German Course Enrollment

German Program Comments:

For prerequisite and placement information regarding enrollment in German 1A-2C and upper-division German, please consult the Prerequisite and Placement Information section of the German undergraduate page of the European Languages and Studies website at https://www.humanities.uci.edu/humanities-languages/german-language-program.

Students interested in taking the German placement test should contact the German Language Program Director, Philip Broadbent (pmb@uci.edu), at the Department of European Languages. 

Placement in German Courses

• Students who have had no prior experience with German may enter German 1A.
• Students who have taken a German class at UCI may enter the next level if they have passed the previous level with a grade of C or better. Students may enter the upper-division level if they have completed German 2C with a grade of C or better.
• Students who have had any high school German are recommended to take the online German placement test. Contact the German language program director, Philip Broadbent, at pmb@uci.edu, for instructions on taking the online German placement test, or go to the Humanities Instructional Resource Center (HIRC) in HH 269 during their opening hours (M-Th 8-6 and F 8-5; summer hours M-F 8-12) and request to take the German placement test. The test takes one hour to complete. Ultimate placement is at the discretion of the German Language Program Director or the instructor.
• Students who have taken courses in German at another college or university who wish to enroll in a German course must take a copy of their college transcripts to their UCI academic counselor in order to receive authorization to enroll in the next course.
• Students who graduated from a high school in a German-speaking country must take a copy of their transcripts to the German language program director, Philip Broadbent (pmb@uci.edu), to determine where they should be placed.
• A student who received a score of 3 on the Advanced Placement (AP) German exam is eligible to enroll directly into German 2A. A student who received a score of 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement German exam is eligible to enroll directly in the German 101-105 series.

Students who have met the UCI language other than English general education requirement with German SAT Subject Test scores, International Baccalaureate (IB) scores, or Advanced Placement (AP) examination and plan to enroll in a German course at UCI are recommended to take the German placement test. Contact Philip Broadbent (pmb@uci.edu), to schedule the test.

Refreshing your language knowledge and skills

If it has been a while since you have taken German course work, you may wish to review your high school or college material before the quarter begins. You also may consult the following textbook used in first-year language classes:

Lovik, T.A., Guy, J.D., & Chavez, M. (1997). Vorsprung: An Introduction to the German Language and Culture for
Communication, Updated Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Suggestions for study:

Review your high school or college textbooks, as well as the tests you took for these courses. Spend time rewriting assignments and rereading texts from the last year of German you completed.

German Exemption Exam

The examination used for German is the Brigham Young University Foreign Language Achievement test. It covers listening and reading comprehension. The exam is approximately two and a half hours. The highest proficiency level attainable at UCI by taking the German exam is 2A.

If you are an International Studies major, this exemption exam cannot satisfy the 2B level foreign language requirement.

This test may be taken only once. No University credit is given. There is a registration fee of $60. Please contact the ATC for more information about registration. Results will not appear on the student’s transcript and notifications will be sent to each student’s academic unit at the end of the quarter.

If you need further information on language testing, please e-mail the ATC at testcenter@uci.edu, call our office at (949) 824-6207, or contact your academic counseling office.