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The AP Music Theory Exam

Just released: May 2013

More About AP Music Theory...

Exam Content

The first music exam the AP Program offered was in 1972, when 268 students took AP Music Listening and Literature. In 1978, a new music exam was introduced: AP Music Theory, which shared a common component with the AP Music Listening and Literature exam. Both music exams were administered until 1991, when AP Music Listening and Literature was dropped from the program.

The AP Music Theory Examination tests the student's understanding of musical structure and compositional procedures through recorded and notated examples. Strong emphasis is given to listening skills, particularly those involving recognition and comprehension of melodic and rhythmic patterns, harmonic functions, small forms, and compositional techniques. Most of the musical examples are taken from standard repertoire, although some examples of contemporary, jazz, vernacular music, or music beyond the Western tradition are included for testing basic concepts. The examination assumes fluency in reading musical notation and a strong grounding in music fundamentals, terminology, and analysis. A list of commonly used terms that may appear in the examination can be found in the current edition of the Teacher's Guide. A full list of topics that may be covered in the examination is available in the current Course Description.

Preparing Student-Response CDs
When burning each student's MP3 file to the provided student-response CD, be sure to select “Data Disc” or “Data CD” (not "Audio Disc" or "Audio CD") in the preferences of your CD-burning application. Do not use applications such as Windows Media Player or iTunes versions that only allow burning audio discs or CDs.

Multiple-Choice Questions

For sample multiple-choice questions, refer to the Course Description.
AP Music Theory Course Description, Effective Fall 2012 (.pdf/973KB)

If you are using assistive technology and need help accessing these PDFs in another format, please contact us at ssd@info.collegeboard.org. Note: versions of these PDFs with enhanced accessibility will be available in the upcoming academic year. Free-Response Questions

Below are free-response questions from past AP Music Theory Exams. Included with the questions are scoring guidelines, sample student responses, and commentary on those responses, as well as exam statistics and the Chief Reader's Student Performance Q&A for past administrations.

Free-Response Questions

2013: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Score Distributions
Theory Questions
Sight-Singing Questions
Theory Audio Prompts

2012: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Score Distributions
Theory Questions	Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Score Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Sight-Singing Commentary Q1 Sight-Singing Commentary Q2 Sight-Singing Samples
Theory Audio Prompts

2011: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Score Distributions
Theory Questions	Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Score Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Sight-Singing Commentary Q1 Sight-Singing Commentary Q2 Sight-Singing Samples
Theory Audio Prompts

2010: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Score Distributions
Theory Questions	Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Score Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Sight-Singing Commentary Q1 Sight-Singing Commentary Q2 Sight-Singing Samples
Theory Audio Prompts

2009: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Grade Distributions
Theory Questions	Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Grade Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Sight-Singing Commentary Q1 Sight-Singing Commentary Q2 Sight-Singing Samples
Theory Audio Prompts

2008: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Grade Distributions
Theory Questions	Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Grade Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Sight-Singing Commentary Q1 Sight-Singing Commentary Q2 Sight-Singing Samples
Theory Audio Prompts

2007: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Grade Distributions
Theory Questions	Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Grade Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Sight-Singing Commentary Q1 Sight-Singing Commentary Q2 Sight-Singing Samples
Theory Audio Prompts

2006: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples and Commentary	Grade Distributions
Theory Questions	Theory Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Grade Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Sight-Singing Samples Q1 Sight-Singing Samples Q2 Audio Samples
Theory Audio Prompts

2005: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples	Grade Distributions
Theory Questions	Theory Scoring Guidelines Scoring Commentary Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses	Grade Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Music Theory Audio Samples: 2005
Theory Audio Prompts

2004: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples	Grade Distributions
Theory Questions	Theory Scoring Guidelines Scoring Commentary Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Grade Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Music Theory Audio Samples: 2004
Theory Audio Prompts

2003: Free-Response Questions

Questions	Scoring	Samples	Grade Distributions
Theory Questions	Theory Scoring Guidelines Scoring Commentary Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics	Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7	Grade Distributions
Sight-Singing Questions	Sight-Singing Scoring Guidelines	Music Theory Audio Samples: 2003
Theory Audio Prompts

Important Note: PDF Files
The links to exam questions for this course are in Adobe® PDF format, and you will need to use the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view them. If you don't have Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher installed on your computer, choose the link for the Adobe Web site below for installation instructions. For help downloading and printing PDF files, choose the link "PDF Troubleshooting" below in "See also."



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Just released: May 2013

More About AP Music Theory...

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