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.

If you will be taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams that are accepted by the Swanson School of Engineering in math, chemistry or physics and plan on using that credit, we ask that you sign up for and attend a PittStart session in July or August. Doing so provides us with the opportunity to use that information in our scheduling conversations. Please rest assured that you will get all of the classes that you need for your first semester even if you wait until one of these later PittStart sessions. All required Integrated Freshman Engineering classes are guaranteed for incoming freshman students.

For more information on accepted AP credits, click here.

Even if you are coming in with credit for math, physics or English, you still need to take the placement exams. Your advisor will discuss your options with you during your individual meeting on the second day of your PittStart session.

Completion of Online Placement exams begins May 1, 2008.

Engineering Placement Exam Guidelines

Algebra

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 without keyboards are permitted; books and notes are not allowed. 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. Calculators without keyboards are permitted; books and notes are not allowed.

English Writing

ALL Freshmen Engineering students are required to take the English writing placement exam if their Verbal SAT is lower than 600.

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.

Sufficient achievement on this exam will exempt students from further composition courses. Based on your performance on this exam, you may be required to add a composition class as well as a one-credit tutorial (Composition Tutorial 0201) designed to help you resolve specific issues in your writing at the basic level.

Foreign Language

Currently there is no foreign language requirement for the Swanson School of Engineering. However, the school strongly believes in the value of international experience and so encourages students who are interested in continuing a language they have already started in high school at the college level to further their foreign-language studies. Exams are offered in French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. All exams, except the French, Spanish and German tests, 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.

Engineering Placement Exam Questions Contact: