As an incoming student in the Rutgers–Camden College of Arts and Sciences, either a first-year or a transfer, you must take a placement test in German, French, or Spanish unless you are transferring to a college-level course in a foreign language.
If you are a transfer student and took Elementary I (101) at your previous college and have credit for it on your transcript, you do not need to take the placement test but can simply go into 102 at Rutgers–Camden. If you took Elementary II (102) or a higher-level course and have credit for it on your transcript, you have probably fulfilled your graduation requirement in foreign language. Consult an adviser to be certain.
Why do we require placement testing? The point of the Arts and Sciences foreign language requirement is to make sure that you improve your abilities in the language you choose. It’s not just to make you jump through one more hoop. If you have no ability at all to use a foreign language, you should graduate with some abilities. If you have some ability to use another language, you should graduate with more advanced abilities than you had when you started. The requirement is one course at the Elementary II (usually 102) level or above. If you had one of our languages in school, you probably don’t need to start with 101. You might go straight into 102 or start your Rutgers–Camden language experience by taking a course at some level above Elementary (one course is required, but naturally, we hope you will take more).
eLearning Language placement test instructions
Here are the instructions to access the test:
1. Open the link: https://placement.elearning.rutgers.edu/ in different browsers – Safari generally works better than Firefox.
2. If prompted, enter your Rutgers NetID and Password.
3. Once you gain access, you should arrive at the eLearning page below (see screen capture). There is an instruction that says “scroll down” to see the available tests. A drop-down menu should appear at the bottom of the page.
4. When you click on it, select the language you want to complete a course on (see an example with Spanish below). IMPORTANT: make sure Spanish, French, or German (the languages taught at Rutgers–Camden) are followed by “- Camden” so we can see the results on this campus. Some students see a lot of options, so make sure you choose the correct one.
5. After clicking on the desired option, you will be directed to the following page, where the test is located. Click on “Take” when you’re ready.
One more point about placement testing. Many students ask a variety of questions: “I thought I did terribly on the test, but I still placed into a level that I think will be too hard for me. Can’t I just start over with 101, please?” The answer is nearly always “no.” Please remember that the placement test is not like other tests. It’s not as if you were taking a 101 final to see if you are ready for 102 and should expect to get 80% or 90% of the questions right. The test has material on it that you might cover in 101 and material that you might cover in a third or fourth-year college course. And remember, too, that being ready for Intermediate I, for example, does not mean that you already know everything that will be covered in Intermediate I. You might miss all the third- and fourth-year-level questions and most of the Intermediate-level questions. What would that mean? It would mean that you are ready for Intermediate!