Music Moms: Royal Conservatory Music Program - high school credit or helpful w/admissions?

[jhschool]

Hi

Have anyone's kids received "official" high school credit for doing well on the

Royal Conservatory Music Development Program (also called RCM?)

 

Or have these exams helped in university admissions?

Thanks!

[Gwen in VA]

Good luck doing that! The program looks excellent.

 

The testing locations were so far from us that after a lot of investigation we gave up and dd did music theory from a local 4-year college. It was easier. (No, we are not hoping to get transfer credit for the classes -- most music programs that we've looked at don't allow student to pass out of the classes based on transfer credit. Dd wanted more music theory, so she did the class!)

[jhschool]

Good luck doing that! The program looks excellent.

 

The testing locations were so far from us that after a lot of investigation we gave up and dd did music theory from a local 4-year college. It was easier. (No, we are not hoping to get transfer credit for the classes -- most music programs that we've looked at don't allow student to pass out of the classes based on transfer credit. Dd wanted more music theory, so she did the class!)

 

 

I don't know if this will help at all, but they have distance classes for many of their

levels. I saw that somewhere--possibly on the syllabus for theory.

 

I was wondering more about high school credit that I could put on the transcript. Their

guide says some schools are able to give high school credit. Has anyone done that?

I wonder how you would go about it--my local high school principal wouldn't know, I

am sure. But I thought maybe there was a standard procedure.

 

Since some colleges want you to take the hardest courses possible such as AP

or IB I was wondering if the RCM would be such a thing.

 

Taking music theory classes at the 4-year college as dual enrollment also sounds good.

Maybe even better. The RCM would be cheaper ($150 for the test and about $200 for

materials per year) than the 4-year college (about $3000 for one class), but dual-enrollment

classes would probably be OK to count as high school classes for the transcript for sure.

And the colleges would also see that as evidence of taking challenging courses. This

is a very good idea.

 

I guess I could also look at the community college ($300 per class). I know the quality of the music

theory is below the 4-year college.

 

Anyway, I am rambling now--thank you for the response!

 

 

Hm...

[Gwen in VA]

RCM classes would certainly look rigorous. The upper levels of RCM cover some stuff that dd has not covered in her 202 music theory class -- so they include stuff from third and fourth semester college theory classes! Pretty rigorous I would say!

 

I would certainly give credit on the transcript for an RCM class. I would keep approximate track of hours and give 0.5 credit for ~60-90 hours, which is the standard Carnegie unit. (I would decide based on 1) whether your dd is a fast or a slow worker, and 2) which number of hours seems to match up with the classes the best.)

 

I think it's awesome that they are now offering distance classes; they weren't when I as investigating, which was a few years ago.

 

That's too bad that your local 4-year college is so expensive. The one down the street from us is a so-called "Public Ivy" -- an academically really strong state school. Even so, the classes cost 3-4x what they do at the community college.

[Dmmetler]

You also may want to look into the AP exam for music theory. Many colleges won't give credit/placement out of music theory for AP classes for music majors, but it definitely looks good on a transcript.

 

As far as college placement goes, I don't know a solid program anywhere that doesn't do a theory placement test and place students accordingly (even the summer programs I did as a high school student had a theory placement as the first activity of the term), so RCM would definitely help in potentially placing out of Freshman theory and being able to take more advanced/interesting courses, or just having a little more room to fit in general education requirements the first year (which tend to be less intense than the music majors classes-this is what I would suggest for a music major in most cases-it will work better to stay on target with your class/year for theory because usually the theory/history blocks are what the other courses are scheduled around-get off by a semester or year, and it's like pulling out a block at the bottom of the jenga stack).

[Dicentra]

I believe that it's the Ministry of Education in each province that determines whether or not RCM exams can be used for credit and what level they will accept. Here in Ontario, Grade 7 Piano performance plus Intermediate Rudiments will equate to a Grade 11 Music credit and Grade 8 plus Advanced Rudiments will give a Grade 12 Music credit. I would think that you would have to check with your State's department of ed to see if they will accept RCM credits on a transcript. Or check with the postsecondary institutions where your dc plan on applying to see if they will accept the RCM credits.

 

One thing you may want to keep in mind - it's very difficult to get high grades on these exams and they tend to follow the Canadian grading system where an 80-89% is an A and 90-100% is an A+. It's common for students to receive grades in the 70's on performance exams (which would be a B here). Very well prepared students will get 80's and exceptional students will receive 90's. If your grading system gives low letter grades for anything below 90's, then taking these exams may end up lowering your GPA. Forgive me if that doesn't make sense - I'm not terribly familiar with the GPA system. I just wanted to make folks aware that Canadian grading systems may award grades (percentage equivalents for A's, B's, etc.) differently than US systems do.

[NASDAQ]

In BC we were able to get high school credit for the higher level exams. It counted as a fine arts credit.

[NASDAQ]

Also, if you're Canadian, it usually won't help with university admissions.

[dhudson]

My son has taken level 5 & 6 for 9th and 10th grade and I am listing them under achievements.  I am giving him a fine arts credit for piano.  They are difficult tests and require a lot of prep.  He received high 70's and low 80's which is graded as With Honors and With High Honors.  ( I think that's the terminology )

[jhschool]

RCM classes would certainly look rigorous. The upper levels of RCM cover some stuff that dd has not covered in her 202 music theory class -- so they include stuff from third and fourth semester college theory classes! Pretty rigorous I would say!

 

I would certainly give credit on the transcript for an RCM class. I would keep approximate track of hours and give 0.5 credit for ~60-90 hours, which is the standard Carnegie unit. (I would decide based on 1) whether your dd is a fast or a slow worker, and 2) which number of hours seems to match up with the classes the best.)

 

I think it's awesome that they are now offering distance classes; they weren't when I as investigating, which was a few years ago.

 

That's too bad that your local 4-year college is so expensive. The one down the street from us is a so-called "Public Ivy" -- an academically really strong state school. Even so, the classes cost 3-4x what they do at the community college.

Thank you--I will give credit on the transcript as part of his theory work--thanks for the reply--this

is helpful!

 

 

[jhschool]

You also may want to look into the AP exam for music theory. Many colleges won't give credit/placement out of music theory for AP classes for music majors, but it definitely looks good on a transcript.

 

As far as college placement goes, I don't know a solid program anywhere that doesn't do a theory placement test and place students accordingly (even the summer programs I did as a high school student had a theory placement as the first activity of the term), so RCM would definitely help in potentially placing out of Freshman theory and being able to take more advanced/interesting courses, or just having a little more room to fit in general education requirements the first year (which tend to be less intense than the music majors classes-this is what I would suggest for a music major in most cases-it will work better to stay on target with your class/year for theory because usually the theory/history blocks are what the other courses are scheduled around-get off by a semester or year, and it's like pulling out a block at the bottom of the jenga stack).

Thank you for the reply!

We have started the AP Music Theory preparation--are about half way done.

 

That is a good idea that an RCM test will give a little more room to fit in general ed. requirements

the first year.

 

Thank you for the tip to stay on target with your class for theory in

college.  I didn't think of that before.

[jhschool]

I believe that it's the Ministry of Education in each province that determines whether or not RCM exams can be used for credit and what level they will accept. Here in Ontario, Grade 7 Piano performance plus Intermediate Rudiments will equate to a Grade 11 Music credit and Grade 8 plus Advanced Rudiments will give a Grade 12 Music credit. I would think that you would have to check with your State's department of ed to see if they will accept RCM credits on a transcript. Or check with the postsecondary institutions where your dc plan on applying to see if they will accept the RCM credits.

 

One thing you may want to keep in mind - it's very difficult to get high grades on these exams and they tend to follow the Canadian grading system where an 80-89% is an A and 90-100% is an A+. It's common for students to receive grades in the 70's on performance exams (which would be a B here). Very well prepared students will get 80's and exceptional students will receive 90's. If your grading system gives low letter grades for anything below 90's, then taking these exams may end up lowering your GPA. Forgive me if that doesn't make sense - I'm not terribly familiar with the GPA system. I just wanted to make folks aware that Canadian grading systems may award grades (percentage equivalents for A's, B's, etc.) differently than US systems do.

This is a good point.  I typically teach to mastery so won't give credit until all the work is A-worthy,

but if I am using an outside test, then I am wondering what the impact of that grade should be.  DS

does a lot of additional music theory work on top of preparing for these tests, so I would probably

do a combination of what he receives on the test and the work he does independently.  Thanks for the tip!

[jhschool]

My son has taken level 5 & 6 for 9th and 10th grade and I am listing them under achievements.  I am giving him a fine arts credit for piano.  They are difficult tests and require a lot of prep.  He received high 70's and low 80's which is graded as With Honors and With High Honors.  ( I think that's the terminology )

 

This is interesting, and a good idea.

Achievements are always good.  Are you going to put them under

Extracurriculars on the Common Application, and put the "Honors" and "High Honors" in the awards

column?

Or since you have it in the transcript as fine arts, where on the Common App will you put the

achievements?

 

 

The tests are indeed hard--we are planning to spend a lot of time--thank you for the information.

 

Thank you for your reply!  It is very useful!