Academic Advising

Assignment of the individual academic and advising registration appointment will ONLY occur during the Day Two 9:45 am - 10:30 am Arts and Sciences Group Session. Please click here for a checklist of "to-do" items to complete prior to your PittStart session.

Freshman Placement Exam Overview

First of all…don't panic! These tests are simply a tool your advisor uses to determine how to place you in appropriate classes. Your success is important to us, and that means registering you for classes in which you will have every opportunity to earn an "A."

Each school has different requirements, so please make sure you are reviewing placement exam guidelines only for the school to which you were admitted. It is also important that you know which required and/or optional placement exams apply to you. Please carefully read the guidelines below so that you can determine which exams you need to complete. After reviewing the guidelines, you will find a link to begin the online placement exam process at the bottom of this page. If you have remaining questions about placement exams, you may find contact information for your academic advising center at the bottom of this page.

Completion of Online Placement exams begins May 1, 2009.

Arts and Sciences Placement Exam Guidelines

English Writing

The online English writing placement test is designed to measure your ability to read and understand college-level material and to write a thoughtfully coherent response. You will be given 90 minutes to read a short passage and write an essay in which you will be asked to explain what the writer of the passage is saying about a particular issue, and respond to that writer's view and issue in terms of your own knowledge and experience.

In order to be exempt from the English Composition course requirement and be awarded AP credit for English Composition 0200, you must achieve a score of 5 on the AP English test AND score 600 or higher on the verbal portion of the SAT test. No credits will be awarded until we receive official notification from the testing service.

During the first week of classes every student in an English Composition class will be given a diagnostic exam. Based on your performance on this exam, you may be required to add a one-credit tutorial (Composition Tutorial 0201) designed to help you resolve specific issues in your writing at the basic level.

Algebra

This exam consists of five sections, which may be taken at your convenience. However, each individual section is timed, and must be taken in a single sitting. The system does not allow you to pause or start over once you have begun a section, but you may take a break between sections.

The online algebra exam is designed to determine whether you have acquired the algebraic skills sufficient for college-level quantitative courses. The five-part, 90-minute exam covers problems ranging from elementary to advanced algebra. The 45 problems cover the following material: algebra of rational numbers; operations with algebraic expressions; linear equations and inequalities; factoring and algebraic functions; exponents and radicals; graphing and distance; fractional and quadratic equations and inequalities; functions and their graphs; complex numbers; absolute values; and systems of equations and exponential and logarithmic functions. Calculators are permitted, but books and notes are not. We strongly recommend that you review for this exam.

To view sample algebra and English placement exams, click here.

Trigonometry

The online trigonometry placement test is a 25-minute, 15 question exam that tests definitions of trigonometric functions, right angles, evaluation of special angles, related angles, radian measure, graphing, identities, laws of sines and cosines, trigonometric equations and arc functions. No calculators, books or notes are permitted.

Foreign Language

Students who wish to continue studying the same foreign language they took in high school should take these exams. Students who have completed 3 years of study in a single foreign language in high school with an average grade of C or higher are not required to complete the foreign language course requirement in college.

Exams are offered in French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The French, German and Spanish tests are online. All students taking the online Spanish exam must also sign up for an oral interview with the Spanish department that will be conducted when you are on campus for your PittStart session. Students can learn more about the Spanish placement test at www.hispanic.pitt.edu/undergraduate/ap.html. To schedule the oral interview, please go to rich75.com/pitt2/. It is imperative that students sign up for the oral interview prior to the PittStart session. Interview times are:

The Italian, Latin, Portuguese and Russian exams are one-hour reading exams that include multiple-choice questions, completion of sentences with words or phrases, questions about the content or meaning of a passage and recognition of grammatically correct forms of words or phrases. You are encouraged to review first and second-year language texts before taking the exam. These written exams are offered on campus during the PittStart session.

Music Theory

If you are considering a major or minor in music, you should take this test. A sufficient score will exempt you from the required Preparation for Music Theory course.

Arts and Sciences Placement Exam Questions Contact: