Abstract:

Comparing many well-developed European countries, conservatories are relatively new institutions in Turkey. The first music school was officially opened in 1924. Now, Turkey has 29 Conservatories, 21 music education departments, and 54 Fine Arts High Schools. Since the establishment of the first institution the students have been accepted to the programs by entrance exams that measured their skills on specific subjects. Growing number of students made individual evaluations very time consuming and less accurate.

This study is a different approach to the entrance exams in conservatories that needs to be improved on the evaluation quality and time management. As the most common part to entrance exams to all departments, testing musical aural skills was examined. After reviewing the expert’s opinion on the skills that a student must have in order to be able to be accepted to the music or drama department, preliminary test was composed and rechecked by the department’s faculty. Resulting test was given to the first year and second year students in the Music and Drama departments. After that some corrections were made to the questions and categories. Resulting test was given to individuals who have similar age and interest areas in the other departments of the university and the community. The validity of the test was calculated using Kuder-Richardson 20 formula and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. After analyzing all the results it shows that this test is valid to measure the aural skills of individuals who applied to be students in Music or Drama Departments.

Keywords:

Competence Evaluation, Musical Auditory Test, Aural Skills Test, Musical Talent.