Music Aptitude Practice

Practice Musical Aptitude Tests commonly used in school entrance exams in the UK

This app offers practice for various Musical Aptitude tests (also known as the MAT or Bentley test) commonly used in school entrance exams in the UK, and in particular the 4-part standard Musical Aptitude Test as used in the admissions to some UK schools for the 2018 academic year.

We have built this app to be a realistic simulation of the tests we have encountered in 2017 and 2018, but clearly we cannot predict the content of all such tests accurately. Tests may vary from school to school, and from year to year. Some schools do an enhanced 7-part test which we do not simulate.

The musical aptitude test is a listening test - you hear a range of musical tones, phrases or rhythms and need to answer questions on them. We simulate the 4 types of question found in the Standard Musical Aptitude Test.

1. Higher / Lower; two tones, answer which one is highest or lowest. Sometimes the difference is slight (less than a semitone) so you need to listen carefully.

2. Texture; you hear a chord. Answer whether you think the chord has 2, 3 or 4 notes making it up. This is the hardest part of the test.

3. Melody; two five note phrases. Answer in which note you think there was a difference.

4. Rhythm; two 4 beat rhythms. Answer in which beat you think there was a difference.

It's all about practice, and this app generates random tests from a pool of around 400 questions.