Hey, just a quick question for those who are doing A level Music, or anyone who is willing to give input. Do they penalise you for answering questions in bullet points? I'm thinking about doing this for my A level Music exam, especially the aural section and questions which say 'breifly describe the music/orchestration of this passage'. Is it OK to just list 3 points for 3 mark questions, or is it imperative to write it in full sentences? It does say that quality of writing will be taken into account, but that is for extended essays etc.

Advice please!
Thank you

Well I know for Edexcel you can bullet point your answers for AS at any rate. A few of my friends did it and got decent A's.
I'm not positive but I'm fairly sure that they ask you to write in full sentences for your A2 exam.

Thanks! I will be doing my AS exam, though on the OCR exam board. Since on the practice papers there hasn't been enough room to fit full sentences anyway, I think I'll just put in bullet pointed answers.

I know this is all a bit trivial, but I'm nervous that I'll do something that I'm not supposed to. Is it recommended to write in pencil or pen (for the written answers, not the notation)? My teacher recommends doing the whole thing in pencil, but others have said that they scan the exam papers and send them off to be marked, in which case pencil won't be a good idea.

I bullet pointed my answers for Edexcel AS. It said in the mark scheme you could.

If it says you can use either pen or pencil then choose whichever you want to use

I might do that. The trouble with OCR is the ambiguity of the instructions on the exam papers Doesn't say anything about how you can answer the questions or what you should use, only instructions on which questions you should answer.

Maybe go onto the website and look at the specification or email them?

All I foud was this: http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/AS_ALevelGCEMusic.html

Clicked on the first link, but there was nothing helpful. Nevermind, I think pen it is

The general rule for A level (at least, that's what we were taught in school) is to write your answers in clear, concise sentences. However, if you run out of time, then you can bullet point your answers. I think it's better to write in complete sentences. It kind of shows the examiner you're 'committed' to answer the question and not in a hurry to skip it. I don't know how different A level Music is from the sciences but for Biology, that's what our teacher said. *grin* And like nicki_flute said, it's a good idea to email the exam board or ask your music teacher! He/she's sure to know. =) Don't trust mark schemes 100%. They can be off sometimes especially with ambiguous stuff.

I found Edexcel Music mark schemes very specific. But the bullet pointing if you run out of time is a good idea!

what is Edexcel? Is this an English thing???

An exam board

I think you can, it's not like geography or history where extra points are scored for fluent english, you get marks for hitting the right awnsers, so bullet points shouldnt be a problem.

Having marked for the exam boards, bullet points are fine at AS in ALL parts of the paper (including Paper 3 History and Analysis). At A2, bullet points are still fine in the aural paper, and to be honest, they are fine for the most part in the history and alalysis paper, though you might lose a few marks, but not that many, and the advice above about being short of time and getting the info down in bullet form is a good practice.

well I'm doing A2 at the moment and when we do practice questions I always get told to write in more detail even if its just the aural questions. A sentence would help I think, but I'm with AQA rather than OCR. Why don't you ask your teacher what he/she thinks?