The Music Stem / Music theory practice tests / NYSTCE Music 165
Exam practice
Timed practice for NYSTCE Music 165, set out in the board's own sections. Every answer comes with an explanation.
NYSTCE Music CST (165) is a licensure test for music teachers, owned by the New York State Education Department.
This practice test covers listening, theory, performance and cultural history, for New York music teachers.
The listening questions use our own piano recordings. They cover intervals, chords, cadences, meter, texture, finding errors against a printed score and judging a piano performance. Each error question plays a single melody. Performance questions judge tempo, balance, dynamics and articulation on the piano. Recognizing a style, period, instrument or voice by ear is not included. Intonation, blend, tone and diction are not included either.
Exam mode runs a clock of 3 hours 15 minutes for the whole practice test.
The full practice test holds 84 questions.
Study mode has no clock. It checks each answer as you go.
A high school orchestra reads the first movement of a Mozart symphony. In one section the main themes are broken into fragments and pass through several keys. Which section is this?
The answer is B, The development.
Between exposition and recapitulation, the development takes motives from the themes, sequences them and moves through unstable keys. A retransition then prepares the tonic. The recapitulation restates the exposition, and the coda closes the movement after it. A slow introduction, where present, comes before the exposition.
Which is the lowest note a cello can play?
The answer is D, The C two octaves below middle C.
The cello's strings are tuned C, G, D, and A. The C string sounds two octaves below middle C.
A piece for flute and piano is built on whole-tone scales and moves in parallel ninth chords, with no firm key. Which composer most likely wrote it?
The answer is D, Debussy.
Whole-tone scales, parallel chords and a blurred sense of key mark the music Debussy wrote around 1900. Handel, Mozart and Brahms, from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods, all keep a firm sense of key.
Exam mode gives 3 hours 15 minutes for the whole practice test. It holds 84 questions. Study mode has no clock.
It follows the board's order: Listening Skills, Music Theory, Music Performance and Cultural Understanding and Historical Context.
Yes. Each answer comes with an explanation of why it is correct.
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