Undergraduate Placement Exams
During Orientation Week all incoming undergraduate and transfer students take placement exams in Ear Training, Keyboard (not required for Piano majors), and Theory. For Ear Training and Piano, students are assigned specific time slots; 6 minutes for Ear Training, 10 minutes for Piano. The Theory exam is a one-hour paper.

There are no make-up exams: students who do not take a Placement Exam during Orientation Week will be placed in the first course in the sequence.

Theory Placement Exam
9:00–10:00
Monday, August 31, 2009
Seully Hall

Ear Training Placement Exam
new undergrads and transfer students will be assigned individual exam times (every 6 minutes)
10:00–12:00 and 2:30–4:15
Monday, August 31, 2009
Rooms 222 & 223

Keyboard Placement Exam
new undergrads and transfer students will be assigned individual exam times (every 10 minutes)
(for non-Piano majors only)
9:00–12:00
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Room 301
+
10:00–12:00 and 2:30-9:00
Monday, August 31, 2009
Room 301

Ear Training
Keyboard
Theory

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Ear Training
The Ear Training placement consists of five increasingly advanced sections.
Each section tests sightsinging, conducting, rhythm, aural analysis, and dictation skills.
Section 1
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Ear Training 1 and placed in Ear Training 2
Section 2
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Ear Training 1 and 2 and placed in Ear Training 3
Section 3
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Ear Training 3 and placed in Ear Training 4
Section 4
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Ear Training 3, and 4 and placed in Ear Training 5
Section 5
Students who pass this section will be waived out of all Ear Training requirements

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Keyboard
The Keyboard placement consists of five increasingly advanced sections.
Section 1 scales; arpeggios; triads
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Keyboard Skills 1 and placed in Keyboard Skills 2
Section 2 cadences; seventh chords; figured bass; sightreading
Students who pass this section will be placed in Piano Class 1
Section 3 sightreading; harmonization; figured bass; prepared piece of your own choosing
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Piano Class 1 and placed in Piano Class 2
Section 4 sightreading; transposition; harmonization; prepared piece of your own choosing
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Piano Class 1 and 2 and placed in Keyboard Theory 1
Section 5 sightreading; transposition
Students who pass this section will be waived out of all keyboard requirements

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Theory
This exam has five progressively advanced sections:
Section 1 key signatures; scales; intervals; triads
Students who pass this section will be placed in Harmony & Counterpoint 1
Students who do not pass this section will be placed in Music Fundamentals
Section 2 harmonic analysis; harmonization
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Harmony & Counterpoint 1 and placed in
Harmony & Counterpoint 2
Section 3 harmonic analysis; harmonization
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Harmony & Counterpoint 1 and 2 and placed in Harmony & Counterpoint 3
Section 4 harmonic analysis; secondary functions; form
Students who pass this section will be waived out of Harmony & Counterpoint 1, 2, and 3 and placed in
Harmony & Counterpoint 4
Section 5 chromatic modulation; harmonic analysis
Students who pass this section will be waived out of all Harmony & Counterpoint requirements and placed in Form & Analysis 1 (Form & Analysis is not required for Voice majors).

Interested students should request a copy of The Boston Conservatory Music Theory Primer from the Music Division Office. This covers basic information that you need to be familiar with in order to begin Harmony and Counterpoint I. This primer also includes a sample of Section 1 of the placement exam.

It is important to recognize that the information in this primer is not what you will be learning during your first year. This is information which you should already know when you arrive in order to successfully begin the first year of theory.

Before beginning Music Fundamentals or Harmony & Counterpoint 1 students should be conversant with the following:
• treble clef
• bass clef
• ledger lines (both clefs)
• scale degree names (supertonic, mediant etc.)
• major scales
• major key signatures
• minor scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic)
• minor key signatures  
• recognition of root position triads (major, minor, augmented, and diminished)
• simple and compound time-signatures (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, 4/8, 9/8, 12/8 etc.)

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