Placement Exams

Each first-year student will take a math, English, and modern language placement exam. The purpose of these inventories is to correctly place you into the proper courses. The University does not want to enroll you in a course that is too difficult or too easy. Placements allow us to determine your current level in these three areas. This information will be used in advising you on course selection for the upcoming fall semester. 

It is very important that you complete your placement exams before you participate in summer orientation. We recommend you complete them as soon as possible.

You may access all placement exams via Canvas. Please have your Arcadia login information available. Each placement exam is offered as a Canvas course. Click “all courses” and select the placement exam you intend to complete. 

Remember, placement exams are used for academic advising purposes only. It is not a pass/fail test.

The English placement exam is designed to match you to the writing course where you are likely to be most successful. Students are more likely to be successful both in the course itself and in writing tasks at the university overall when they start their college careers with a writing course that matches their proficiency. It also helps to ensure that you have the proper preparation for future writing courses.

For first-year students, the exam asks you to summarize an article. There are three possible placements for your exam: EN100 (Basic College Writing), EN101 (Thought & Expression I), and EN103 (English for International Students).

Transfer students taking a placement exam will be asked to summarize and analyze the effectiveness of an article. Students will either be exempted from or placed into EN101 based upon their writing sample.

Students have 60 minutes to complete the english placement exam.

We recognize that some students may not have taken math in their senior year or that math is a weak area for some. Therefore, a practice exam along with the answer key is available (you must be logged into the Arcadia system - via MyArcadia, Gmail, Canvas, etc. - and click on "Enroll in Course" to access the practice exam). Students have 90 minutes to complete the math placement exam.

Students have the opportunity to take Spanish, French, and German online placement exams. Other languages (Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Latin) can be discussed. Please reach out to orientation@arcadia.edu with questions about other modern languages. Students have 60 minutes to complete the modern language placement exam.