Mars is one of 16 arrangements for elementary string ensemble included in Richard Young's Comprehensive String Pedagogy & Curriculum. On a scale of "Easy", "More Challenging" to "Difficult (but Still Appropriate for Elementary Students)", Mars is rated "Easy".

This music from The Planets is so popular that it is even performed by marching bands at college football games in America. Children find this version of Mars absolutely thrilling, even though they play nothing but open G strings in this arrangement. Much of the excitement is derived from the relentlessly repeated rhythmic motive [3 eights, 2 quarters, 2 eights, 1 quarter] that is tightly packed into an uncommon 5/4 metric framework.
Before anyone bypasses this piece simply because it has only one note, he or she should recall other important works where composers rely on repetitions of a rhythmic motive that uses only one pitch. Probably the most famous is Ravel's Bolero, whose signature rhythm is featured from the beginning to the end of this exciting and seductive piece. Meanwhile everything surrounding this motive – the harmony, the melody, and various rhythmic crosscurrents – is constantly shifting, developing, and building. The very fact that the motive itself inexorably resists change only adds to the tension until the ultimate climax is reached at the end of the piece. The same kind of thing happens in Mars.
-Richard Young

Full program notes are included with the score. There are fingerings and bowings in all the string parts of every one of CSPC's pieces. These "cooked-in" technical solutions target the particular levels of the students. They are not just pragmatic but "musical." A complimentary keyboard accompaniment sound file for Holst: Mars is available here.