Music GCSE (Edexcel) 2018 — Advice, tips and predictions

I feel like everyone’s finding music really tough this year, but honestly I’m not finding it too bad. Here’s what I’m doing to revise:
- listening to the 8 set works as much as possible. The more I hear them, the better I will get to know them, possibly even off by heart. This is useful in an exam when an extract is being played and you can kind of “hear” it in your mind afterwards
- looking through my annotated anthology. While we were studying the pieces during the year, we annotated the scores with all kinds of points about melody, harmony, structure etc. It’s really useful to quickly see what happens where and follow through the score while listening to the pieces
- practice questions. Our teachers sent us a bunch of resources and papers to fill in and mark. No idea where they are from but if you want resources it’s worth checking the Pearson edexcel website for music. Also remember this is only worth 40% of marks as we have 60% already from coursework!
Does anyone have any predictions for the 12 marker? I think it’s gonna be either the Beethoven or the Brandenburg (not music for a while as it came up in the specimen paper). Who knows though after AQAs English question about ozymandias which was also on the specimen paper 😂
Good luck to everyone taking the exam!!

But it can be about Queen or Wicked? Or Afro celt? I swear the section B is unheard music comparison we are provided the score tho

@bluemuffin glad it’s going well for you, i admit I’m one of those who’s struggling with music atm so these are really useful
Any advice for aural dictation/cadences?

But it can be about Queen or Wicked? Or Afro celt? I swear the section B is unheard music comparison we are provided the score tho

No of course it can be on any of the pieces I just think it’s more likely to be from the instrumental music section. I doubt it’s gonna be on one of the fusions though

@bluemuffin glad it’s going well for you, i admit I’m one of those who’s struggling with music atm so these are really useful
Any advice for aural dictation/cadences?

For cadences, it helps if you have the aural books for ABRSM for higher grades (6-8 I think) and just test yourself on the cadences section, useful if you’ve already done the exam
If not, if you have a piano or some kind of keyboard just play the different kinds of cadence and then extracts of pieces with them and see if you can identify the right cadence, works just as well. Otherwise you could get someone to test you.
For the aural dictation, I’m pretty sure the extract is gonna be from one of the set pieces, so just make sure you know them really well. I don’t really have a specific strategy for this, but I guess just practising dictation exercises would help a lot.
Good luck!

its not too late to buy the CGP guide or practise of TES
each cadence varies in sound endings

Which cgp guide?
I’ve got this revision + practise boom by cgp and my school gave us cgp books for the set works for all music gcse exam boards.
Will check out tes
I really struggle to hear the differences

No of course it can be on any of the pieces I just think it’s more likely to be from the instrumental music section. I doubt it’s gonna be on one of the fusions though

I've attached all the recommended wider listening for 12 marker

Thanks for the link but it’s not working :/

why for ALL music gcse exam boards?



I've attached all the recommended wider listening for 12 marker

I think it was a mistake

Do you know if there is anywhere to get specimen papers - other than the one on the EdExcel website? Most of them are locked for mocks and I can't find any others.

Also, any good revision websites?

What does everyone think about grade boundaries, surely not as high as in 2017??