As you prepare to participate in this year's Orientation Placement Tests, we hope that the questions and answers below will be of use to you. Please review this page carefully before you call the Office of New Student Orientation.
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English Guided Self Placement to determine what level best serves your writing ability .
- Mathematics will determine readiness for mathematics courses (all freshmen and undergraduate degree-seeking international students must take this exam).
Foreign Language:
- Incoming students can take placement exams for French, German, or Spanish. Depending on courses already taken or interest, students can elect to take these tests during their orientation experience. Students that meet the criteria may receive course credit for their Spanish oral proficiency level.
Your test results will affect your course requests. You must abide by your English and mathematics placement results. If you decide or are required to take a foreign language and select Spanish, you are expected to use your placement results when registering. French exam results should be followed, unless changed after discussion with a professor of French once in a course.
No. College credit may only be obtained through college-level courses or by taking the Advanced Placement (AP), College Level Exam Program (CLEP), or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.
See AP/CLEP/IB information on our Orientation website.
You must take the placement exams even though you may have taken the AP, CLEP, or IB higher level (if available) exams for English, math, and/or a foreign language. The only exception to this is if Transfer Admissions has already received the results and verified that you will in fact receive IUP course credit for the exam(s) taken.
If you have taken any of the five general CLEP tests (English Composition, Natural Science, Mathematics, Humanities, Social Science-History) and received a score of 50 or better (or other scores as applicable), you may be eligible to receive three to four credits per test (depending on which test is taken). IUP accepts up to 12 credits gained by taking the general tests. You also may take one or more of the various subject area tests. The scores required for earning credit vary by subject area.
Submit your results to IUP as soon as possible.
Must placement exams be taken by students who are attending community or other colleges either during the senior year or the summer before matriculation?
Yes. You must participate in testing and, as well, have the transcript forwarded to the Office of Admissions for transfer credit evaluation as soon as possible. Should the evaluation show that you will be receiving credit for English, mathematics, or foreign language when you have been scheduled into one or more of these courses, you may drop the course assigned as a result of placement testing and select another during the drop/add period at the beginning of the semester.