1. Authoring the AP Music Theory Exam: Consultation and Collaboration
Jocelyn Neal
UNC Chapel Hill
and
Elizabeth West Marvin
The Eastman School of Music

2. Test Development Committee
Three college faculty
Three high school faculty
Chief Reader (responsible for grading the exam)
College Board Advisor (also faculty)

3. Test Development Committee
College faculty have included:
Joseph Kraus, FSU Elizabeth West Marvin, Eastman
Matthew Bribitzer-Stull, Univ of Minnesota
Patrick McCreless, Yale
Jo Anne Caputo, Cleveland Inst.
Jocelyn Neal, UNC Chapel Hill
Jane Clendinning, FSU
Sam Ng, Univ. of Cincinnati
Melissa Cox, Emory
Teresa Reed, Univ. of Tulsa
Jonathan Holland, Berklee
Ron Rodman, Carleton College
Eric Isaacson, Indiana Univ.
Ken Stephenson, Univ. of OK
Rebecca Jemian, Univ. of Louisville
Harvey Stokes, Hampton Univ.
YouYoung Kang, Scripps

4. How a Test Is Written
Stage 1: individual committee members write questions
Stage 2: committee meets and edits questions; questions put in a pool
Stage 3: committee reviews and selects questions from the pool for an actual exam
Stage 4: committee members review and take the test
Stage 5: page proofs go to the committee co- chairs

5. Exam COVERAGE
Diatonic tonal harmony and voice leading plus secondary dominant chords
Basic topics of rhythm, meter, phrase structure and small forms
Motivic transformations (e.g., inversion) and sequences
Vocabulary for texture and performance markings
Repertory: tonal music, including a few selections from twentieth-century art music, jazz, world, and popular music

6. Exam Format Section I: Multiple-choice Score-based 80 minutes
75 questions
pitch structure, harmony, cadences, form and phrase structure, meter, rhythmic devices such as hemiola, texture, key relations, and compositional devices such as sequences or motivic transformations
Multiple-choice
Recording-based

7. Exam Format Section I: multiple choice
Sample questions based on a recording
Exam Format

8. Exam Format Section I: multiple choice
Sample questions based on a score

9. Exam Format Section II: free response FREE-RESPONSE WRITTEN ANSWERS
80 minutes
9 questions
7 written answers
2 sight singing melodies
FREE-RESPONSE
WRITTEN ANSWERS
SIGHT SINGING

10. Exam Format Section II: free response 1. melodic dictation #1
3. harmonic dictation #1
4. harmonic dictation #2
5. realize a figured bass
6. realize a harmonic progression
7. write an 18th-c. chorale-style bass line
8. sight-singing #1
9. sight-singing #2

11. Try It Out!
Let’s sight-sing:

12. Exam History 1978: first offered 1996: sight singing added
2002: part-writing from Roman Numerals added
2004: chorale-style bass line question streamlined
* Teach the material from any standard college-level textbook.

13. College Correlation Continuously reviewed
Syllabi and exams drawn from a range of types of music departments and schools

14. College Correlation Continuously reviewed
Syllabi and exams drawn from a range of types of music departments and schools
Exam coverage is equivalent to one or two semesters of theory across the aggregate of programs

15. College Correlation Continuously reviewed
Syllabi and exams drawn from a range of types of music departments and schools
Exam coverage is equivalent to one or two semesters of theory across the aggregate of programs
Individual faculty should figure out how that correlates to your own courses

16. = 5 (2014) (2015) Internal Correlation
Statisticians, test-creation procedures grading processes equate scores from one year to the next =
(2014) (2015)

17. Summary Incredibly stable format
Reflects the aggregate of first-semester college theory courses
Authored by a committee of 8 professional theorists and teachers

18. Authoring the AP Music Theory Exam: Collaboration and Consultation
Jocelyn Neal
UNC Chapel Hill
and
Elizabeth West Marvin
The Eastman School of Music