…
2026 WACE Music exam: What to learn from last year's mistakes
WACE Music's written exam is on Tuesday 17 November at 2 pm, WA time.
Last year's written mean was 59.91%. Designated works averaged 55.94%, the lowest written-section mean. I've gone through the 2025 examiner report and pulled out four areas to tighten before the paper.
1. Aural: Make the notation readable
Where students went wrong: Rhythmic grouping and clear notation caused problems in dictation. Some candidates also struggled with rubato and vibrato.
What they should have done: Show the musical information accurately, even when the performance adds expressive variation.
My practice drill: complete a short dictation, then audit the notation separately from the listening. Check the total duration in each bar, beat grouping and whether every notehead has a clear pitch position. Keep a small error log so you can distinguish hearing the wrong thing from writing the right thing unclearly.
2. Theory: Go beyond the triad
Where students went wrong: Chordal extensions beyond triads were a weakness.
What they should have done: Recognise and notate the required harmony precisely.
My drill: choose a chord, write its notes, label each note's interval above the root, and then check the chord symbol against the spelling. Change one note and identify how the chord changes. This is a useful way to test whether you understand the symbol rather than just recognise its appearance.
3. Transposition: Check the direction before moving notes
Where students went wrong: Some responses revealed confusion about instrument keys, ranges, clefs and transposition direction.
What they should have done: Work consistently in the required pitch and notation context.
My practice method: write a one-line statement of the starting pitch context and the target pitch context before transposing. Check one anchor note first. Then audit the remaining notes and accidentals against that same interval, rather than changing direction halfway through. Finally, read back the answer as a musical phrase and check for an unexpected register jump.
4. Analysis: Answer the verb and the musical question
Where students went wrong: Some designated-work answers supplied irrelevant information. In unseen analysis, musical concepts and expression or articulation markings also caused difficulty.
What they should have done: Select relevant evidence and explain or discuss it as requested.
My revision drill: take one passage and answer two different questions about it. For each, underline the musical detail you're using, then write why that detail supports this particular answer. If both responses end up identical, check whether you've answered the new task or repeated a prepared paragraph.
For the final revision session, mix listening, notation and analysis instead of spending the whole session rereading notes. Finish by redoing one question from your error log without looking at the corrected version.
Source: 2025 SCSA Music examiner report. This post focuses on its written-exam findings. The practice drills are my suggestions, not predictions of the 2026 paper.
Sorry guys, shameless plug, I gotta do this. I'm the founder of ATARMAXXING, so take a look at the WACE Music practice exams with answer guides if you want another structured revision session. You can preview the Music pack before buying. Use your mistakes to choose the next skill you practise.
0 repliesReply