Who should take the exam

The French placement exam is designed to determine language competence at the first - through fifth - semester levels of French as presently taught at St. Olaf College. All students with previous French experience should take the online placement exam, whether or not they intend to study French at St. Olaf. Students with no previous experience learning French who want to begin studying the language at St. Olaf should enroll in French111 (Fall semester only). You must register for the level into which you are placed.

International students: If you are coming from a country where English is not the primary language of high school instruction you do not need to complete a language placement. Please talk to the registrar for next steps. Taking the exam

The placement exam consists of three parts: a questionnaire about your previous experience with French, a writing section, and a listening section. In order to assure that your placement is accurate, try your best, but do your own work on the exam. Using Google Translate, AI applications such as ChatGPT, dictionaries, grammar references, or asking other people for help and/or feedback will skew your exam score and cause complications at registration.

Allow yourself a maximum of 30 minutes for the writing section in Part Two. Please read all instructions and check your work carefully. If you finish the test before the allotted time has expired, go back and re-check your answers. On Part Two, stop at any point if you realize that your knowledge of French is not sufficient to complete that task.

Part Three - listening comprehension. Listen to the audio track and choose from a set of options to identify the verb form that you hear. You may listen to the track a maximum of THREE times.

**Note: students who cheat on the placement exam will have a hard time doing well in the French class that they are placed into because the class will be beyond their actual French abilities. Beyond the ethical issue of academic integrity, it is in your best interest to only rely on your existing knowledge of French when taking this test.**

If you complete the placement exam by the May 30th, 2025, deadline, you will have your placement result by June 4th. If you complete the exam after this deadline, you will receive your placement result within a week, when faculty are able to assess your language skills.