WACE Music's written examination asks you to do two things with your ears and eyes: read and write music accurately, and explain what music means. Section One is music literacy - intervals, tonality, modulation, rhythmic and melodic dictation, chord progressions and aural analysis on the listening device, then score-based theory and transposition. Section Two is music analysis - two unseen works you have never met, then the six designated works through the Unit 3 lens of Identities (how music expresses personal, sociopolitical and cultural identity) and the Unit 4 lens of Innovations (how composers challenged or reimagined tradition). This resource is original, covers the written examination only, cannot play audio (every excerpt is an original text-described or notated example), and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority.
Confirm your cohort: Check the linked course version and school availability for your cohort. UNVERIFIED against the advertised SCSA edition: the existing outline is retained as an earlier resource, not as confirmed current learning.
What will I learn?
Aural (Section One Part A)
Existing outline — UNVERIFIED for the advertised editionListening skills from the music literacy content: intervals within an octave, scales/modes and tonality, modulation to relative, dominant and subdominant keys, rhythmic and melodic dictation up to eight bars, discrepancies, root-position chord progressions in major keys, and aural analysis of instruments, techniques, texture, form, dynamics and articulation.
Theory (Section One Part B)
Existing outline — UNVERIFIED for the advertised editionScore-based literacy with no audio: clefs including alto and tenor, key signatures to seven sharps and flats, scales and modes, intervals to a ninth, chords to ninths and m7(b5) with symbols and inversions, Roman numerals, TAB and guitar chords, forms, signs and devices, and transposition for B flat, E flat, F and A instruments.
Unseen analysis (Section Two Part A)
Existing outline — UNVERIFIED for the advertised editionTwo works not on the designated list, analysed from a printed score excerpt and recording: instrumentation and entries, keys and key relationships, score terms, tempo and metre changes, form, devices and stylistic influence.
Identities designated works (Section Two Part B)
Existing outline — UNVERIFIED for the advertised editionUnit 3: how the elements of music express personal, sociopolitical and cultural identity, analysed through three designated works, one each from Contemporary, Jazz and Western Art Music. The 2024 and 2025 papers used Baker Boy's Marryuna, Nina Simone's Young, Gifted and Black and the first movement of Amy Beach's Gaelic Symphony.
Innovations designated works (Section Two Part B)
Existing outline — UNVERIFIED for the advertised editionUnit 4: how composers achieved innovation through form, harmony, rhythm, timbre and technology, driven by personal, sociopolitical and cultural influences. The 2024 and 2025 papers used Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Lisa Young's Tha Thin Tha and John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine.
How will I be assessed?
Needs verification: UNVERIFIED current assessment mix. Use the advertised SCSA syllabus and the school's outline; earlier guide weights are not substituted.
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Will I find it hard?
Difficulty depends on your experience, interests, teaching and assessment. These are our reflection prompts, not an official difficulty rating.
- Do you enjoy practising, making or performing and responding to feedback?
- Think about sustained work on a creative project and documenting how your ideas develop.
Does it scale up or down?
Music, 2025. TISC’s mean scaled scores summarise all students with a scaled score in the published course. The mean describes a cohort and gives no individual raw-to-scaled conversion. A scaled mean alone cannot establish whether this subject scaled up or down. Historical cohort data cannot predict your result or a future scaling direction.
| Mean scaled score | Students |
|---|---|
| 61.8 | 310 |
Scaling is not a measure of difficulty or a guaranteed bonus. Prioritise content you can engage with and required subjects for courses you are considering.
Try a little of the subject
Interval recognition by ear: major, minor, perfect and tritone within an octave
1. What the interval question asks you to do This hub cannot play audio. Every excerpt below is an ORIGINAL constructed example, written for practice and given in text using the hub convention: pitch as letter plus octave number (middle C = C4), durations by their Australian names, bar lines as |. Play or sing each example on an instrument to hear it. The aural part of the written paper usually opens with a short interval-recognition question. On the 2024 and 2025 papers it was worth 3 marks: a melody is played in context, three intervals are bracketed on the printed stave, and you name each one. The syllabus limits aural intervals to major, minor, perfect and the tritone, within one octave , so the full answer set is small: minor 2nd, major 2nd, minor 3rd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, tritone, perfect 5th, minor 6th, major 6th, minor 7th, major 7th and perfect octave (some teachers include the unison). Two things make the question harder than it looks. First, the intervals sit inside a real melody with accompaniment, rhythm and expression, not as two isolated piano notes. Second, the excerpt may be played only a set number of times, so you need a routine that gets an answer on the first hearing and confirms it on the next. Each bracket earns 1 mark for the quality and the number together. "5th" alone is incomplete; "perfect 5th" is the answer. Write the full name in words, because abbreviations such as "M3" and "m3" are easy to misread when handwritten quickly. Treat the item as a warm-up for your ears as well as a source of marks. Settling into the key of the excerpt here, by humming the tonic quietly, makes the later dictation questions feel less abrupt. 2. The twelve intervals and their semitone counts An interval has a number (count the letter names from the lower note
Original practice question: ORIGINAL excerpt composed for this hub and described in text (the hub cannot play audio): A snare drum plays a four-bar rhythm at crotchet = 100. There are three crotchet beats per bar, each beat dividing into two quavers. Using the counting syllables 1 e & a / 2 e & a / 3 e & a, the strokes fall as follows (each stroke lasts until the next stroke or silence): Bar 1: strokes on 1, 2, 2& and 3&; silence on 3. Bar 2: a stroke on 1 that rings through to 2&; strokes on 2& and 3. Bar 3: four even strokes on 1, 1e, 1&, 1a, then a stroke on 2; silence for the whole of beat 3. Bar 4: one stroke on 1, sustained as a roll for the whole bar. Notate the rhythm in the text convention (name each duration and rest, bar lines as |), add the time signature and state how bar 3 should be grouped. (8 marks)
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Worked solution
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Sources, versions and verification dates
Profile source metadata last checked: 2026-11-14. A source check is not an endorsement by the authority or confirmation that a future course version is unchanged.
- ATARMAxxing Music ATAR Course Year 12 Syllabus (for teaching from 2027) guide — ATARMAxxing; 2026-11-14. Original existing study guide, not an independent official verification or a forecast of a future syllabus.
- TISC 2025 scaling report: Music — TISC; 2026-11-12. TISC’s mean scaled scores summarise all students with a scaled score in the published course. The mean describes a cohort and gives no individual raw-to-scaled conversion.
- Music ATAR: advertised Year 11 syllabus — SCSA; 2026-11-13. Observed source link. Current learning/assessment detail is not transcribed or independently verified in this profile.
- Music ATAR: advertised Year 12 syllabus — SCSA; 2026-11-13. Observed source link. Current learning/assessment detail is not transcribed or independently verified in this profile.
- TISC 2025 scaling report: Music — TISC; 2026-11-12. TISC’s mean scaled scores summarise all students with a scaled score in the published course. The mean describes a cohort and gives no individual raw-to-scaled conversion.