Pearson Edexcel A level Music and Music Technology: April 2024 update

In this update

Submitting NEA for 2024

Summer 2024 support for students

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Difficulty level booklet

Key dates

Submitting NEA for 2024

Submission of the NEA components must be made by 15 May 2024. This will be via the Learner Work Transfer portal. You will need to digitally upload files for your candidates. The administrative support guide gives details of how to present the work for the examiner.

You will need to submit the completed PAS or CAS forms for music or the logbooks for music technology.

Summer 2024 support for students

Help your students feel as prepared as possible for the upcoming exam season.

In addition to all the support you provide, both Ofqual, JCQ and Pearson have a range of information to help inform and guide your students during this busy time. Please take a look at the information we’ve summarised below and pass it on to your students.

Support from Ofqual

The Ofqual Student Guide 2024 provides students with information about this year’s arrangements for GCSE, AS and A level qualifications, and explains what support is in place when taking exams and assessments.

Read the Ofqual Student Guide 2024

Support from JCQ

The JCQ has a range of information and support for students – from coursework and onscreen exams to written exams, along with a checklist for exam day.

Take a look at all the support JCQ have to offer for students

Support from Pearson

As the revision season is now fully under way and students begin to turn their focus towards the summer exam series, we’d like to share our Getting ready for exams guide that includes some top tips and advice including:

- preparing for exams
- what happens on exam day
- where to find further support
- what happens once exams are over.

Take a look at the guide and please pass it on to your students

You can stay up to date with all our support for 2024 on our Qualifications assessment support page

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As we make the final preparations for the summer series, we have a few questions for you.

Please take one minute to answer this short form

Difficulty level booklet

As part of our ongoing work to support centres delivering Pearson Edexcel Music qualifications, we are updating the Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A level Music Difficulty Levels Booklet (DLB). The updated document will be uploaded to the website shortly after 15 May, 2024 and will be used for assessments from the 2025 summer examination series onwards. The current DLB, available on our website, will be used for assessment in the 2024 summer examination series. 

The updated DLB will mostly include additional pieces from recently published practical performance syllabi across a range of music exam boards. The difficulty level of a small number of pieces in the current DLB will change in this update, with some going up in difficulty level and some coming down. We advise centres to check the difficulty level of all performance repertoire carefully when preparing students for 1MU0/01 and 9MU0/01 assessments in 2025 and onwards, even in cases where centres have submitted performances of the same piece year on year. 

By uploading the updated version of the DLB after the 2024 coursework deadline, we hope this will give centres the longest possible time to prepare students for the following examination series. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Key dates