Hindi proficiency and placement exams are offered for registered students at UW Seattle. Students with no previous exposure to the Hindi language are able to register for HINDI 101: Elementary Hindi via MyPlan or MyUW at any time. For full information, please see this page.

The Asian Languages & Literature department does not offer placement or proficiency exams to students outside of UW (e.g., high school students seeking admission, prospective students, extension students,etc.), nor does it offer testing in languages or dialects not currently taught in the department. UW Students looking to take a proficiency test for a language or dialect not taught by the Asian Languages & Literature department should contact the UW Language Learning Center (LLC).

International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) exams in Hindi are not currently counted among subjects with applicability towards UW graduation requirements, so cannot be used for placement into classes. For more information, please see the IB Policy Overview page and AP Policy Overview page on the UW Office of Admissions site.

Typically, students who wish to place into Intermediate Hindi should have completed either Elementary Hindi or the equivalent of one year of study of Hindi at the university level. Similarly, Advanced Hindi requires completion of Intermediate Hindi or the equivalent of two years of study of Hindi at the university level.

• Students who have an existing background in the Hindi language and wish to take classes in Hindi at UW Seattle should email Amruta Chandekar to arrange for an informal interview & testing to determine optimal placement. No preparation is required.

Students who want to take a Hindi proficiency exam in order to waive the one-year College of Arts & Sciences world language requirement for graduation will be able to take an online test in Hindi through the Avant testing service.

Once students have registered and paid for their test, Avant will send further instructions regarding proctoring and students can then schedule the date and time for their test. Students are responsible for ensuring their systems are compatible with the Avant exam and proctoring systems; to take the assessment online, students will need a compatible computer with a webcam and microphone in order to take the test.

Please note: The AVANT proctoring system is not currently compatible with Chromebooks. Access to computer workstations is available through the UW Library system when campus is open, and students can also borrow laptops for home use through the UW Student Technology loan service.

Once students have confirmed their system meets test requirements, they should register for an online proficiency test here. Full information on proficiency testing in Hindi is available here.

Placement assessments are offered at no cost, but the Hindi proficiency test has a registration fee paid to Avant.

For placement, the test requires students to speak with the instructor of the Hindi language courses and write an essay.

For proficiency, the Avant test will cover all four primary language skills, with sections on reading (30 multiple choice questions), writing (3 prompts), listening (30 multiple choice questions), and speaking (3 prompts). Questions are based on real-world, everyday situations. AVANT measures a test taker’s language ability according to Benchmark Levels that are based on ACTFL national standards.

Study materials for Hindi are not available at this time.

For further details on placement test results, students should contact the faculty member associated with the level they are planning to test in. For proficiency testing results, student should contact the UW's Language Learning Center (LLC) here.

There is no current limit for the number of times a student can take placement or proficiency tests in Hindi. However, we recommend students try to give themselves at least 4 weeks between tests to allow sufficient time to study in a way that will see scores improve in a meaningful way.

Unfortunately, the department is not able to provide breakdowns of proficiency test scores for exams to students. Test results are valid for one year.

No. These exams are purely to either place students into the correct class or to fulfil graduation requirements for language proficiency. First-year (elementary) or second-year (intermediate) foreign-language credit is not granted either by examination or by course completion in a student’s native language. “Native language” is defined as the language, or one of the languages, spoken in the student’s home during the first six years of their life and in which they received instruction through the seventh grade.

Students who misrepresent the extent of their background so as to gain entrance to a course at the elementary or intermediate level may be dropped from the rolls of that course.