Placement Exam Information

Language	Placement exam information
Arabic	“Students may be able to satisfy the lower division requirements by completing Arabic 10 (satisfies Arabic 1A and 1B) and Arabic 30 (satisfies Arabic 20A and 20B) courses offered during the summer term or through study abroad programs.”
Armenian	”If you have had a year or more of Armenian coursework in elementary school, high school, or college, or if you are a heritage speaker (you have learned the language by speaking it at home), you should enroll in Armenian 101A or 101B. The Department offers proficiency exams for Eastern and Western Armenian at the beginning and end of each semester. Students use the exam to document proficiency of a foreign language for university or program requirements. Please check with your institution to make sure our departmental exam is accepted. No exceptions or makeup exams are offered. If students miss the exam on the scheduled date, they will need to wait until the next time it is offered. No exams are offered during the summer.”
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian	“Students of East European or Eurasian languages (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian) should consult with the appropriate language instructor for proficiency testing and placement.”
Chinese	“The Chinese Placement Exam is available to take from July 1, 2024: https://bolt.language.berkeley.edu/ When you have finished with the exam, please submit a completed Chinese Class Survey to the lead instructor listed for the course indicated by the test. The lead instructor's contact information is found here on the class schedule next to the class you were placed into. You may register for the course recommended by the placement test; final placement will be determined after an interview with the lead instructor. You will need to bring an essay to the interview. Please download the instructions for the essay.”
Danish (Scandinavian)	"Placement: Scandinavian 100A is open to students who have taken either Scandinavian language 1A-1B with a passing grade. A placement test is mandatory for other students who have had 90 hours of in-class instruction (reached the Novice High/Intermediate Low proficiency level) in any Scandinavian language and with a passing grade. The placement test must be taken prior to or within the first week of instruction. Contact the language coordinator to schedule a placement test."
Finnish (Scandinavian)	"Placement: Scandinavian 100A is open to students who have taken either Scandinavian language 1A-1B with a passing grade. A placement test is mandatory for other students who have had 90 hours of in-class instruction (reached the Novice High/Intermediate Low proficiency level) in any Scandinavian language and with a passing grade. The placement test must be taken prior to or within the first week of instruction. Contact the language coordinator to schedule a placement test."
French	Consult this table for French as second language learners
German	Consult this table for level recommendations “If you feel that your prior experience with the German language goes beyond the scenarios outlined above (e.g. heritage learner, study-abroad participation, etc.) and are planning to take an upper-division course, you must contact the Language Program Coordinator (euba@berkeley.edu) for a personal placement advising appointment.”
Greek	“Students may place out of the elementary language sequence(s) and (very rarely) Greek or Latin 100 by taking a placement exam. Students with strong scores in AP Latin frequently place into Latin 100 and gain 1 course/4 units of credit for placing out of Latin 1 and 2. Students who place out of Greek or Latin 100 must take one additional upper-division Greek or Latin course. For more information, contact our staff undergraduate advisor, Cassandra Dunn.”
Hungarian	See this link
Italian	“If you are just beginning to study Italian, then Italian W1 (offered in Fall 24) or Italian 1 is the place for you. If you have advanced knowledge of another Romance language, then you might consider taking Italian 1R (offered in Spring 2025). However, if you had some previous coursework in Italian at another college, are a heritage speaker, or have learned Italian through travel or independent study, you should take our placement test, no matter what your language skills in Italian are.” For more information click here
Japanese	“The Japanese Placement Exam is available from August 15- August 21, 2024: For information about the Japanese exam, please visit: https://japanese.berkeley.edu/”
Korean	“The Korean Placement Exam is available two weeks prior to the start of the fall and spring semesters. Please visit the following link at that time:https://bolt.language.berkeley.edu/ If you are a non-heritage student who does not know Korean at all, you are not required to take this test. The questions include material that you may or may not already know. Please do NOT use dictionaries or any other aids as you take the test and try your best to produce an accurate result. You will have 40-80 questions. It is advised that you finish the test in one sitting, but if you have to leave you can log out and continue it later. Please take the test only once. To maximize your performance, please do not take the exam on a cell phone or a similarly small-screened device. You will not receive the test results. It will be sent to the Korean instructors to review and be used as part of the placement process. You will have additional tests (speaking, writing) on or before the first day/week of classes."
Latin	“Students may place out of the elementary language sequence(s) and (very rarely) Greek or Latin 100 by taking a placement exam. Students with strong scores in AP Latin frequently place into Latin 100 and gain 1 course/4 units of credit for placing out of Latin 1 and 2. Students who place out of Greek or Latin 100 must take one additional upper-division Greek or Latin course. For more information, contact our staff undergraduate advisor, Cassandra Dunn.”
Old Norse (Scandinavian)	"Placement: Scandinavian 100A is open to students who have taken either Scandinavian language 1A-1B with a passing grade. A placement test is mandatory for other students who have had 90 hours of in-class instruction (reached the Novice High/Intermediate Low proficiency level) in any Scandinavian language and with a passing grade. The placement test must be taken prior to or within the first week of instruction. Contact the language coordinator to schedule a placement test."
Norwegian (Scandinavian)	"Placement: Scandinavian 100A is open to students who have taken either Scandinavian language 1A-1B with a passing grade. A placement test is mandatory for other students who have had 90 hours of in-class instruction (reached the Novice High/Intermediate Low proficiency level) in any Scandinavian language and with a passing grade. The placement test must be taken prior to or within the first week of instruction. Contact the language coordinator to schedule a placement test."
Polish	“Students of East European or Eurasian languages (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian) should consult with the appropriate language instructor for proficiency testing and placement.”
Russian	“Students starting with 1st or 2nd year Russian should consult with Lecturer Oksana Willis, Russian Language Coordinator (during her office hours or email oksana.willis@berkeley.edufor appointment) about placement in the lower-division language courses (Russian 1, 2, 3, 4). Please contact Lecturer Oksana Willis for screening and placement in advance of the first week of classes. All consultations/interviews concerning placement in Russian language classes will be held the first week of term. Students seeking placement in advanced Russian (third-year Russian, Russian 103A-B, and other advanced courses) or testing for the Letters and Science foreign language requirement for Russian should consult with Lecturer Oksana Willis, Russian Language Coordinator (during her office hours or email oksana.willis@berkeley.edu for appointment). All consultations/interviews concerning placement in Russian language classes will be held the first week of term. Heritage speakers of Russian who want to take Russian language courses should consult with Lecturer Oksana Willis, Russian Language Coordinator (during her office hours or email oksana.willis@berkeley.edu for appointment). All consultations/interviews concerning placement in Russian language classes will be held the first week of term.”
Spanish	“The Department of Spanish does not offer proficiency tests to 'test out' of our courses. Instead, placement in our language program is based on students' knowlege and previous experience studying Spanish.” Consult this table for Spanish as second language learners
Swedish (Scandinavian)	"Placement: Scandinavian 100A is open to students who have taken either Scandinavian language 1A-1B with a passing grade. A placement test is mandatory for other students who have had 90 hours of in-class instruction (reached the Novice High/Intermediate Low proficiency level) in any Scandinavian language and with a passing grade. The placement test must be taken prior to or within the first week of instruction. Contact the language coordinator to schedule a placement test."
Ukrainian	“Students of East European or Eurasian languages (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian) should consult with the appropriate language instructor for proficiency testing and placement.”