English Placement Exam

Next offering of the English placement exam for International Students:
Monday, August 18, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. in Brown Hall room 143
Registration begins at 12:40 p.m.
Bring a picture ID and some pencils.
U.S. residents and citizens contact Julie Condon for appointment.
more about the exam

English Placement Exam: International Students

As per university regulations, the English placement exam is a condition of each international student's enrollment, unless one of the following nine exemption criteria are met (effective Spring Semester, 2001):

1. You submitted an official TOEFL score for admission of at least 600 (paper and pencil) or 250 (computer), or 100 (internet Based Test – iBT) with subscores of no less than 25 in reading, writing, and listening.
2. An official IELTS score for admission of at least 7.5;
3. An official Michigan score of 96.
4. Graduation from the Intensive English Center at SCSU; (Level 4 for undergraduates, Level 5 for graduate students)
5. Successful completion of English 191 (Introduction to Rhetorical and Analytical Writing) or an equivalent course with a grade of C or better;
6. Graduation from an Associate Arts degree program at an accredited US college or university;
7. Graduation from a Bachelor's degree program at an accredited US college or university;
8. Graduation from a Master's degree program at an accredited US university; or
9. Exchange students from an institution which has an official exchange agreement with SCSU.

If your answer was "Yes" to any of the above nine questions, then you are not required to take the English placement exam (and you are not required to take any of the ESL courses associated with the exam either). If your answer was "No" to all of the above nine questions, then you are required to take the English placement exam prior to your first semester at SCSU (during the week before classes begin).

English Placement Exam: United States Residents and Citizens

If you are a US Resident or Citizen who is required to take the Accuplacer Exam, you will first be given the Accuplacer Reading test for native speakers of English. If you score 54 or below on the Accuplacer Reading test, and if demographic questions indicate that English is a second or non-native language for you, you will be required to take the Accuplacer ESL Reading test, Accuplacer ESL Listening Test, and  College ESL Essay Test. Based on those test scores, you may be required to enroll in and complete ESL courses.

The Exam

The exam consists of three parts: writing, reading and listening. The writing exam is a fifty minute essay on a general topic that is graded for content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. One way to review for the writing exam is  using the Internet. http://leo.stcloudstate.edu  is a good site. Also Google “College Writing” or “Academic Writing” to see other school’s writing sites. Review the terms used in the grading criteria above and what they mean for college composition.

The Accuplacer ESL Reading and Listening tests are both multiple choice, computer-adaptive tests which the student is able to complete at his/her own pace (there is no specific time limit for the reading and listening tests; most students complete both of the tests within 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours).

Descriptions of these tests can be found at this website: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/accuplacer/accuplacer-esl-tests.html

Practice questions for the reading test can be found here: http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/student/testing/accuplacer/accuplacer-sample.pdf

There are no sample questions for the listening test.

On the day of the exam, please bring several pencils. A photo identification card (student campus card, passport, driver's license) is required to gain access to the test site.