Two pupils chose to opt out of the research, i.e. they did not work with me, but stayed with the HoM throughout. (My ethical protocol entitled them to do this.) They took part in the pre-test and the post-test; one student gained one more mark on the post-test (scoring 3, then 4); the other had the same score (9) on both tests. Whilst these two pupils could not be considered a control group, their similar scores provide evidence that the two past papers had similar standards.
Focus group interviews
Students reported that the computer helped them complete the tasks. One student explained, ‘It’s useful because you can work on the bit you want to do, and don’t get distracted by the rest of the music.’ Another student stated that they should be allowed to use the computer in the exam, and there was general agreement. Whilst everyone reported using the computers as I suggested, they had not followed my other instructions in full. In the first group, someone said that she did not know how to work out the key signature; several others agreed, although they had not mentioned this previously, when I had explained the task. (One student recalled that the mnemonic ‘Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle’ is related to key signatures, but had forgotten how.) Several stated that they could not sing the first bar of the music in their heads, and one person said that she preferred to listen to the music first, in order to get a feel for it. Only one person said that she could sing the scale; others claimed to recognise intervals. Several said they found it difficult to sing the melody mentally. One student described drawing the music in the air, saying ‘I feel a bit stupid doing it, but it helps. You learn to predict what comes next’. When asked, ‘what do you do instead of following my instructions?’ students reported that they wrote the notes onto the score, rather than using a blank section of the paper. They also described strategies such as, ‘I look at the rest of the music, to find notes that sound the same as the missing notes’. One person reported that Ode to Joy was easy because he knew it already.