Here's a little digest version of what I had to know when I did mine:

RCM Grade II Rudiments of Music

1. Notation
2. Major and Minor Scales
3. Other Scales and Modes
4. Intervals
5. Chords
6. Cadences and Melody Writing
7. Time
8. Naming the Key, Transposition, and Detecting Errors
9. Score Types
10. Terms, Signs, and Abbreviations

1. Notation
a) Things to Know:
- Reading notes on a staff in the treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs (including ledger lines,
and correct note stem placement)
-Simple time values (e.g. whole note, half note, etc.), and their relationship to eachother
-Tones, Semitones, and Accidentals (including double sharps, and double flats)

b) Things to watch out for:

-Placement of stems and dots!
-The difference between diatonic semitones and chromatic semitones can get confusing;
remember that 'Diatonic' means "two toned."

2. Major and Minor Scales

a) Things to know:
-Semitone and wholetone pattern in major and minor scales
-Key signatures and key signature placement in the different clefs
-The technical names of the degrees of the scale (tonic, supertonic, mediant,
subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading note)
-Minor scales: Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic
-Relative Keys

b) Things to watch out for:

-these concepts all overlap on the actual exam so you could be asked to write a G-sharp
melodic minor scale, ascending, and descending, starting on the mediant, using a correct
key signature

3. Other Scales and Modes

a) Things to know:
-Chromatic scales, with accidentals and key signatures
-Whole tone scales
-Blues scales (the intervals: tonic, minor 3rd, perfect 4th, diminished 5th/augmented 4th,
perfect 5th, minor 7th, perfect octave)
-Pentatonic scales
-Modes: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian, with accidentals and key signatures

b) Things to watch out for:

-remember that a chromatic scale has sharps ascending, and flats descending
-whole tone scales require six different letter names, must start and end on the same letter
name, and that all steps between notes are major 2nds, except for one which is a
diminished 3rd
-just play the black keys on a piano if you have access to get a good sense of a pentatonic
scale
-although there are other modes, the RCM only requires that you know what they are;
only the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian modes do you need to write answers
for on the exam (or at least that's how it was when I did it)

4. Intervals
a) Things to know:
-Type: Harmonic or Melodic (e.g. sounded together or separately)
-Size: The number of letter names in the interval
-Quality: Major, Minor, Perfect, Diminished, and Augmented.
-Inverted Intervals
-Finding the scales containing a given interval, or finding the number of a certain interval
in a given scale

b) Things to watch out for:

-There are MANY unusual intervals, and special cases to watch out for: The Unison (you
cant make a unison diminished), Illogical Keys (e.g. E-sharp; mentally change the key
and remove intervals, then replace them, this can be mentally confusing), The Inverted
Augmented Octave.
-Finding the scales containing a given interval can be incredibly time consuming if not
done properly; there are many ways to speed up the proccess that people have developed
that will make your life a lot easier!

5. Chords
a) Things to know:
-Triads, using accidentals and key signatures
-Chords in different technical interval positions (e.g. a G major triad is the dominant triad
of the key of C major)
-Major, Minor, Diminished, Augmented, and Dominant 7th Chords
-Chortal chords, polychords, and clusters
-Inversions: Root position, 1st inversion, 2nd inversion
-Open and closed chords

b) Things to watch out for:

-again, many of the concepts get intertwined and you may be required to name the root,
quality, position, key, and technical degree of a single chord, or you may be required to
write an open dominant 7th chord in 2nd inversion in a certain key, or using accidentals
-take a look through a church hymn book to get a better sense of open chords. Very often
the SATB 2:2 chorale structure is the easiest to visualize and figure out mentally

6. Cadences and Melody Writing

a) Things to know:
-Cadences: Perfect, Plagal, and Imperfect
-How to write cadences
-Inserting cadences in major and minor melodies

b) Things to watch out for:

-there are many methods for writing cadences, and most people usually develop their own
unique style of figuring out how to do it
-again, looking in songbooks of any sort and finding where cadences exist can be very
helpful. Usually theory students are also musicians, and finding pieces without cadences
is nearly impossible

7. Time
a) Things to know:
-Simple and compound duple, triple, quadruple time, and the accompanying stress
patterns (e.g. in simple 3/4 time, the stress pattern is strong, weak, weak like a waltz)
-Proper musical notation (i.e. placement of rests, notes, and barlines)
-Hybrid Time (e.g. 5/4, or 4/3, or in rare, and usually unwelcome instances 3/10)

b) Things to watch out for:

-The timing for Rudiments II is extremely mathematical, and once the basic concepts are
understood, the formula can be applied to many cases: there aren't very many things here
to watch out for

8. Naming the Key, Transposition, and Detecting Errors

a) Things to know:
-How to find the key of a given melody. Things to consider: The key signature,
accidentals, the final note, the opening notes, "triads"
-How to transpose a melody (into tenor and alto clefs too...sorry!)
-Concert pitch, and transpositional instruments
-Detecting errors in music. Things to consider: clef position, key signature position, time
signature position, bar lines (these are actually common in real music), double bar lines,
stem and dot placement, note and rest placement in reference to time signature,
incomplete measures at the beginning and the complementary incomplete measure at the
end, slur and tie shapes, musical term spelling, melodic issues that logically do not work
(e.g. incorrect accidentals)

b) Things to watch out for:

-The hardest part of identifying mistakes is not identifying them but correcting them
-This is where a musician's intuition benefits him or her (i.e. knowing from experience
when something doesn't "look right" is the most powerful tool here)
9. Score Types
a) Things to know:
-Different types of score layouts: Pianoforte, Organ, Orchestral, Vocal, Short Score,
Open Score, Modern Vocal Score, and String Quartet
-How to rewrite scores into other types of scores

b) Things to watch out for:

-Be sure to copy out details very precisely; missing a simple "Allegretto" at the top of the
score can cost unnecessary marks on the exam
-The orchesatral, short, and open scores require the use of tenor, and alto clefs not used in
the other more common types

10. Terms, Signs, and Abbreviations

a) Things to know:
-(to list all of the RCM's requirements for Rudiments II would take up way to much
space, so I will just list the general type of term and two examples).
-Tempo Terms: Largo -> Prestissimo
-Tempo Change Terms: Ritardando, meno mosso
-Volume Terms: Mezzo piano, fortissimo
-Volume Change Terms: Crescendo, Sforzando
-Style Terms: Maestoso, con brio
-Italian descriptors: con pedale, tutti
-French descriptors: lentement, vite
-German descriptors: langsam, mit Ausdruck

Well, there you have it. I think some of this was a bit of a review for me too! I'll just
finish off with some exam tips.

-read the instructions carefully, and follow them! It is easy to get caught up writing in the
treble clef and then forget that you were actually supposed to be writing in the bass clef.
This is the number one thing to remember!

-be sure to add double bar lines at the end of a section, it makes it look proffessional and
the person marking it won't have convulsions

-try to get in the habit of "singing" the pitches in your head, it will make for a quiet exam,
but will also help you musically

-lastly, have fun with theory, if you tell yourself it is stupid and boring then that's
certainly what it will be. My attitude was, ok, I don't like this, but I need to try and enjoy
myself so I can get it all over with. Many musicians are way ahead of the theory mentally
but need to get the certificate anyway. Just try to enjoy it while it lasts...trust me.

Source(s):
Wharram, et al. "Elementary Rudiments of Music." Fredrick-Harris Music Co., Ltd.
Mississauga, Ontario. 2005.