Class Placement Testing

As outlined in the Nebraska Wesleyan University Catalog, all students must "complete at least one semester of college language study," and must meet the minimum modern language requirement of "proficiency equivalent to a year of modern language study at the college level." All students having previous language experience in French, German, and Spanish are tested and placed in the appropriate language class.

Placement guidelines are as follows:

• Completion of four years of a foreign language at the high school level in which the student earned a grade of B or higher in each class will exempt him or her from the requirement.
• If the student has had three or more years of a foreign language he or she will not be able to register for Stage I of that language, regardless of his or her score on the placement exam.
• If placed into Stage I of a language, the student may satisfy the minimum requirement by completing Stages I and II of any language.
• If placed into Stage II of a language, the student may satisfy the minimum requirement by completing Stage II of that language.
• If placed into Stage III or above of a language, the student may satisfy the minimum requirement by completing the Stage into which they were placed, OR by completing Stage I of another language.
• If placed into Stage IV of a language, upon completion of that course with a B or better, the student will also receive 3 hours of retroactive credit for Stage III. Likewise, if placed into Stage V of a language, the student will receive 6 hours of retroactive credit for Stages III and IV, if they complete Stage V with a B or better.

Placement tests are administered in June during the new student orientation sessions, and during the week prior to the first day of classes for the Fall and Spring semestsers, in August and January respectively. Students who are unable to take the test during one of the scheduled times must make arrangements with a faculty member in the Modern Language Department to take the test before they enroll in a modern language class.

The placement test used at Nebraska Wesleyan is a Computer Adaptive Placement Exam (CAPE) created at Brigham Young University. Although overall we have found this test to be a reliable indicator for student placement, no test can place all students perfectly. For that reason, we use a number of factors to support the final determination of where a student is placed, including how long and how recently the previous language study took place, where the placement score falls in the range of scores for a course, and the previous academic record of the student. If students have concerns about where they have been placed, he or she should speak with a faculty member in the Modern Language Department.

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