A Level Edexcel Music 2014-2015 Help - thread

Can anyone offer any help with A2 music e.g specification, advice on revision methods? Really want to get an A in it but its killing me at the moment coz its so hard!!!!

Perhaps we could make this a thread so that everyone helps each other...

Reply 1

PhB13

I'm doing Edexcel music!!
It's so difficult isn't it?! I'm aiming for an A as well, what did you get at AS?
What are you finding especially hard at the moment? One thing I found helpful in learning all the points for the long answer question part of the exam was making mnemonics of all the information for each piece. It did work, I got full marks in one long answer question and 13/18 in the other I think?

Reply 2

EllClapp

I'm so glad I've finally found this! I'm doing A2 Edexcel Music and I really want an A overall. We've got a new music teacher this year and so far it hasn't been good; we only get three hours a week with him and we started the course YESTERDAY, and by starting I mean he read a few bullet points off of a piece of paper my last music teacher had given us. :frown:

I'm panicking a bit about this so please excuse my rushed response.

I have all of the official Edexcel notes for the pieces but I would be more than happy to start a group/thread so we can share our notes and help each other out a bit. I found that just making my own notes on flashcards and reading them/ testing myself out throughout the day (wherever I was) helped when I was revising for AS, although I have a tendency to go into too much detail because I love learning about the context of the pieces.
The other thing I did was make sure I knew how I would need to structure my essays and what sort of questions they could ask, and preparing model answers for those.

We also have the unheard listening this year which I'm a little nervous about.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 3

PhB13

EllClapp, that sounds awful!!

Sharing notes sounds good, I have pretty good teachers so I would be more than happy to share some resources with you.

Last year I kind of left all my studying for music until the very last minute (like the 2 days before the exam) so I'm going to try and consolidate throughout the year a lot more this year.
Your revision techniques sound really good!

Yeah I'm so not looking forward to that!! I'm just going to try and listen to as much music as I can and maybe do like a practice test once or twice a week?

Reply 4

EllClapp

That's very kind, thank you! Yeah I wouldn't recommend that, there's so many pieces to learn and I'd get everything muddled! My current music teacher has given us a sheet of 20ish questions that 'we should be asking ourselves' when we listen to music, but doing past papers and stuff sounds like a good plan :smile:

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Reply 5

kitkatkt

Im currently working towards my A2's too. I live out in Sri Lanka and there is only 1 other person sitting the exam in the entire country! My school only offers the core subjects so im having to do it outside school with my flute teacher and although she has great knowledge and is extremely musical,etc she doesnt have much of a clue about the structure of exams and what they specifically demand. She doesnt have lesson plans or give notes or worksheets and homework is very informal- in lessons we basically just chat about stuff and general music history with the occasional assault on particular problem areas (usually in theory). While general music history is terribly important, for a structured exams like these im not sure its the best approach and i wish it was conducted the way my other subjects in school are. Any help or anything you are willing to share with me would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Im hoping to go back to England to study music at uni when im done so i really have to do well.
(*this way of teaching would probably be more challenging for the best of people but its especially difficult for me as i largely ignored the existence of theory until i had to do my grade 5 and never did o' level or anything so i especially need a good grounding in all the basics and essentials)
Anyway, its nice to meet you all
- Katie :smile:

Reply 6

kitkatkt

Oh and as for things i found useful when studying for AS; most definitely and completely these youtube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_XLTeHidAI&list=UU7neuaz_1lCJ1_pre6HBx-Q

He did a couple from the syllabus and i basically sang them in my head during my exam to remind myself of the most important feautures. For the listening tests they were literally a god send. All of you go and tell him to make more for the A2 syllabus. They are just SO SO great.
* i know i know i get overly passionate about these things