Music Theory Placement for Incoming Students

At Your Audition:

The short Music Theory Proficiency exam taken at your audition provides one of many pieces of information (along with your grades, SAT scores, and musical activities and awards) that help us to form a complete picture of you as an applicant for admission to a university program. You will receive a copy of your results from this exam which gives a percentage score and general feedback about your performance on various concepts tested on the exam.  Use the results from this exam over the next several months to help guide your preparation for successful university music study.  The music theory proficiency exam at your audition is taken at the computer and IS NOT timed.  You will have at hand a keyboard to play and "feel" for scales, chords, etc., and will be allowed to bring scratch paper and pencil.

Proficiency Exam (Practice)

At Summer Orientation:

If admitted to the School of Music you will take a music theory fundamentals placement exam during the summer orientation process.  This examination will determine whether you will be placed in Music Theory I (MUS 123) or Music Theory Fundamentals (MUS 111).  The former course is the first in the four-semester music theory sequence at Fredonia; the latter is a prerequisite course for students who have not yet mastered rudimentary concepts of music reading and construction.  Students who earn a score lower than 85% on the fundamentals placement exam will be placed in Music Theory Fundamentals (MUS 111) during their first semester and will not enter Music Theory I until their second semester of study, provided that they have passed the placement exam with a score of 85% by the end of the first semester.  For transfer students and freshmen who have had more extensive music theory study before enrolling at Fredonia, a separate placement process occurs also during the summer orientation process.

Unlike the exam you take at the audition, the placement exam you take at Summer orientation IS timed: you are allowed twenty (20) minutes to work through the exam.  Thus, you will need to know the fundamental concepts covered on the exam without taking extensive time to "figure out" responses.  The exam is divided into five parts: scales, key signatures, intervals, triads, and basics of note duration and meter. 

An on-line practice placement exam is available by clicking on the link below; you may come back to it as many times as you wish.  When you finish the exam you will receive a score and an indication of the questions you answered correctly and incorrectly.  There are fifty questions.  Some advice to consider when taking exams like this:

• Don't dwell on questions that you can't answer right away; leave such questions alone and come back to them later.

• Answer all of the questions, even if you have to guess at some.

• When you finish the last question, go back and review your responses; use all of the time you have before submitting the exam.

Music Theory Fundamentals Placement Exam (Practice)

On-line Fundamentals Study Prior to Your Summer Orientation:

The School of Music has worked with Connect for Education, a leading developer, publisher, and distributor of quality online materials to offer an excellent web-based course in music theory fundamentals called OnMusic Fundamentals.  Although enrolling in the OnMusic Fundamentals course does not take the place of successful completion of the School of Music placement exam, the course does offer more than enough instruction to assure that you perform well on our placement exam.  Information can be found by going to the Connect for Education website: http://www.connect4education.com/