Placement and Proficiency Tests
Schedule your placement or proficiency exam
Click on the button below to fill out a form with your personal information. Upon submission you will receive an email with a link to choose the day and time to take your placement or proficiency test, along with more detailed information.
What is the placement test?
All SLCC students are eligible to take a placement test. In this 1-hour exam, you will be tested in grammar, reading comprehension, speaking, and writings skills. Your results will be used to check at what level you should start. This way, you can skip ahead to a more advanced course if you already have some knowledge of the language that you will be studying. For instance, instead of starting in Italian 1010, you might be place in Italian 1020 and skip Italian 1010.
- If you have very basic or no previous knowledge of the language you want to study. You do not need to take the placement test. You should enroll for the 1010 level (e.g., Arabic 1010).
- The test is free for SLCC students, but you are limited to one a year (except in rare cases).
What is the proficiency test?
SLCC students pursuing an A.A. degree (Associate of Arts) have a language requirement. If they already have some knowledge of a second language, they may try to test out of this requirement, and receive up to 4 credits in their transcript. The Proficiency Exam is currently available in Arabic, Chinese Mandarin (Traditional and Simplified), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
- The proficiency exam costs $20 and often takes up to 3 hours.
- You must be currently enrolled and taking classes at SLCC in an A.A. degree program.
- Students not pursuing a degree or pursuing a degree that does not have a language requirement (e.g., A.S., A.A.S.) are not eligible to take proficiency tests.
- Native speakers of the language are not eligible either (e.g., a French native speakers cannot take a proficiency test in French)
Additional Information about the proficiency test
If you demonstrate proficiency equivalent to someone completing LANG 1020 or above (e.g., SPN 1020, SPN 2010, or SPN 2020), your result will be sent to the Transfer Evaluation Office, and you will be awarded 4 hours of credit in that language at the correct level.
If you score below LANG 1020, no credits will be posted to your transcript. You will need to take courses to satisfy your A.A. language requirement.
Students can receive 4 hours of experiential credit in one language only.
- Students who have received prior language credit are not eligible to receive experiential credit in any other language.
- Students cannot receive credit through testing if they are enrolled in a language course that will meet their language requirement.
For questions regarding the transfer of experiential language credit to other Utah institutions of higher education, please contact SLCC’s academic advisor for Languages:
Luz Gamarra (Spanish-speaking)
Redwood Campus, Student Center (STC), Room 240P
luz.gamarra@slcc.edu
801-957-4864
If you grew up speaking a language other than English as your first language, you must use English course work to meet your language requirement.
- Complete 3 or more credits of ESL 1020 or higher ESL coursework with a grade of C- or better. You must be placed into the ESL course by your Accuplacer test scores.
- If you graduated from high school in a non-English speaking country or region but don’t need ESL classes because you scored high enough on your TOEFL or the Accuplacer, you can meet your requirement by completing ENGL 2010 or higher with a grade of C- or better.
- You will be required to provide a high school (or higher) transcript documenting graduation outside the U.S., at a non-English speaking school, in a non-English speaking country or region.
A student who grew up in the United States, or another English-speaking country or region, speaking both English and another language, is considered to be a “heritage speaker” of that language. Heritage speakers can demonstrate language competency by taking the SLCC Language Proficiency Exam as described above.
Many heritage speakers wish to learn more about their heritage language, literature/s, and culture/s. The Proficiency Exam can be used to meet your language requirement, and can also be used to place you into an upper-level course, either at SLCC, the U. of Utah, or other four-year colleges. Ask your faculty language mentor to advise you.
- There is also a Placement Exam for heritage speakers of Spanish. As the name suggests, the test is for placement only; it cannot be used to show proficiency. It will enable you to enroll directly into SPN 2010, 2020, 2040 (“Spanish for Spanish Speakers”) or 2800 (“Medical Spanish”), depending on your score and interests.
- Heritage speakers who enroll in LANG 1010 and 1020 may be required to switch to a higher-level course, depending on the instructor’s assessment of their language ability. SLCC’s language department does not permit students to take courses below their proficiency level.