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Creative Arts

Music 1

2
UNITS
What this subject builds

Music 1 builds performance, composition and listening skills for students who already play.

Creativity & making
Performing and composing your own musical ideas.
Analytical reasoning
Aural skills — hearing structure, harmony and texture.
Independent research
Independent practice and preparation across the year.
Full skill profile
Writing & expression
Argument & persuasion
Analytical reasoning
Numeracy & modelling
Practical & lab craft
Independent research
Creativity & making
Detail & recall
Filled dots = how strongly this subject develops each quality. What do these mean?
Effort & difficulty
INTENSITY
Moderate
TYPICAL LOAD
3–4 hrs/wk

Rewarding if you already play; performance prep is the steady commitment.

Where students struggle

Aural analysis and getting performances genuinely exam-ready.

Who it suits
Tends to thrive
Students already playing or singing who want it to count.
May find it a grind
Students starting an instrument from scratch this year.
How it scales
Scaled mean (per unit)
20.8 / 50
3-YEAR STABILITY
Very stable
Scaled mean by year: 2023 21.4 −0.3 2024 21.1 −0.3 2025 20.8
0 10 20 30 40 50 mean 20.8

This is the spread of scaled marks across everyone who took the subject — not how hard it is. A high mean usually means a strong cohort sat it. The figures are from UAC’s latest scaling report (2025), with the year-by-year trend above.

4,747
sat it in 2025
47.5%
female
99.9
highest ATAR
Mark explorer

Where might my mark scale to?

Set the HSC mark you’re aiming for. We’ll show a band of where that tends to scale — never a single number, never a prediction.

Expected HSC mark 85 / 100
4070100

Your course mark, out of 100 — a 2-unit course.

A mark in the high 80s tends to scale to roughly
20–24 per unit / 50
Scaled marks are measured per unit, out of 50 — the standard UAC scale. There’s no exact conversion, so this is a zone, not a pinpoint.
0 10 20 30 40 50 mean 20.8
There’s no exact HSC-to-scaled conversion. Scaling depends on how the whole cohort performs each year, so treat this as a feel for the range — not a calculator.
Common questions
How does HSC Music 1 scale?

In the UAC Preliminary Report on the Scaling of the 2025 NSW HSC, Music 1 had a scaled mean of 20.8 out of 50 per unit, and its scaled mean has been very stable over recent years. Scaling reflects how academically strong the cohort is — not how hard the subject is — and there is no exact HSC-to-scaled conversion, so it's best read as a range, never a single number.

How hard is HSC Music 1, and how much work is it?

Music 1 is moderate effort — typically 3–4 hrs/wk. Rewarding if you already play; performance prep is the steady commitment. Where students most often struggle: Aural analysis and getting performances genuinely exam-ready.

What does HSC Music 1 build?

Music 1 builds performance, composition and listening skills for students who already play. It especially develops creativity & making, analytical reasoning, and independent research.

Who should take HSC Music 1?

Students already playing or singing who want it to count. It may be more of a grind for students starting an instrument from scratch this year.

Where’s this data from?

Scaling figures are from the UAC Preliminary Report on the Scaling of the 2025 NSW HSC (Tables A1, A3). Scaled marks are out of 50 per unit.

There is no exact HSC-to-scaled conversion — for any one HSC mark there is a range of scaled marks, which is why we only ever show a band.

The skills, effort and “who it suits” notes are Intuition Education’s editorial guidance, not UAC data.

Why we don’t do an ATAR calculator →
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