Center for Language Studies

Placement Exams

Students hoping to study a language with which they have some familiarity - whether through formal classroom study, significant exposure to the language through extended stay abroad or use in your family - are invited to take a language placement test.

Scroll down to see how many languages we offer at Brown!  There you'll also find guidelines for taking placement tests and contacting the department. For any questions about placement exams, please contact the faculty member listed for each language.

Contact

Timothy Riker, Center for Language Studies

Meet the faculty in this video

Placement tests are administered individually in the early days of the semester.

Contact

Anyone who has any background in Chinese is required to take the placement test, including those who have taken or submitted their SAT or AP tests scores.

The Chinese placement test will be held at the Barus & Holley building in room 168 at noon on September 6th. You may find instructions about the placement test at the link below:
 

Contact

Yang WangEast Asian Studies

The French placement exam can be taken at any time, preferably before the beginning of classes. More information can be found on the French and Francophone Studies website.

Meet a faculty member

Log on to Canvas to take the online German placement test. You may take the placement test at anytime during the summer or semester. Students who have received a 5 in the German AP should enroll in GRMN0500.

Contact

Jonathan Fine

Explore GermanStudies@Brown

Placement tests are administered individually during registration period. Students wishing to start Hindi at Brown should register for HNDI0100 in the fall.

Contact

Ashok Koul, Center for Language Studies

The Italian language placement exam can be taken at any time, preferably at the beginning of each semester. It has both written and oral components.

Contact

Cristina Abbona SneiderItalian Studies

Japanese Placement Test for Fall 2023

こんにちは!

Thank you for your interest in studying Japanese with us here at Brown University.

Please visit the placement test site. If you have further questions, please contact Suga

sensei. We would like to ask all incoming students to take the placement test in

September.

If you have trouble accessing the site, please visit the following three URLs:

1. SPOT Test

The SPOT (Simple Performance-Oriented Test) test was developed at Tsukuba

University in Japan. It is used widely in Japan and abroad for level-placement

purposes, as well as for assessment and diagnosis of a test takers’ Japanese

proficiency level.

The test will take approximately 30 to 60 minutes and requires a headset. Please set

aside enough time for yourself and be in a quiet place when you take it. Your results

will come back immediately via a PDF file which you will submit to us via Google

Forms (Step 3). 

Please go to: https://ttbj.cegloc.tsukuba.ac.jp/p1.html, and scroll to the very bottom

and click on "Individual Application (個人受験申込)." Select the option “SPOT90

+ Grammar90 + 漢字SPOT50” and click Next.

2. Survey

3. Essay

Once you have completed (or nearly completed) these three tasks, please make an

appointment for an interview. Interviews will be given on September 1, 2023. Please

finish these three steps by the time of the interview. Please visit the placement test site

around August 15, 2023 to schedule an interview.

 

Thank you and we all look forward to seeing you in Fall 2023!

 

Information about the Korean placement test can be found on the East Asian Studies website.

Contact

Hye-Sook Wang, East Asian Studies

Contact

Michelle_Quay@brown.edu, Persian@Brown

Placement tests are administered individually during registration period.

Contact

Patricia Sobral, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies

Dates, times, and formats for placement exams are TBD and will be updated here as soon as they are confirmed. 

Contact

Lynne DeBenedetteSlavic Studies

The Brown placement exam for Spanish can be taken at any time, preferably before the beginning of classes. Information on access to the Spanish language placement exam can be found on the Hispanic Studies website.

Current Faculty in Hispanic Studies

We will offer Beginning Swahili in 2022-23.

If you have any questions about enrolling in Swahili, please email Jane_Sokolosky@brown.edu.

Placement tests are administered individually.

Contact

Esra Ozdemir, Center for Language Studies

Learn about tthe Turkish program here

We offer Beginning and Intermediate Yoruba and a course on African languages.

Contact

victor_alabi@brown.edu