Welcome to the Language Placement Testing Program!

The Placement Testing Program administers placement tests to new and continuing UCI students to ensure correct placement into several introductory courses.

Placement Tests Offered

Please look to the column on the left to find which placement tests are currently available.

Note: Exams marked with an asterisk (*) serve as both placement and exemption exams. If you require exemption testing in any of these languages, you will register for the same exam through our registration portal.

Foreign Language Placement

Placement tests are required for the following languages: Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

Placement tests are not required for enrollment in lower-division French and German courses. Instead, students may enroll in these language courses based on their years of high school study, where one year of high school French or German is equivalent to one quarter at UCI. Students with college-level coursework in French and German should present their transcript to their academic counselor to determine which course to take.

The table below shows which course to consider based on your years of high school language study:

For further information regarding course enrollment in French and German click on the appropriate link below:

Other Placement Options

If you have high scores on related AP or SAT-II tests and plan to continue study in the same language, you may wish to consult with a Humanities counselor to determine which course to take. An AP score of at least a 4 will provide credit through 2C. Students who score at least a 620 on the SAT-II should enroll in 2B or higher; however, no course credit is granted based on SAT-II scores alone.