English and Math Placement

Determining English and Math Placement

Most students will need English and math classes to complete their degree at OC. All associate degrees required placement and most certificates. Depending on your situation, there are a few ways to determine your starting points for English and math. Most commonly, students take the Accuplacer Assessment, but traditional and transfer students can submit previous scores and grades.

Taking the Accuplacer Placement Assessment:

The Accuplacer is a multiple-choice assessment delivered on the computer to assess your math and English skills to ensure you start at the right level to be successful and build your skills. At this time, all campus services are completely remote. Until further notice, students can register to take the Accuplacer remotely with Zoom proctoring.

On the Accuplacer webpage, please scroll down to expand the ‘Virtual Testing’ section. Then click the link to test your computer for functionality for virtual testing. After you verify your computer meets the requirements, you will be directed to sign up for an available slot.

The sessions are booked for 2 hours. If you need more time, you will be moved to the next time slot.
Follow these steps to register for the test and be prepared.

Check to make sure your computer meets the requirements for online testing. You cannot take the Accuplacer on a phone or tablet. https://www.accuplacer.org/#/systemRequirement.
Schedule the Accuplacer at https://apps.olympic.edu/accuplacer/default.aspx
You will receive an email confirmation which includes information about setting up your online voucher. Do not ignore this email as it contains important instructions.
2 days prior to your appointment, you will receive an invitation to a Zoom meeting.
On the day of your assessment, log into the Zoom meeting where you will be placed in a "waiting room". You will need your picture ID and one piece of paper.
You will be brought into the "lobby" for general announcements.
From there you will be moved to a breakout room. The proctor will ask you to pan the room and your desktop with your computers camera.
At the end of the assessment, you will show your Id to view your scores.

We may return to in-person testing in the future. Students can choose to wait for in-person testing options.

Traditional Students coming straight from High School

Using test scores and transcripts for placement:
1. Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) English Language Arts scores may be used for English placement.
  - Unofficial score reports of 3 or higher will place students into English 101.
  - Unofficial score reports of 2 will place students into English 99
2. High School Transcripts (HST) may be used for Math & English placements.
  - Unofficial transcripts showing student completion of at least Algebra I or higher with a grade of at least C or better, will place students into math at a sliding scale.
  - English: Unofficial transcript showing student completion of either Junior or Senior English course, with at least a B or better AND at least a 3.3 cumulative gpa.
  - Submit request by visiting Verify Prerequisites.
3. SAT and ACT scores may be used for English Placement.
  - ACT (within 2 years) English score of 16+
  - SAT (within 2 years) English score of 425+
4. Upload unofficial score reports (SBA, HST, SAT, & ACT) by filling out the corresponding online form located on our website: Verify Prerequisites.
  - Students receive a course entry code that must be input at time of registration to bypass Accuplacer Assessment scores and prerequisites

Transfer Students: Previous credit for college-level English and math from another college or university

1. Official transcript evaluation does not occur until after you begin your first term of classes for at least 10 instructional days. Full information on Transcript Evaluation Process is located at https://www.olympic.edu/programs-classes/transfer-oc/transfer-credit-evaluation. You must use unofficial transcripts to request prerequisite override for any class with a prerequisites including all English and Math classes.
2. For first term enrollment, fill out and attach unofficial transcripts from other colleges/universities on our online SEM form by clicking the first bullet on the Verify Prerequisite site: https://www.olympic.edu/current-students/advising/verify-prerequisites .

More information about meeting Prerequisites

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