Seeking All and Any Advice for AP Music Theory

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>Haha, it's that time of year again....course selections! This upcoming year I plan on taking AP Music Theory, yet I have to admit I know relatively nothing about the class itself! So, a couple questions for those of you that have taken it before:
1. How hard is it to get a 5?
2. Did you have a musical background when you took it, and if so was the class easy/hard?
3. How many hours of work did you have to do per day?</p>

<p>Feel free to answer any one or all of the questions, I just have trouble deciding whether to take Orchestra Honors again next year or to take the AP. Thank you so much guys!!</p>

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<p>By the way if anyone wants to see my schedule for next year (which I highly doubt haha but hey why not?) I’m going to be taking:

  1. English 11 Honors
  2. German IV Honors
  3. US History II Honors
  4. Pre-calculus and Trigonometry Honors
  5. AP Biology
  6. AP Music Theory
  7. AP Chemistry
    Self-Study: AP Environmental Science</p>

<p>Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! You’ll get 900349853422342 virtual brownies (which I’m renowned for, so you definitely don’t want to miss out!) :)</p>

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<p>:@) Anyone?</p>

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<p>I am not a student, but I have known many students who take music theory in college. I’ll be honest. Many musicians change their major after doing poorly this class. But not everybody, of course. If you are good at math, you have a better chance. If you play an instrument that makes chords (especially piano) you may have a better chance. If you understand vocal harmony you may have a better chance (like, if someone says, “I’ll do the melody, and you sing the fifth,” and you get that). If you have ever composed (and written it out) you almost certainly have a better chance.</p>

<p>That’s all I have. Hope it helps a little.</p>

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<p>Sorry this is so late…</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How hard is it to get a 5?
Not that hard. I used Barron’s, and it prepared me quite adequately. I ended up with a 5, with subscores of 5 and 5 on the aural and non-aural sections respectively. </p></li>
<li><p>Did you have a musical background when you took it, and if so was the class easy/hard?
Yes. I had played Clarinet for 7 years, bassoon for 1.5 years, saxophone for 5 years, and piano for 13 years. The class was fairly easy…all except for the aural parts, which I found to be more difficult. </p></li>
<li><p>How many hours of work did you have to do per day?
~4 hrs/week, until the week before. Then, I put in ~4 hrs/day. </p></li>
</ol>