Placement Tests

Connect with your Academic Advisor if you have questions about placement assessments at SNC.

All incoming students must complete placement assessments for writing, math, and modern languages. Most placement tests take approximately 20-30 minutes and are completed online.

Assessments must be completed one week in advance of a student’s advising and course registration appointment. This ensures placement results can be reviewed by the student's advisor prior to their scheduled meeting and that scores have been uploaded into the student's academic record. *Please note that AP test scores, dual enrollment credits, and transfer credit from other colleges are often posted after students meet with an advisor for registration. Therefore, placement results help advisors determine the most appropriate course selections.

Incoming students also need to complete a short advisement survey. This survey helps academic advisors know about you and your academic interests. New students must complete and submit their advisement survey first, and are then invited to schedule their advising and course registration appointment. Check your SNC email for communication that includes a link to the survey, or email advise@snc.edu to receive it.

MATH

All incoming first-year students are required to complete the math placement.

Students will first complete a short survey, to help direct them to the appropriate math placement (either algebra or calculus, based on their prior math coursework). Placement results will allow our math department to make the appropriate math course recommendation.

Please note, even if a student has completed an AP course or a college level math course, it is important to still complete the math placement. This prior coursework info is not always available to advisors before a student has their advisement and registration appointment.

Calculators are not allowed for the test and using a calculator would be a violation of the SNC Honor Code.

Please follow this Link to complete the math placement test. Once you have logged into Canvas, select the Math Placement Test. Additional Math Placement Instructions

WRITING

Included in the 'New Student Checklist' tasks, first-year students must watch a brief informative video about writing coursework at SNC. After watching the video, new students then complete a short writing self-placement survey and submit a writing sample.

The submitted writing sample will be reviewed by SNC faculty, and a decision will then be made if the student is placed into the course 'IDIS 100 College Writing' (a more developmental writing course to help students enhance their writing skills, and a prerequisite for a Writing Intensive course), or if the student can enroll directly into a Writing Intensive [WI] course (required for graduation, part of the Core Curriculum).

Writing placement is also reviewed by advisors during a student's first advising and registration appointment, using the info from the student's completed advisement survey. *New students must complete and submit the advisement survey before they will be invited to schedule their advising and course registration appointment.

LANGUAGE

Second-language competency is part of the Core Curriculum at St. Norbert College. This requirement is fulfilled by demonstrating basic competence in two languages.

All incoming first-year students are required to take a second-language competency assessment at least one week prior to their advising and course registration appointment. Students with no high school second language experience are not required to take the placement test and will automatically be placed at the 101 level. Students who completed language coursework in high school for which there is an SNC placement test are expected to take that test, even if they plan on studying a different language at SNC.

Please note, even if a student has completed an AP language course or a college level language course, it is important to still complete the language placement assessment. This prior coursework info is not always available to advisors before a student has their advisement and registration appointment.

Language Placement Test Options:

Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

Students complete the Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish language placement assessment via software called Emmersion. Students will need their nine digit SNC ID and should use their SNC email address when using Emmersion to complete the language assessment. Please allow at least 30 minutes to complete the assessment. Only complete an assessment for the language(s) that you have studied.

If you are interested in studying Latin, please let your Academic Advisor know. The Latin placement test is done in-person with Latin faculty.