?

The musical elements used to appraise music: melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm and metre, tempo, dynamics, texture, timbre and instrumentation (sonority), and structure or form, together with the technical vocabulary and notation knowledge needed to describe them precisely.
The toolkit of musical elements every WJEC Appraising answer is built on: melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm and metre, tempo, dynamics, texture, timbre or sonority, and structure, plus the technical vocabulary and notation needed to describe what you hear precisely.
16 min answer →

How is the WJEC GCSE Music Appraising paper structured, and what do the questions ask you to do?

The structure of Unit 3 Appraising: a written listening paper of about one hour worth 72 marks (30 percent), with eight questions, two on each of the four areas of study, including two on the set works, testing aural skills, analysis of the musical elements, musical context and correct terminology.
How the WJEC GCSE Music Appraising paper (Unit 3) is built: a one-hour listening exam worth 72 marks and 30 percent, eight questions, two per area of study, including the two set works, with extracts played on CD or MP3 and answered against the musical elements.
14 min answer →