Proficiency Exams
PLEASE NOTE:
- Proficiency exams are required of all students wishing to test out of the MUS 1 Series, MUS 2 Series and MUS 2K Series.
- Students who test out of a course or sequence will NOT earn course credit/units. Testing out merely fulfills prerequisite requirements.
- All proficiency exams are offered at the beginning of every academic year during Welcome Week.
- Course Descriptions
MUS 1A-B-C (Fundamentals of Music)
The proficiency exam for the MUS 1 Series is given individually for each course in the sequence. There is a MUS 1A exam, a 1B exam and a 1C exam.
MUS 1A, MUS 1B and 1C exams are administered with each instructor.
Each exam must be completed within 40 minutes. This course sequence is intended for non-music majors.
MUS 2A-B-C (Basic Musicianship)
The MUS 2 series proficiency exam exists to assess the level of incoming experience for all students hoping to either take or pass out of the 2 series.
All students interested in the MUS 2 sequence are required to take the exam, regardless of prior experience. If you have advanced prior knowledge, you will either be admitted to a later series of the course (2B, 2C) or be passed directly into MUS 101A. Regardless of prior experience, you are still required to take the exam.
If you are new to music theory with no prior music theory experience, you must still take the exam in order for the instructor to assess incoming levels of experience.
There is no need to “study” in advance of this proficiency exam. It is an ear-training based exam, proctored live, and will cover a range of topics from hearing basic intervals, chord qualities, scales qualities, inversions, modes, basic chord progressions, cadences and 2-note dictations.
All students interested in the MUS 2 sequence are required to take the exam, regardless of prior experience. If you have advanced prior knowledge, you will either be admitted to a later series of the course (2B, 2C) or be passed directly into MUS 101A. Regardless of prior experience, you are still required to take the exam.
If you are new to music theory with no prior music theory experience, you must still take the exam in order for the instructor to assess incoming levels of experience.
There is no need to “study” in advance of this proficiency exam. It is an ear-training based exam, proctored live, and will cover a range of topics from hearing basic intervals, chord qualities, scales qualities, inversions, modes, basic chord progressions, cadences and 2-note dictations.
Exam Schedule for 2023-2024 academic year:
Students not currently enrolled in MUS 2A and seeking to take the exam:
Wednesday, Sept, 27th: 2:00P in CPMC 264
Students currently enrolled in MUS 2A will be required to take the exam during the first class meeting:
Thursday, Sept. 28th: 11:00A in CPMC 264
MUS 2AK-BK-CK (Basic Keyboarding)
All students planning to test out of the MUS 2K Series (Basic Keyboard) must take a proficiency exam for each course. Each exam tests students on all three courses of that series.
*Please reach out to the instructor, Takae Ohnishi at tohnishi@ucsd.edu for more information.