East Asian Studies

Placement Tests

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Placement Tests

Discover essential information about the language placement tests, including dates and locations. Ensuring you are well-prepared for these assessments is a crucial step in the process of determining your language proficiency level and embarking on your language learning journey.

Chinese

Chinese Placement Test for Fall 2024

Please bring your computer with you to the written test.

Date & Time

12:00

September 3rd, 2024

Location

Stephen Roberts Campus Center
75 Waterman St
Providence, RI 02912

Questions

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9i66PJNpEK8

A short introduction to the Chinese language program.

Who should take the placement test?

  • Students who have learned Chinese before (at home/high school/study abroad programs) and wish to continue their Chinese study at Brown.
  • Students who wish to resume Chinese study after being absent for one semester or more.

Students who have no prior knowledge of Chinese and wish to take CHIN0100, the first semester in the fall semester, need not to take the test.  

Test Components

The placement test includes four components:

  • Questionnaire about your background
  • Short essay
  • Written test
  • Oral Interview

You can complete the background questionnaire and the short essay question at home before the written test and oral interview.

About the Written Test

This placement test is for students of all proficiency levels, from the beginning to the most advanced. Therefore, you are not expected to know the answer to every question. It's fine to leave some questions blank. No need to guess the answers. 

There are four parts in this test: multiple choices on grammar, multiple choices on vocabulary, and multiple choices on reading comprehension. You have 60 minutes maximum to finish this test. 

About the Oral Interview

The oral interview will take 10-15 minutes. All the interviews will be conducted right after the written test on 09/03. If you have any schedule conflicts, please email 汪老师, the coordinator of the Chinese program Yang Wang.

This test is designed to test students at various levels, so you are NOT expected to know the answer to every question. Note that it is not uncommon that we recommend someone who has taken two or even more years of Chinese in high school to start from Basic Chinese at Brown University. The recommendations we make based on this placement test are not final. You and your instructor should discuss whether you are at the appropriate level and make necessary adjustments should either party see the needs to do so during the shopping period.

Korean

Korean Placement Test for 2024-25                          

Date & Time     

Sept. 3 (Tue.), 2024

9:00am - 12:00pm

Location 

Barus & Holley, room 751

184 Hope Street

Providence RI, 02912

  1. True beginners who has never learned Korean before or who does not have any background/prior knowledge in the Korean language. These students can register for KREA0100.
  2. Those students who completed a course at Brown with a passing grade and want to move up to the next level
  3. Those students who have completed a course with a passing grade at an institution in Korea (i.e. Brown approved or sponsored programs) during the summer (they need to contact hye-sook_wang@brown.edu for credit approval and the placement in the next right level)
  1. Those who have some background/prior knowledge in the language but are not sure which level will be the right fit.
  2. Heritage speakers (i.e. coming from a Korean ethnic background) should take the test unless you have already taken a course at Brown

Background survey, Written test, Short essay, Oral interview 

Written Test

Written test is for all students regardless of their proficiency levels. Students are not expected to know the answer to every question. There are three sections in this test: multiple choices on grammar and vocabulary, multiple choices on reading comprehension, and writing a short essay. The test is expected to take approximately 60 minutes although it may depend on each student. 

Oral Interview

The oral interview will take 10-15 minutes. The interviews will be conducted immediately following the written test. Please plan accordingly. If you have unavoidable schedule conflicts, please email Prof. Hye-Sook Wang (hye-sook_wang@brown.edu) before you come to take the test.

Japanese

Thank you for your interest in studying Japanese with us here at Brown University. Please visit the placement test site. Placement test information is also accessible here. If you have further questions, please contact Suga sensei. We would like to ask all incoming students to take the placement test before the semester begins.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in fall 2024!

Questions

Vietnamese

Thanks for your interest in taking Vietnamese at Brown University!

We would like to ask all incoming students to take the placement test the week of August 22nd.

The Test

The test is about 60 minutes long and includes three parts.

  • Part 1: Survey (10 minutes recommended). Part 1 is a short questionnaire that asks you about your background in the language(s) you speak or have learned.
  • Part 2: Multiple choice questions (20 minutes recommended). Part 2 contains 30 multiple-choice questions designed to assess your proficiency in Vietnamese.
  • Part 3: Essay question (30 minutes recommended). Part 3 asks you to write an essay with a length of 250-350 words to a question prompt. Please make sure that you handwrite your essay, take a photo and upload it to this Google Form.

Interview

Once you have completed (or nearly completed) these three tasks, please make an appointment for a Zoom interview. Interviews will be given between August 27, 30 and 31. Please finish these three steps by the time of interview.