Student Resources

Placement Exams

French

First and second year French placement tests are administered through the Measurement and Evaluation Center (MEC) on campus.

Placement Testing for FR 320E and FR 322E is administered through the department approximately a week before start of the Fall and Spring semesters.

Italian

Students with prior knowledge of Italian, however acquired, who enroll for the first time in an Italian language course at the University must take an Italian Placement Test which will be used to determine in which Italian language course at the University they should enroll. This test is administered only to registered students of the University of Texas at Austin or to students who have been admitted to the University. The Placement Test in Italian is given for this reason only (i.e., to determine in which Italian language course a student should enroll at the University when that student has acquired knowledge of Italian outside the University).

Persons whose first language is Italian should not request to take the Placement Test in Italian. They should direct all inquiries concerning their eligibility for course credit or placement to the Chair of the Department: Daniela Bini, 471-5995, HRH 2.120. Please note that students who have already initiated the lower-division Italian sequence are not eligible to take the Placement Test. It is not the purpose of the Placement Test to enable students to skip courses in the sequence or to hasten the date of their graduation. The Placement Test in Italian may be taken only once.

Successful completion of the Placement Test in Italian may enable a student to receive credit for an Italian course, but no letter grades are assigned for credit by examination.

The Placement Test is NOT administered for any of the following reasons:

The test is offered during the week prior to the first day of classes of the fall and spring semesters. It consists of a written examination for which two hours are allotted and an oral interview of 10 to 15 minutes.

Students are reminded that they will need to have their University ID and the paperwork from Instructional Assessment and Evaluation in hand at the time of the test, and that they will not receive credit by examination for any course for which they already have a grade recorded on their transcript.

Students who come to take the Placement Test in Italian are expected to have discussed the appropriateness of the test with their academic advisor and to have understood how the results of the test will or will not affect their transcript, their GPA, the fulfillment of requirements for their degree plans and the date of their graduation. The administrator of the test does not advise students in any of these matters.

Students are required to obtain the appropriate forms for credit by departmentally administered examination from Instructional Assessment and Evaluation. Fees will be due that currently total approximately $70.00. It is the responsibility of the student to deliver documentation from Instructional Assessment and Evaluation to various offices, which include the administrator of the test, the Chair of the Department of French and Italian, and the Dean of the School or College in which the student is enrolled. The form must be obtained and the fees must be paid before the student takes the Test.

Students planning on taking the Placement Test should refer to the Syllabi, Course Descriptions and textbooks of the appropriate lower-division Italian courses at the University and to the texts used in those courses.