Online Placement Test

Colby’s placement test for French is taken online. This exam may not be used for automatic exemption from the language requirement (see below**).

Please note that the test will be made available to first-year students from May 20-31 only. The test is required of all incoming students who have taken French before. Students who have never studied French do not have to take it.

Students can sign-up for and take the exam as soon as they obtain their username and password here. It takes a maximum of 45 minutes. Should you have questions, contact Prof. Mouhamédoul Niang, [email protected].

LANGUAGE PLACEMENT SCORE CUT-OFFS FOR COURSE ENROLLMENTS:

A student can fulfill the language requirement at Colby in several ways:

1. By achieving a score of 640 or higher on a foreign language SAT Subject Test taken in the student’s high school, or on the Colby online French placement exam taken in June
2. or, by a score of 4 or 5 in an Advanced Placement exam,
3. or, a score of 6 or 7 in an International Baccalaureate higher-level exam,
4. or, a 7 on a standard-level International Baccalaureate exam.

SCORE   |  FRENCH COURSE
200-450  |  FR125*
460-530  |  FR126
540-610  |  FR127
620-630  |  FR128 or FR131**
640-800  |  FR231 and above

*Students who have completed two or more years of French cannot enroll in FR125.
**If you achieve a score of 620 or above, in order to fulfill the language requirement, you must contact the French Studies department chair and schedule an interview to verify your level.