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Placement Information

Placement assessments are designed to place students in the appropriate level of a language based on their current skill level. If you have any prior knowledge of a language, you must take the placement assessment for that language. If you have no prior knowledge of a language, you may enroll in level 1, with the exception of Spanish, which always requires a placement assessment.

Enroll in the Canvas Placement Module

The Department of Languages and Applied Linguistics uses Canvas to record and post placement scores in the MyUCSC portal. This score will update your Degree Progress Report and will allow you to enroll in the requisite course. Students taking a placement assessment in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Spanish for Heritage Speakers  MUST enroll in the canvas module in order to receive the score and be able to enroll in the appropriate language course. You may enroll in the module using the button below and clicking "Join this Course" when the module opens.

A yellow and blue button which says Enroll in Canvas Placement Module

Taking your Assessment

Foreign language placement assessments are designed to assess your abilities in the language and place you in a course that is appropriate for your skill level. Placement assessments are given in a variety of modalities including online modules, oral or written exams, or other canvas modules. Some placement exams will give you a score and placement upon completion. Your score will only be recorded in your MyUCSC portal through the Canvas Placement module.

Placing into a higher level of language via placement assessment does not grant credits toward graduation, rather it waives any required courses below your placement.

Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Spanish for Heritage Speakers

  1. Enroll in the Canvas Placement Module using the button above. Once you’ve navigated to the module, click “Join in Course.” You must enroll in the Canvas Placement Module.
  2. Once you’ve enrolled in the Canvas module, select the language you wish to take a placement assessment in to the left, and follow the instructions on the page.

Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Punjabi, and Yiddish

Select the language in the left hand navigation to find out more information about the assessment. Students do not need to enroll in the Canvas Placement Module for these languages.