Placement Testing
Placement testing is used to place students into appropriate course levels and determine students' course schedule.
Although it is critical that students do their best, placement test results do not affect the student's admission to the university. See the appropriate section to review specific placement testing requirements.
Academic Support and Disability Accommodations
Students with a documented disability requiring accommodations must forward the appropriate documentation to the Center for Academic Support on their campus at least 2 weeks prior to scheduling a placement test in order to ensure that accommodations can be provided. No accommodations will be allowed unless the required documentation is submitted prior to testing. Students who have already participated in placement testing and submit appropriate documentation will have the opportunity to retest with the accommodations in place.
Mathematics and English placement tests are required for all new undergraduate students, including transfer students, prior to orientation or attending classes. Transfer students may be exempt from mathematics and English placement testing only if Johnson & Wales University has awarded them transfer credit for both degree-specific, first-level mathematics and English courses.
The university administers ACCUPLACER mathematics and English placement tests to assess students' skills in these areas. The mathematics test is designed to evaluate skills in relation to those required for college math courses. English placement testing includes a sentence skills test which evaluates writing skills. The ACCUPLACER exams are computer based tests (CBT) developed by College Board.
All of these tests will result in placement into a course rather than in grades of Pass or Fail.
After acceptance, students will be emailed instructions for completing the required mathematics and English placement testing online with a virtual proctor. Virtual proctoring allows students to take placement tests online in a quiet and distraction-free location, such as home. Online testing appointments are available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and require no software installs. All that is needed is a simple webcam, access to the internet and a voucher code that will be provided by the university. There is no charge for virtual proctoring or for the ACCUPLACER assessment. Students will receive a score report immediately following ACCUPLACER administration, and will also be contacted by an academic counselor from Student Academic & Financial Services 1–2 weeks after they have completed placement testing to discuss their placement and course registration.
Students requesting to retake their placement exam may do so by contacting Student Academic & Financial Services. Students will be allowed 1 retake 30 days after their initial test at no charge.
Visit Testing Services for additional information.
All undergraduate students who studied a language for more than 1 year in high school are required to take a placement exam prior to registering for a course in the respective language. Modern language placement exams are required for Spanish, French and German.
Modern language placement exams are scheduled at the beginning of each term. Students whose placement score indicates they have met a particular level of language proficiency will not be allowed to enroll in that level of the language. Students placing out of a required level of a language will be given the option to apply for the Departmental Challenge Examination to earn the language credits (fees apply), or to have the language credits replaced with an arts and sciences elective course.
For additional information, visit Testing Services.
Students admitted into the ESL Program are required to complete the Levels of English Proficiency (LOEP) Test to assess their English-language proficiency. This test includes 3 sections: reading, language usage and sentence meaning. LOEP tests are scheduled at the beginning of each term and administered via the ACCUPLACER computer-based placement testing system.
Results of the LOEP placement test will determine whether students are placed into the beginner, intermediate or advanced levels of ESL courses. Students with a score of 315 or higher on the LOEP test are eligible to take the Institutional TOEFL Test (ITT). Students who obtain a score of 550 or higher in the ITT can exit the ESL program and enroll directly in their degree program courses. Students with a test score under 550 on the ITT will have their individual section scores reviewed in the areas of listening, grammar and reading. Section scores with a minimum of 550 on the ITT will exempt the student from the corresponding ESL class. Students who do not complete the required LOEP test will automatically be placed into beginner-level ESL courses.
Providence and North Miami students admitted to graduate programs in the College of Business who meet the English Proficiency Requirements but whose undergraduate degree was not earned at a American university or at a university located in a country in which the official language is English will be required to take a communications skills assessment. A list of those countries may be found online. Graduate students exiting the English as a Second Language Program at Johnson & Wales University may also be required to take a writing assessment.