Placement Test Practice

1. Practice, practice, practice before your scheduled Placement Test. 
2. If you have a physical or learning disability, contact Disability Services promptly to discuss whether or not you are eligible for accommodations at UNG for your Placement Test.
3. The night before your Placement Test, get a good night’s sleep. This is not an ideal time to stay out late with friends. Take a rain check on that.
4. Make certain you eat something nutritious before your test. Your brain cannot work on low fuel. Also make certain you are hydrated. Good choices are fruit, yogurt, almonds, or peanut butter crackers and water.
5. Make certain you have directions to the test site and that you allow sufficient time to get lost at least once, search for a parking space, use the restroom, check in with the testing administrator, and take some calming breaths before the test begins.
6. The testing environment tends to be a little cool, so please bring a sweater with you, just in case. Scratch paper and pencils are provided by the testing administrator. You will not be permitted to use an outside calculator or your cell phone in the testing center; lockers are provided to secure your personal items.

1. If you are required to take more than one subject area test, the order in which they are administered is: Writing 1st (if required); Reading 2nd (if required); and Math 3rd (if required). All of this is completed on a computer in one session.
2. Please read all test directions carefully. We often see students scoring low on the Placement Test simply because they rush through the directions and then don’t fully understand or follow them. The directions for each test are different, so take the time to read through each set of instructions.
3. The Placement Tests are not timed (with the exception of the WritePlacer). Please do not be concerned if other students are finishing before you. They may not be required to take the same number of tests as you. They also may have a different set of math problems or different reading passages than you. Nobody is your pace car and this isn’t a race to the finish line.

Following University System of Georgia policy, UNG will use your Next Generation Accuplacer scores to determine placement into or out of Learning Support. Students who score below 243 on the Reading test (scored on a 200-300 point scale) and/or below 4 on the WritePlacer (scored on a 0-8 point scale) will have a Learning Support English requirement at UNG. Students who score below 258 on the Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics (QRAS) test (scored on a 200-300 point scale) will have a Learning Support math requirement at UNG. Students scoring between 258 and 265 will have a Learning Support math requirement at UNG if their major requires College Algebra, MATH 1111, either as a core requirement or as a pre-requisite for a core math requirement. Your scores do not determine admissibility but, rather, determine placement. For more information about Learning Support you can read about it on the Learning Support Website.

1. Upon receiving an Admissions decision on your Check Application Status site, please contact Dede deLaughter (by email or by phone at 706-310-6207)with any questions you may have about your test results and/or any retesting options.
2. If you do place into Learning Support, please understand that this is not punitive but, rather, in your best interest. UNG strives to support you in achieving your academic goals, and that includes starting you in the appropriate level of instruction that sets you up for academic success.

1. Since you will be required in your WritePlacer Test to compose an actual timed essay, practice that skill on the free Grammarly website.To access the WritePlacer Essay Guide, including a list of practice essay topics, review the information on the Accuplacer Practice Test Website.

1. 1. Don’t rush. You will have one hour to write your essay. Your essay will be evaluated on organization, focus, development and support, sentence structure, and mechanical conventions.
      1. Use the provided scratch paper to do your brainstorming.
      2. Using your brainstorming ideas, write your essay.
      3. BEFORE YOU SUBMIT your essay, PROOFREAD!
   2. Proofreading tips:
      1. Make sure your essay actually answers the prompt.
      2. If you used examples, make certain they are clear and concise.
      3. Avoid using impressive-sounding vocabulary unless you are absolutely certain you are using those words correctly.
      4. Re-read every paragraph carefully. You know what you meant to say. Will the reader know what you meant to say?
      5. Re-read your entire essay from the bottom to the top, one sentence at a time. This is a good way to catch grammar errors, like sentence fragments, subject-verb agreement errors, punctuation errors, and the like.

1. Go to Accuplacer, sign in or create an account. Select Next Generation Practice Tests.
2. Select the Learn As you Go Next Generation Reading Comprehension test. In the directions, note what this test measures and, as you’re taking the test, how well you perform on each portion of the test. Write down how many you get correct out of each type of test question.
3. If you have areas of weakness identified in the Learn As You Go test, explore the Reading Resources listed on UNG’s Academic Resources site or do an Internet search for a specific competency you wish to improve upon. Practice! You will be doing a LOT of reading in your college courses.
4. Next, select Sample Test. At the conclusion of the test, compare the number of correct answers you got on each type of test question to the number you answered correctly on the Learn As You Go test. If needed, practice some more.
5. The best way to be a better reader is to read frequently, and on a variety of topics. We encourage you to read daily, from various print and online sources.
6. The Reading Comprehension Test is not timed. Don’t rush. If you have spent time preparing, and you carefully read all of the possible answer options, your first inclination is often the correct answer.
7. If you are pressed for time to prepare for your Next Generation Accuplacer Reading Test, please select the practice link. 

1. Go to Accuplacer, sign in or create an account. Select Next Generation Practice Tests.
2. Select the Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics (QRAS) Learn As You Go test. In the directions, note what this test measures and, as you’re taking the test, how well you perform on each portion of the test. Write down how many you get correct out of each type of test question.
3. If you have areas of weakness identified in the Learn As You Go test, explore the Math Resources listed on UNG’s Academic Resources site or do an Internet search for a specific concept you wish to improve upon. Practice!
4. Next, select the QSAR Sample Test. At the conclusion of the test, compare the number of correct answers you got on each type of test question to the number of you answered correctly on the Learn As You Go test. If needed, practice some more.
5. On the actual placement test:
   1. Take your time. Answering the math problems as accurately as possible could save you time and money in the future if you are not required to take an extra math class.
   2. Remember the order of operations, using the mnemonic device Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally to remind you Parentheses, then Exponents, then Multiplication, then Division, then Addition, then Subtraction.
   3. Check your answers. Remember, in a multiple choice test, there are usually at least two wrong answers that are based on the most common miscalculations or process errors.
   4. Calculators and scrap paper. Certain placement test problems will allow you to use the built-in calculator. If not, use the scratch paper that will be provided. (This scratch paper will be collected before you leave the test, so don’t make your to-do list on it.)
   5. Know your terminology. As you go through the practice tests, look up any words you are not familiar with. Words like perimeter, sum, difference, product, quotient, solution, slope, intercept, etc. are important and come up often in algebra. Don’t ignore them!
   6. Know your formulas. As you go through the practice test, you may notice that the practice test assumes you know certain formulas, e.g. quadratic equations. If this is assumed on the practice, then you should assume you’ll need to know it on the actual placement test.
   7. Know how to plug numbers into an equation/expression. This know-how comes up often and it helps even on problems that don’t specifically ask you to do it. Get comfortable with negatives and parentheses.
   8. Know how to factor. Factoring comes up often, so the sooner you get it down, the better. If you do not know your times tables by heart, we recommend you learn them.

6. If you are pressed for time to prepare for your Next Generation Accuplacer QRAS test, please select the practice link.