GCSE music in a year?

[Yellowpansies]

My DS has just started Y11. The school, after much discussion, have allowed him to switch from French to music this year. Initially they'd said that he would be unlikely to be able to do the GCSE as he'd missed too much, which we were fine about (he's doing 9 other academic GCSEs) but now apparently the teacher has told him he can do the GCSE on the basis if this year's work alone, he just won't have much choice over exam questions. Does this sound right to people?

He's loving the music btw, I'm just surprised really that it could be possible to do the exam after just 9 months

My DD did it in a year. Many GCSEs in her school were 1 year courses. Quite a lot of it is performance related. The course involves studying various composers/pieces and writing about them in the exam - presumably that is what they meant if he hasn't studied them all.

My DS wasn't due to sit English Lit but managed an early language pass, so had January to June to learn the lit syllabus from a standing start! And he struggled at English or he wouldn't have been an early entry.

Anyway, they taught him enough to have little/no question options and he got a D. So, an academic student who is already a good musician. With a similar approach - I see no reason why he can't have a decent stab at it.

Thanks, that's encouraging to hear. Yes I think it was the composers he said he wouldn't have studied so many of.

His performance skills are a bit uncertain tbh - he's largely self taught at the keyboard via youtube tutorials having never got on with sightreading. He gets the theory well though and is practising for hours at the moment so hopefully will have a nice sounding piece or two. They've told him they should be grade 3 level, though I'm not sure how you judge that without picking pieces from the actual exam syllabus.

I did it in a year - originally supposed to be Year 10 but then the music teacher fell ill, so we did it in Year 11.

We did it after school for 2 hours and were allowed to go to the music suite before school or at lunch to work on compositions.

If he is naturally talented with a good ear, he should find it fairly straight forward to do. I ended up with 3 marks off full marks.

Well I did a level music in one year but I was working towards Grade 7 piano & grade 5 singing & already had grade 5 theory.

Mine did it in 6 months at 14 on an hr a week of very good teaching and got A*. Picnic if they are good at performance, get guidance with composition. Don't know much about written exam ...

Mine did it in a year in year 10 but that is a a regular fast track course the school do every year. He had his grade 5 theory and grade 6 in piano at the start of the course. We were told grade 4/5 standard for performance, but that might be because the school like them to do very well in the CA to give room for cock ups in the exams.

Depending on the board he may need to do his first recording very quickly. I think ds had one piece of CA needed for Christmas and then the second piece was around Easter. He had to know about styles of music rather than composers I think. He had a disadvantage in not playing an orchestral instrument, because lots of the others seemed to have played the pieces, and that made it easier to recognise the instruments.

Thanks - I'll get him to check out when the performance assessments would be. I doubt he'd be aiming for an A* . But if he could get at least a C it ought to be worth doing the GCSE.

Get him to check the compostition requirements. DT1 did his first composition at the beginning of Y10 and the second in Y11. Each one takes 10 hours under supervision. Then there is the performance and the exams. you will need a teacher who has the time to commit.

Which board is he doing?

I think it's Edexcel. His teacher was very supportive of him switching, but hasn't said anything about catch up work from last year.