What are Language Placement Tests?
Placement examinations are administered to place students in the appropriate level of study within a language. These examinations are for students who wish to continue a language studied in high school or those with prior proficiency in a language.
Who needs to take a Language Placement Test?
Generally speaking, a student must take a language placement test if they
- have more than one year of study in the language.
- do not have an SAT II or AP score in that language.
How do I take the Language Placement Test?
Some language placement tests can be taken online. For other languages, language placement and advanced standing tests are scheduled at the beginning of each semester. For more information and points of contact, consult the table below.
| Department | Languages | More Information |
| African languages |
Swahili, Wolof, Yoruba, Zulu |
Department: https://africana.cornell.edu/undergraduate#african-language-program Contact: Happiness Bulugu, hpb36@cornell.edu |
| Asian languages | Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Nepali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tagalog, Thai, Tibetan, Urdu, and Vietnamese |
Department: https://asianstudies.cornell.edu/placement Contact: asianstudiesdept@cornell.edu |
| German | German |
Department: https://german.cornell.edu Contact: Callean Hile, clh2@cornell.edu |
| Classical languages | Ancient Greek, Latin |
Department: https://classics.cornell.edu/undergraduate#the-arts-&-sciences-language-requirement:-latin-and-greek Contact: Ryan Belle, clh2@cornell.edu |
| Romance languages | French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish |
Department: https://romancestudies.cornell.edu/placement-testing-and-transfer-credit Contact:
|
| Russian | Russian, Ukrainian |
Website: https://russian.cornell.edu/index.cfm Contact: Slava Paperno, sp27@cornell.edu |
|
Scandinavian languages |
Norwegian, Swedish |
Department: https://romancestudies.cornell.edu/placement-testing-and-transfer-credit#norwegian-and-swedish-placement Contact: Callean Hile, clh2@cornell.edu |
| Slavic and Ugro-Finnic languages | Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Hungarian, Macedonian, Polish,Serbian, Ukrainian |
Department: Contact: Callean Hile, clh2@cornell.edu |
A student may be exempt from taking a language if they
- completed secondary education at a foreign institution where the language of instruction was not English.
- have native or near-native proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing a second language, as determined by examination.
For more information, please contact your department and review the Arts & Sciences language requirement website.
Placement Test Information
How do I take the test?
Online placement tests are accessible at https://collt.lrc.cornell.edu.