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Placement Test Practice

Being prepared is the best way to ease the stress of test taking. If you are having difficulty scheduling your Placement Test, please contact the UNG Testing Office.

General Placement Test Tips

  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. Bring a pen, a pencil, a tissue, and a sweater with you, just in case. Scratch paper is provided by the testing administrator. You will not be permitted to use an outside calculator or your cell phone in the testing center, so it’s best to secure them in your vehicle.

During the Placement Test

  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.

How UNG Uses Your Placement Test Scores

Following University System of Georgia policy, UNG will use your Reading and Writing scores to calculate your English Placement Index (EPI) and your Math score to calculate your Math Placement Index (MPI). The EPI and MPI determine admissibility as well as whether or not you will begin your coursework at UNG in Learning Support. More details are available on the Policy and Guidelines page.

After Your Placement Test

  1. Please allow Admissions time to evaluate your scores and calculate your EPI and/or MPI.
  2. Upon receiving an Admissions decision on your Check Application Status site, please contact Dede deLaughter (dede.delaughter@ung.edu; 706-310-6207) to discuss the results of your test and any retesting options.
  3. 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.

Placement Test Subject Areas

English/Writing

  1. Go to Accuplacer, sign in or create an account.
  2. Select the Learn As you Go Sentence Skills test. Note what the Sentence Skills 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 English Resources listed below or do an Internet search for a specific competency you wish to improve upon. Practice!
  4. Next, select a 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 your Learn As You Go test. If needed, practice some more.
  5. Since you will be required in your WritePlacer Test to compose an actual essay, practice that skill on the free Grammarly website, incorporating the feedback you received on your Learn As You Go and Sample Test.
  6. Don’t rush. You will have one hour to write your essay.
    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!
  7. 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.

Reading Comprehension

  1. Go to Accuplacer, sign in or create an account.
  2. Select the Learn As you Go Reading Comprehension test. Note what the Reading Comprehension 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 below 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 a 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.

Math

  1. Go to Accuplacer, sign in or create an account.
  2. Select the Elementary Algebra Learn As You Go test. Note what the Elementary Algebra 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 below or do an Internet search for a specific concept you wish to improve upon. Practice!
  4. Next, select a 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.

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