KS3 Student guide to listening exams

by Liz, Tim and Ian @HuntSchoolMusic

In addition to the listening  and analysis training students receive in their weekly class lessons, we work through a series of additional top tips in the run up to summative assessments. What we aim to provide is focused training that will enable students to tackle questions calmly and methodically under pressure.

A lot of the time students misread or don't fully read the question. In our 'guide to listening exams' lessons, we talk through different styles of question, highlighting aspects like command words, and questions driven by a specific musical element.

As part of our training we ask the following questions:

1. can this question be answered by listening to any part of the audio track?
2. do you need to focus on a specific moment (eg the intro) in order to hear the answer?
3. do you need to hear the track at all (eg style thumbprints, provenance questions)

Here's an example of a training resource we have devised for this purpose:

If you have any feedback for us, we're always interested in how we might improve our practice, particularly in terms of integrated hands on learning. You can find details on how to get in touch in the 'About' tab.