Frequently Asked Questions About: Placement
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What is the placement test?

Do I have to take the placement test?

When is the next placement test offered?

How is the placement test scored? How is my placement determined?

What is the difference between EAD155, EAD156, 098, 100R, 100, and 101?

What should I do after I learn my placement?

What should I do if I disagree with my placement?

Can I retake the test if I'm dissatisfied with my placement?

Who is exempted from taking Expos 101?

How do I find out if my credits transferred?

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

What is the placement test?

The Rutgers Placement Test: Level 1 English and Mathematics Exam is used to assess the performance of entering students in the fundamental subjects of Math and English. The scores of these tests are used to place students in courses that are appropriately challenging.

The English portion of the Placement Test consists of three sections:

1. A 35-minute multiple-choice Reading Comprehension exam which tests your ability to understand what you read.
   

2. A 30-minute multiple-choice Sentence Sense section which evaluates your ability to construct sentences that are grammatically correct, to interpret vocabulary, and to understand how sentences function to express ideas.

3. A 20-minute essay portion where you will write a response to one of two essay questions.

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

Do I have to take the placement test?

The answer to this question depends on your status when you enter Rutgers.

1. If you are an incoming first-year student residing in New Jersey, you must take the Rutgers Placement Test: Level 1 English and Mathematics exam. Information about when and where the tests are offered is provided to entering students by the College Deans.  Students with Verbal SATs of 600 or higher are exempt from taking the English Placement Test and place automatically into 355:101 (Expository Writing).

2. If you are an incoming first-year student residing outside of New Jersey, you may be able to take the Rutgers Placement Test on-line or else you will be given a reading passage to respond to a directed question.  Students with Verbal SATs of 600 or higher place automatically into 355:101 (Expository Writing).

3. If you are a transfer student and your transcript has been evaluated by your admitting college, then you may have already received credit for a particular writing course. Your college will alert you to the next writing course you will need to take.

4. If you are a transfer student who has NOT been given transfer credit for a writing course, you will need to take the transfer placement test. This test presents you with a passage to read and a directed question. You have two hours to generate your response. Booklets are provided at the testing site. To learn the dates and locations for the transfer placement tests, please contact the Transfer Dean of your college or visit NewToRu.

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

When is the next placement test offered?

Entering first-year students who have not taken the placement test should contact April Pagano, the University Testing and Placement Coordinator, at 932-8445 or the Writing Program's main office at 932-7570 to find out when the next test is offered.

To learn the dates and locations for the transfer placement tests, please contact the Transfer Dean of your college or visit NewToRu.

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

How is the test scored? How is my placement determined?

If you took the Rutgers Placement Test: Level 1 English and Mathematics Exam, your placement is determined by combining your verbal SAT scores and your Reading Comprehension and Sentence Sense scores. The written essays from the 20-minute section are used to assist in making decisions in borderline cases (i.e., students with scores that place them on the high end of 355:100 or the low end of 355:101) and in cases when there is the possibility of conflict with a second language.

If your placement exam consisted solely of writing an essay in a booklet (that is, if you are a transfer student or a student enrolled in University College), your placement is determined by an assessment of your essay by two experienced readers in the Writing Program. If the two readers disagree on the decision about the appropriate placement, the essay in question is passed on to a third reader who renders the deciding decision about placement.

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

What's the difference between EAD155, EAD156, 098, 100R, 100, and 101?

To successfully fulfill the University's writing requirement, each student must pass (or receive credit for) the expository writing course, Expos 101. To pass this course, students must demonstrate a mastery of the literate skills that reside at the core of higher education: critical reading and critical writing. The Writing Program offers a number of developmental courses to prepare students for fulfilling this requirement.

EAD stands for English as an Academic Discourse and both levels of EAD (EAD I and EAD II) carry 4 credits which COUNT toward graduation. These courses are designed to assist students who have difficulty reading, writing, or speaking in academic English. Students who successfully complete EAD I move into EAD II the following semester. Students who successfully complete EAD II move into 355:100R Basic Composition. To learn more about EAD I and II, visit the EAD Course Home Pages. To learn more about 355:100R, go to the 100R Course Home Page.

Students who placed into 355:098 Composition Skills tend to be students who do not read or write on a regular basis and thus lack a facility with written English. This course is designed to assist such students in reading and understanding essay, composing grammatic sentences and writing analytical essays. It does not carry credit toward graduation. The next course for students who pass 098 is 100R. To learn more about 098, visit the 098 Course Home Page.

Students who place into 355:100R Basic Composition, a 3 credit course, are simultaneously enrolled in 355:099 Reading for English, a 1.5 "E" credit course, and meet three times a week. 355:100, by comparison, meets twice a week for 3 credits. Students in 100R have a firm grasp of basic sentence structure, but they tend to struggle at the level of the paragraph; at the beginning of the semester, writing a three-to-four page essay is a challenge. Students in 100R tend to struggle a good deal when assigned essays of more than a few pages. These students have been placed in 100R rather than 100 so that they can have a chance to work especially hard on improving the skills that go into reading comprehension during the extra (third) class meeting. The next course for students who pass 100R is 101.

Students who place into 355:100 Basic Composition tend to be students who have mastered the fundamentals of sentence structure, but who struggle at the level of the paragraph; these students also tend to have difficulty comprehending and interpreting essays of more than a few pages. This course is designed to assist such students in mastering the fundamentals of paragraph construction and the generation of clear, well argued essays that engage with the assigned materials. To learn more about 355:100 and 355:100R, go to the 100/100R Course Home Page.

Students who place into 355:101 Expository Writing tend to be students who have mastered the skills of paragraph formation, are aware of the conventions that govern academic writing, and can reliably produce extended pieces of writing. These students also are able to read and comprehend the general argument in an extended piece of prose. This course is designed to assist such students in mastering the fundamentals of academic argumentation and in acquiring the habits of critical readers. By the end of this course, students should be able to generate an argument that demonstrates thoughtful engagement with at least two of the assigned essays; their writing should also demonstrate a deep familiarity with the conventions that govern academic writing. To learn more about 355:101, visit the 101 Course Home Page.

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

What should I do after I learn my placement?

If you are a first-year student, you will be automatically registered for a course at the appropriate level by one of the Deans of your college, once your placement scores have been tallied. If you are not happy with the time that you've been scheduled, you can go through add/drop to attempt to change to an open section of the same course at a time that better fits your needs.

If you are a transfer student, you will need to register yourself for an open section of the course that you have placed into. You will find a list of all courses available in the Rutgers Undergraduate Schedule of Classes for the appropriate semester. You should register for a section that fits your schedule and is marked "open," which indicates there are still available spaces in that class. To learn more about how to register, go to FAQs: Registration.

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

What should I do if I disagree with my placement?

In almost all cases, placement in a Writing course is an accurate measure of your abilities when matched with the expectations of your teacher during the first month of class. Placements, however, do not guarantee that you may meet the standards necessary to exit the course. If you feel that your placement is not an accurate measure of your current (and NOT potential) writing and reading abilities, you should go ahead and attend the first meeting of the section of the Writing course that you are registered for. All sections of all writing courses at every level begin with an in-class written essay on the first day of class. These in-class essays are administered in order to insure that all students have been correctly placed in the appropriate writing courses.

You should do your best on this in-class essay and, after class, you should notify your teacher of your sense that you have been placed at the wrong level. Your teacher will review your in-class essay and will determine, in consultation with one of the Assistant Directors of the Writing Program, whether or not you have been incorrectly placed. If it is determined that you would be better served working at a different level in the Writing Program, you will be contacted by one of the members of the Writing Program's support staff and you will receive instructions on how to move into a higher (or lower, as the case may be) section. If it is determined that your original placement was correct, you will remain in your assigned section of the course.

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

Can I retake the test if I'm dissatisfied with my placement?

Because your placement is determined by several scores on the SATs, you cannot retake any part of these tests. For more information, go to What Should I do if I disagree with my placement?

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

Who is exempted from taking Expos 101?

Incoming students who scored a 4 or 5 on the College Board's Advanced Placement Exam in English Composition or Literature are exempted from taking Expos 101. 

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Writing Program FAQs: Placement

How do I find out if my credits transferred?

If you are a transfer student who took writing courses at another college or university, you should contact the Transfer Dean at your college to see if your credits have transferred.

If you are a transfer student from one of New Jersey's County or Community Colleges, you should also contact the Transfer Dean at your college to see if your credits have transferred. You have the additional option, though, of checking to see whether courses at your home institution are considered equivalent to the Writing courses offered here at Rutgers by using the University's online course equivalency system: ARTSYS. To access this system, go to the main page of the Rutgers University/NJ Community Colleges ARTSYS Partnership.

If you've only received elective credit for whatever writing course you took at your original institution, you will need to arrange to take the Transfer Placement Test, as described in the Do I Have to Take the Placement Test FAQ, and enroll in the appropriate level writing course.

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