Placement Exams

Students who plan to attend Summer Orientation in June should complete placement examinations online by June 1. Students who did not attend June Orientation should complete the placement exams online prior to Fall Orientation. (See below)

Mathematics Placement Exam

All students are required to take the Mathematics Placement Exam, which is available online here. This test is purely for advisory purposes and is used only to recommend placement into your first mathematics course.

Writing Placement Essay

All students are required to take the Writing Placement Essay which is available online at http://phoenix.goucher.edu/writingexam. The exam should be taken before registration, whether or not the student has AP credit or prior coursework in composition. Writing Program scorers use the essays, along with SATV, GPA, ACT, and previous coursework to determine the composition courses the student will need in order to meet the College Writing Proficiency standards.

Language Placement Test & Guidelines

Graduation requirements include proficiency in a foreign language at the intermediate level. The Language Placement Test is used to place you in the language course appropriate to your present knowledge and proficiency.

We encourage all entering students to take the test in the language studied in high school even if they are considering beginning a different language in college.

Note:

  • Entering students who have not studied a language in high school need to indicate the foreign language they will study at Goucher.  Click here to indicate your foreign language choice.
  • Entering students who plan to study a language elsewhere need to indicate the foreign language that they intend to study.  Click here to indicate what language you will study elsewhere.
  • Placement exam results have an expiration date of one year -- i.e. students need to retake their placement test after 2 or more semesters if they have not taken the language course in which they were placed, unless they have opted to satisfy their language requirement with the study of another language altogether.

No dictionaries or other sources may be used during the test. Native speakers of a foreign language should follow the recommendations listed in the document "Guidelines for native speakers of a foreign language or students taking a language not offered at Goucher" and complete the "Foreign Language Agreement".

Other related forms including:

  • Interinstitutional registration forms
  • Non-Goucher Programs form
are available on the forms page of the Records and Registration section of the Goucher website

German Placement Test: http://phoenix.goucher.edu/germanexam.

French Placement Test: please click here to access the French Placement test.

Italian Placement Test: http://phoenix.goucher.edu/cgi-bin/italianexam.cgi

Spanish Placement Test http://phoenix.goucher.edu/spanishexam.

Placement exams for Russian and Hebrew can be taken after arrival on campus.

Music Placement Exam

Students wishing to take Music Theory 1 (MUS 105) or Basic Musicianship (MUS 121) must take a placement test. This 15-minute, timed test will evaluate knowledge of music fundamentals, including major and minor scales and key signatures, identification and construction of intervals and triads, meter and harmonic function. This exam is not available online and can be taken on campus.

Dance Placement Auditions

Information on Dance Placement Auditions will be posted as it becomes available.  Please check back later.