BOSTES 2011 HSC Music 1 Aural Skills - Markers Guidelines and Feedback

In better responses, candidates:

• focused on the concept referred to in the question (duration) 
• used musical terminology accurately
• made specific reference to musical events from the excerpt
• clearly set out their answer, often with a focus on the excerpt’s structure
• could name and describe performance techniques for string instruments and correctly align them to events within the excerpt
• used accurate notation and clearly labelled diagrams to supplement their answers
• recognised the performing media as references for duration
• accurately referred to related concepts when describing musical interest in detail
• recognised and described important structural terms as they applied to the music, eg sections, theme, motif and ostinato.

In weaker responses, candidates:

• overly referred to the quickening tempo as a duration point
• confused descriptions of texture: polyphonic, homophonic and monophonic
• limited their responses to getting louder, faster and more dense
• used terminology inaccurately, often using a ‘scattergun’ approach
• made contradictory statements
• were unclear as to which part of the excerpt they were referring
• included confused and/or poorly labelled diagrams
• used inaccurate notation
• made generalisations rather than providing appropriate detail and description
• did not recognise that there was a main theme
• confused the accelerating tempo with time signature and note value changes 
• wrote only brief responses that, in total, did not address the question.