Placement Requirements - Evaluating Skills

Penn College will evaluate your skills in math, reading, and English to ensure that you have the entry-level skills necessary for success in your major and college level course work. To help us evaluate your skills, you must meet placement requirements. Placement requirements can be met in one or a combination of the following of three ways:

Complete placement testing at Penn College. See also Test Contents.
Receive SAT scores at a level that will exempt you from parts of the placement test. See below for scores that will result in exemption.
Transfer courses from another institution which demonstrate specific skill levels in math, reading, and English.

Placement Test Exemption

Students may be exempted from parts of the placement test based upon SAT scores or courses transferred from other institutions.

All new students must take part of the math placement test, as related to current skill level. The only students who do not have to take any part of the math test are those who have transferred in a course that has been determined an equivalent to the first required math course in their major.

SAT Scores

You may be exempted from parts of the placement test based on the criteria listed below.

Please note that SAT scores will expire. SAT tests must have been taken within two academic years of the semester of enrollment. For example, if you completed SAT testing in February 2011, those test results will be eligible for use in placement up until the Spring 2013 semester; they will not be valid for enrollment dates past Spring 2013.

Additionally, SAT scores must be sent by the College Board to be considered official, and therefore, be used for placement purposes.

Math

A Math score below 550 will require you to take the Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra Test and the Intermediate Algebra Test.
A Math score of 550 or higher will require you to take the Intermediate Algebra and Functions and Graphs placement tests.
Refer to Math Placement Test Contents.

Writing

A Writing sub-score of 8 or higher will result in exemption from the English placement test.
Writing sub-scores between 2 and 7 will allow Penn College English faculty to place you into your first required English course, without requiring an English placement test (as long as scores were received directly from the College Board as indicated above).
Refer to English Placement Test Contents.

Critical Reading

A score of 450 or higher will result in exemption from the Reading placement test.
or
A combination of the following scores will result in exemption from the Reading placement test: 400 or higher on Critical Reading, plus 400 or higher on the Writing test, plus 400 on the Math test.
Refer to Reading Placement Test Contents.