Placement Exam

The Spanish Language Program at Barnard requires all students to take the Placement Exam before registering for a Spanish course, regardless of previous level of instruction. You may take this exam online at myBarnard anytime. You can only take this exam once. The exam will determine which course you must attend at Barnard, irrespective of courses taken previously.

Students with AP, SAT, IB (Higher Level only) or DELE credentials must take the Placement Exam and register in a course accordingly. In addition to regular credit for the course they placed in and complete at elementary, intermediate or bridge level, students with AP (5) or IB (Higher Level 6 or 7) scores will receive extra college credit points upon completion of SPAN UN3300: Advanced Spanish through Content, or other bridge/upper-level course (with Language Program Director approval) with a B+ or higher (in addition to credit for that course).

College credit points upon completion of bridge or upper-level course with a B+ or higher.

AP (5 score): 3 college credit points.
AP (4 score): 0 college credit points.
IB Higher Level (7 score): 6 college credit points.
IB Higher Level (6 score): 3 college credit points.
IB Higher Level (5 score): 0 college credit points.
IB Standard-Subsidiary Level: 0 college credit points.

For further information, please contact the Language Program Director, Javier Perez-Zapatero at jperezza@barnard.edu.

All other students with prior knowledge of Spanish (secondary school, living abroad, near-native or native speakers) who want to continue studying this language are required to take the department's Placement Exam before registering for a course.

The Placement Exam in Spanish is an on-line multiple-choice format exam that you may take at your convenience. It consists of questions on vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension. There is no oral or listening part to the exam. Since it is a computer-adaptive test, the length varies from one individual to another, with the average time being 20 minutes. Please supply all the required information.

You are taking the exam on your own and it must represent your own work; it is also in your interest to work to the best of your ability. Once you begin the exam you should not pause until the exam is finished. When taking it you will be bound by Barnard College's Honor Code and must refrain from any activity constitutive of academic dishonesty as defined therein.

Your score and placement, indicating the level you are assigned (Elementary I, Elementary II, Intermediate I, Intermediate II, or Spanish for Heritage Speaker if you are a heritage speaker with a score between 450 and 625) will become available immediately upon completion of the exam.  Please, make a screenshot of your score or print out your results. Your instructor written proof of the level you are assigned after your placement. Upon receipt of your score and level report, you may then register in the appropriate course by following the instructions you will receive to that effect.

If your score is between 450 and 625 in the placement and you are a native or heritage speaker of Spanish, you should contact the Language Program Director to receive authorization to register in the Spanish for Heritage Speakers course (UN2108). Do not register in this course without consulting with the Language Program Director at jperezza@barnard.edu.

The online placement exam is for diagnostic purposes only and will be supplemented by instructors' evaluations during the first week of classes. Under no circumstances may you choose to take a level lower or higher than the one to which you are assigned without the explicit permission of the Language Program Director.

If your score in the online test is above 625, you will be required to take another version of this test that will be offered on Thursday, August 29th from 2:00 to 5:00 pm in 222 Milbank Hall.  If you cannot take it on this date, you may do it on Wednesday, August 28th from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at Columbia's Language Resource Center 353, International Affairs Building. If you need to take the exam on Wednesday, August 28th,  please, register at this link.  Please remember to bring a proper photo ID.
In spring, please contact the Spanish Language Program Director to schedule an appointment to take this second version of the placement.