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OCR A-Level Music: 18th June 2018

Hello to those of you who take Music A-Level - you've made a great and unique choice. :smile:

I'm not expecting any replies (as Music is quite rare at A-Level), but just wondering if anyone is sitting the OCR A-Level Music exam next Monday (new 2016 syllabus, so it's the first official A2 examination). I didn't do AS Levels so this would be my first (and last ever!) proper Music exam.

If anyone did AS Music OCR, would they kindly share their experience?
How time pressured did you find it?
How did you do (if you don't mind sharing!)?
What kinds of questions were there?

Similarly, if anyone will be taking the exam next Monday, would they please share how they are revising? I found loads of useful notes by Rhinegold online and am hoping to use those. I'm personally also listening to Set Works, especially Beethoven's 'Eroica' and forcing (!) myself to listen to Cole Porter's Songbook as well.

Which Areas of Study (apart from 1 and 2) is everyone doing? I'm doing 4 (Baroque Religious Music) and 5 (Programme Music). They are both lovely, though I definitely prefer AoS5.

On the other hand, I'm struggling with AoS2 (Jazz)...any advice?

Thank you in advance. Please don't hesitate to stimulate some conversations at your own pleasure.

Reply 1

Sophie Maycroft

My chosen units are Programmatic Music from 1800s to 1900s and Instrumental Jazz 1910-Present day

Reply 2

Sophie Maycroft

Make sure you quote bar numbers and stuff in the long essays and don't spend too long deciding which question to do. There is not enough time for that in the exam.

Reply 3

ccychok

I am doing programme music with jazz as well, CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME WITH THE 25 mark Jazz stuff like Courtney pine and Maria Schneider because I feels like I am gonna cry

Reply 4

Sophie Maycroft

How did you guys find the exam?

Reply 5

mooseflame

Good Christ. I wouldn't say that exam was terrible, but rather my time management and ability to improvise answers for unexpected questions was. I did AO3 and AO4, choosing the questions on 1960s+ influential pieces and the question on comparing harmony/tonality in 2 pieces respectively, and pretty much wrote a paragraph on one piece only for the AO4 question. Damn it. That's going to reduce my marks by 20... rip any chance of an A.

What did you guys think?

Reply 6

Hannahpea282

Original post by mooseflame

I thought it was quite nice in general. I did AOS 4 and AOS 6. I did the Lutheran music for worship essay which was kinda okay and the neoclassical and expressionism one which i really liked. Didn't like the Jazz listening one though. But I was never gonna get an A anyway so it doesn't matter

Reply 7

scarl

What were the chords :biggrin:

Reply 8

mooseflame

Original post by Hannahpea282

Ah, that lutheran essay involved too much knowledge of context and churchy words for me to answer. Jazz listening= the previously unheard song, right? I found that ok, if a little wordy. Wasn't sure how detailed to be on the 4 marker comparison q, though. Ah I see. I was gunning for an A on this exam (realistically B) and think i'll have to shift everything down a grade.

Reply 9

L_stMemories

As the first ever assessment, I found some of the questions quite unexpected. The Jazz unseen did not go very well for me, but everything else seemed alright. I did AoS4 (Q8 - harmony and tonality) and AoS5 (Q9 - programme symphony) for the essay questions.

Reply 10

L_stMemories

Original post by scarl

What were the chords :biggrin:

I think the chords were vib (Eb minor first inversion), Ic (Bb major second inversion), V7d (F dominant 7th with Eb in the bass/third inversion), and finally Ib (as given).

Perfect pitch is really a blessing for these types of questions and I was able to save much time for the later longer responses.