LANGUAGE PLACEMENT
LANGUAGE PLACEMENT EXAM
Entering undergraduate students must complete a foreign language placement test two weeks before attending your selected MAP Day placement exam before August 1. This requirement applies to all entering students who have previous experience in a foreign language, regardless of your intended degree, major or course of study. Oglethorpe offers coursework in Spanish, French, and German.
Language Placement Exam Instructions
Step 1: Create Account & Sign In. Please create an account by clicking here to visit the OU WebCAPE Language Placement Portal. Please use the first name, last name and email used for your application.
Step 2: Choose Your Exam. Please plan to take the language placement exams for any languages you have studied in high school, whether or not you plan to continue in college.
Step 3: Complete the Exam. Note that you are held to the Oglethorpe University Honor Code during your testing, and you should not consult any outside sources. Students who plan to later submit AP/IB/Dual Enrollment credits for language should still take the exam. Each exam is designed to last about 30 minutes.
Step 4: Receive Your Placement. At the end of your exam, you may see a language placement score. This score does NOT indicate your registration in any course. You will have the opportunity to express preferences about your classes on your Course Preference Form and will discuss and will discuss your schedule with an advisor this summer.
FAQs
All incoming students with language experience in French, German, or Spanish should take a language placement exam. We recommend completing your language placement exam two weeks before attending your selected MAP Day.
There are still benefits to taking the exam even if you have AP/IB credit.
- If your AP or IB test was taken in May of your senior year, your scores will not be available until later in the summer when you have already been registered for courses. Once your AP or IB score report arrives and is processed by Oglethorpe, however, it will be considered equivalent to a college transcript, and qualifying scores may result in credit hours at Oglethorpe. You can always adjust your class schedule later if your AP or IB scores result in college credit.
- While every student automatically receives 101 credit, if you earn a score of 4 or higher on your World Language and Cultures AP Exam, you also have the possibility of receiving four additional credits in 102 of the same language if your placement exam score qualifies you to enter 201 or beyond.
It is a good idea to take the exam as you may place into a higher-level course. We will take whatever the highest placement is, whether your transfer credit is a higher level than your placement exam results or vice versa. Make sure you have sent Admissions your official final transcript.
No, you should consider the placement test as part of Oglethorpe’s academic honor system, and you should not use any notes, textbooks or online tools. The test is designed to assess your ability level in a foreign language as accurately as possible. If you use a grammar or vocabulary source as you go, you’ll artificially inflate your placement recommendation, and you’ll risk being placed in a course that you cannot pass.
The 101-level introductory language courses are open to anyone, no placement test required. While we still recommend taking the placement test for any language you have previous experience in, no matter what the results are, you may register for a different elementary language course in the fall.
No; if the only language you have studied is not French, German, or Spanish then you do not need to take a placement test. If you are interested in continuing to study the language you have begun, talk with your advisor or the registrar about cross-registration at other universities through ARCHE (Atlanta Regional Council on Higher Education).
