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WACE · WACE Year 12 ATAR · official past papers

WACE Music past exams 2021–2025, by year and topic

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ATARMAxxing indexes 22 official SCSA Music papers from 2021 to 2025, with 26 questions mapped to 5 topics. Every paper opens on the SCSA website.

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Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only) · 2024–2026Previous Music ATAR course: separate written papers for Western Art Music, Jazz and Contemporary contexts · 2021–2023

WACE Music exams by year: official papers & marking guidance

Past exams indexed: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021. Open the official SCSA papers, with marking guidance where available.

YearStudy designOfficial paper(s)Marking guidance
2025 WACE Music examYear 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination ↗ · Ratified marking key ↗Marking guidance ↗
2024 WACE Music examYear 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination ↗ · Ratified marking key ↗Marking guidance ↗
2023 WACE Music examPrevious Music ATAR course: separate written papers for Western Art Music, Jazz and Contemporary contextsWestern Art Music examination ↗ · Western Art Music marking key ↗ · Jazz examination ↗ · Jazz marking key ↗ · Contemporary examination ↗ · Contemporary marking key ↗Marking guidance ↗
2022 WACE Music examPrevious Music ATAR course: separate written papers for Western Art Music, Jazz and Contemporary contextsWestern Art Music examination ↗ · Western Art Music marking key ↗ · Jazz examination ↗ · Jazz marking key ↗ · Contemporary examination ↗ · Contemporary marking key ↗Marking guidance ↗
2021 WACE Music examPrevious Music ATAR course: separate written papers for Western Art Music, Jazz and Contemporary contextsWestern Art Music examination ↗ · Western Art Music marking key ↗ · Jazz examination ↗ · Jazz marking key ↗ · Contemporary examination ↗ · Contemporary marking key ↗Marking guidance ↗

22 official papers across 5 years (2021–2025), 5 with marking guidance, published by WACE. These span more than one study design; the most recent is Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only). Earlier papers may cover material that has since changed.

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Aural (Section One Part A) · 14 mapped questions

Interval recognition by ear: major, minor, perfect and tritone within an octave

Hearing tonality, scales/modes and modulation to the relative, dominant or subdominant key

Rhythmic dictation: simple, compound and irregular metre, grouping, rests and time signatures

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q312 marksRhythmic dictation of a jazz-funk horn soli line, adding the time signature and four missing rests; marked on correct values, rests, time signature and grouping.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q311 marksAdds rhythm and ties to given pitches from a musical-theatre ensemble number (four woodblock beats given first).Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Melodic dictation up to eight bars in a major or minor key, including rubato and vibrato

Chord progressions by ear (I, ii, iii, IV, V, V7, vi) and chord-quality recognition

Discrepancies and aural analysis: instruments, techniques, texture, form, dynamics and articulation

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q47 marksFinds and corrects three pitch (accidental) and four rhythmic errors in a printed score of an orchestral sports theme.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q710 marksSix short aural items on different excerpts: tonality and texture of a solo bugle call, two instruments with harp in a 20th-century concerto, scale type, a two-chord rock guitar progression, dynamic and articulation, form and texture of an early jazz recording.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q47 marksCorrects a big-band piano reduction: missing time signature, three pitch errors, one rhythm error, a missing tie and a missing articulation.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q710 marksAural analysis items: tonality and texture of an organ fugue, qualities of three broken chords in a theatre song, guitar-ostinato scale type, time signature from a given BPM, three solo brass instruments in a jazz arrangement.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Theory (Section One Part B) · 3 mapped questions

Transposition between clefs and for B flat, E flat, F and A instruments

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q98 marksScore-only theory on a film-song arrangement: names the scale of the vocal line, writes an F# minor 9th chord, names the left-hand device, defines two articulations, transposes a passage for viola in alto clef.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q99 marksScore-only: explains two performer directions, notates three chords in specified clefs, transposes a trombone passage for E flat alto saxophone.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Visual analysis: forms, signs and symbols, compositional devices and expressive markings

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q810 marksScore-only theory on a Classical string quartet movement: locates two sequences by bar and part, Roman numerals with inversions in B flat major, defines rondo, names three intervals.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Also in this topic: Clefs, key signatures to seven sharps and flats, and writing scales and modes · Intervals up to a ninth: quality, size, enharmonic spelling and visual identification · Chords and chord symbols: triads to ninth chords, m7(b5), inversions, Roman numerals, TAB and guitar chords — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Unseen analysis (Section Two Part A) · 5 mapped questions

Reading unseen scores: orchestral, PVG, lead sheet, drum notation and instrumental techniques

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q109 marksUnseen orchestral excerpt with jazz influence: names three saxophones entering, the opening key, defines pizz. and rubato, identifies three jazz influences.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q89 marksScore-only: names four accompanying instruments in score order, two chords, the time signature, a percussion symbol and a TAB chord.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q1010 marksUnseen circus-theatre choral piece: differences between recording and reduced score, simile, accompaniment device, scales/modes in two sections, two symbols.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Sonata form, key relationships and structural analysis of an unseen work

  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q1112 marksUnseen Classical piano sonata in sonata form: completes a bar/key/relationship table, names the subject used in the development, differences in the recapitulation, a left-hand device and its definition.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Identifying style across Contemporary, Jazz and Western Art Music, linking unseen excerpts to designated works

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q1111 marksUnseen progressive-rock excerpt: names three drum-kit parts, describes double-time and half-time changes, names the designated work it most resembles and the shared style with bar-referenced reasons.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Identities designated works (Section Two Part B) · 2 mapped questions

Marryuna (Baker Boy): cultural identity, Yolngu language, yidaki and hip hop

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q1224 marksIdentities: Marryuna (instrumentation typical/atypical of hip hop, importance of dance in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, chorus chords, verse/chorus contrast discuss) and the Gaelic Symphony (section, location of opening chromatic passage and first theme, their significance for identity, recapitulation modulation).Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q1224 marksIdentities: Marryuna (yidaki, Yolngu, title meaning and form, ska guitar, uniting cultures), Young, Gifted and Black (harmony, gospel heritage, vibraphone, sentiment) and the Gaelic Symphony (form/section/theme, Irish influence with examples, bassoon drone and its folk meaning).Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Also in this topic: Young, Gifted and Black (Nina Simone): sociopolitical identity, gospel heritage and harmony · Gaelic Symphony, first movement (Amy Beach): Irish-American identity within sonata form — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Innovations designated works (Section Two Part B) · 2 mapped questions

Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen): through-composed form, harmony and studio technology

  • 2025Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q1329 marksInnovations: Bohemian Rhapsody (title and form, chromatic harmonic movement, metre and rhythm change, opera-section tonal centre), Tha Thin Tha (tala, konnakol modified with pitch, jazz form and modern jazz features) and Short Ride in a Fast Machine (polyrhythm, quartal harmony, 5-mark discuss on minimalism with a large ensemble).Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024Year 12 syllabus for the current course (first examined 2024; v15 for teaching from 2025, minor practical changes only)Written examination Q1328 marksInnovations: Bohemian Rhapsody (opera section, word painting and call and response, 5-mark discuss on technology), Tha Thin Tha (call and response instruments, jazz features, innovation, India, tala and konnakol) and Short Ride (form, synthesiser, imitation, melodic construction, 5-mark discuss on rhythm).Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Also in this topic: Tha Thin Tha (Lisa Young): konnakol, tala and modern jazz innovation · Short Ride in a Fast Machine (John Adams): minimalism, pulse, polyrhythm and quartal harmony — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

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