AQA A-Level Music: Reviewing the 2025 Exams
Course Code: T0369
£249.00
ABOUT THIS COURSE
This in-depth course is designed to transform common mistakes from the 2025 AQA A-Level Music exams into opportunities for growth and improvement. The course will provide valuable insights into student performance, highlight key areas of concern, and offer practical strategies to refine your teaching approach. Through expert-led sessions, you will explore ways to better prepare students for future exams, enhance their written responses, and ensure they meet the demands of AQA A-Level Music assessments.BENEFITS OF ATTENDING
- Gain a detailed understanding of key lessons from the 2025 exams
- Identify patterns in student performance across listening, analysis, and composition components
- Improve student responses to essay questions and technical music theory tasks
- Develop strategies for enhancing students’ compositional and performance skills
- Learn how to support and challenge students of varying abilities effectively
PROGRAMME
10.00am: Understanding the 2025 Exam Performance- Key takeaways from the 2025 exams – successes and areas for improvement
- Identifying patterns in student performance across listening, composition, and performance elements
- Understanding common errors and misconceptions in written and practical responses
- Developing a plan of action to improve student outcomes and refine teaching practices
10.45am: Break
11.00am: Mastering the Written Exam – Essay and Analysis Questions
- How student responses compared to examiner expectations
- Structuring high-quality answers that meet AO1, AO2, and AO3 requirements
- Teaching students how to analyse and evaluate set works effectively
- Strategies to improve clarity, depth, and use of musical terminology in extended responses
11.45am: Overcoming Challenges in Listening and Technical Questions
- Common pitfalls in listening and appraising sections
- Developing students’ aural skills and ability to identify musical features accurately
- Strengthening understanding of harmony, tonality, and stylistic characteristics
- Techniques to improve confidence in music theory and score analysis
- Understanding AQA assessment standards and grade boundaries
- Why students lose marks and how to address these issues
- Supporting students in producing high-quality compositions with clear stylistic intent
- Developing performance skills to meet assessment criteria and examiner expectations
2.30pm: Break
2.40pm: Moving Forward – Maximising Success in 2026 and Beyond
- Embedding assessment objectives in lesson delivery to improve focus and exam preparedness
- Skill-based teaching approaches to enhance students’ musical understanding, composition, and performance
- Engaging and practical strategies to support mixed-ability students in both written and practical aspects
- Action planning for continued success in future AQA A-Level Music exams
3.30pm: Depart
A-Level - Code: T0369
AQA A-Level Music: Reviewing the 2025 Exams
COURSE LEADER
Sarah Murphy is currently a teacher of academic music at Chetham’s School of Music, where she works with A level students teaching harmony, composition and analysis. She is also responsible for preparing A level students for Oxbridge interviews and for higher level study in the form of the AMusTCL examination. In addition to her Chetham’s teaching, Sarah also works with international students at the RNCM and has designed a pre-sessional musicology programme for overseas undergraduates and postgraduates there. She also teaches piano and analysis on the Chetham’s International Summer School for Pianists and has led teacher training sessions in theory and harmony as part of this.
Course Brochure
