Music A level 2023 results

[chocolatenutcase]

I have read that this years music A level results have been a much bigger drop from 2022 than say maths and chemistry, which although dropped wasn't a huge drop. My DS is going into year 13 and wants to do music at Uni. He will need an A. I'm now getting myself into a panic that he will miss this grade, that's it's really hard to get an A in music etc etc. I know I shouldn't but can't help myself. Any one got any experiences from their DC doing music this year? My DS is doing Edexcell. Thank you

I'm a secondary school teacher - students in this cohort were penalised heavily as the gov pushed grade boundaries back to 2019 standards. In some subjects, like Music or Media or Psychology it was even harder to achieve the top grades and boundaries were much harsher than 2019 even.

However exam boards are allowing teachers to review scripts for free and therefore teachers will be much better prepared and know what to expect going into next year. The grade boundaries will not be as harsh and your son will be much better prepared too, considering this cohort didn't sit GCSEs whereas your son did. Just tell him to work hard from September and take on as much feedback as he can from his teacher.

@bzarda thank you. He's at a great college but the music teacher, although I know is really well supported by the department, is in his first year teaching. It must have been hard for him. I have no idea how his year 13 class did. Yes he will just have to get his head down and get as much help as he can.

My DS just got an A in music A level. (AQA)
The grade boundary was 81% for an A star and 71.3% for an A.
So v high.
Of that though only 40% was a written exam. The grade boundary for an A in that was 55%
The grade boundaries for the performance and composition elements were v high though. (For an A; comp 75%, perf 88%).
My DS actually got an A star in the exam but B in perf and a C in comp.
He's a grade 8 pianist but you have to spend a long time being almost perfect to really get a good grade in performance. He took 4 A levels and Music was his fourth and he admits to not re-recording his performance enough nor really refining his compositions. He had too much on and knew the exam would help his overall grade as he is really good at theory and listens widely to a lot of classical music. And knew the content inside out.
I guess it comes down to playing to your strengths. An A is def achievable. But no one in DS year got an A star. And it is notoriously difficult to do so. They have only ever had one and he is doing composition degree at Cambridge!!!

@Lottsbiffandsmudge well done to your DS. The stats you have provided have both reassured and panicked me 😂 The 70+% for an A is what I had read -it seems a ridiculously high bar to reach but I think it was the same in other subjects. He's in the same position as every other student in the country so he's just going to have to practice and work really hard.

My DS also sat AQA Music this year and got an A star
His teacher gave them strict instructions to follow the brief for composition and performance very carefully as they can be severely marked down if they don’t.
DS looked at the examiner’s reports for these two components to help him see what the examiners were looking for.
It seemed to help as he had full marks for performance and only dropped 3 marks for his composition and is off to Oxford to study Music in October.