Bengali/ Bangla proficiency and placement exams are offered for registered students at UW. Students with no previous exposure to the Bengali language are able to register for BENG 101: Elementary Bengali via MyPlan or MyUW at any time. The Asian Languages & Literature department does not offer proficiency exams to those outside UW (e.g., high school students seeking admission, prospective students, extension students, etc.); neither does it offer testing in languages not currently offered in its curriculum.

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

Registered UW Seattle students who have some experience with or exposure to the Bengali language and would like to continue their studies should complete the Bengali Language placement interview and essay.

To take the Bengali Placement Test:

1. Send an email to the Bengali language instructor Nandini Abedin via abedin@uw.edu with your name, UW Seattle student ID number, and confirmation of your UW.edu email address.

Once the Interview is over the instructor will be able to determine your level of knowledge in the Bengali language and accurately place you into the correct course. Follow the above steps in order to sign up for the Interview.

Registered UW Seattle students looking to fulfill the College of Arts & Sciences world language proficiency requirement must also complete the Bengali Language Proficiency Interview and Essay.

To take the Bengali Proficiency Test:

1. Send an email to the Bengali language instructor Nandini Abedin via abedin@uw.edu with your name, UW Seattle student ID number, and confirmation of your UW.edu email address.

There is no fee for placement testing, but the Bengali proficiency test is $20, paid to the department on the day the test is taken. To inquire about the availability of financial hardship fee waivers, please contact the placement test instructor. Full details are available here.

The test requires students to speak with the instructor of the Bengali language courses and write an essay. This test can be completed either in-person or remotely.

No. Students with no previous exposure to the Bengali language are able to register for BENG 101: Elementary Bengali via MyPlan or MyUW at any time.

Please see this page for the Asian Languages & Literature department’s policies on exam reporting. If you are taking the Bengali test for the purpose of fulfilling any requirement other than the College of Arts & Sciences one-year foreign language requirement (for example, proficiency requirements for degrees in JSIS, CISB, Linguistics), you must email the language coordinator jameel7@uw.edu by the deadline above indicating where you need the scores sent.

There is no current limit for the number of times a student can take placement or proficiency tests in Bengali in one quarter. 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.

Once the interview is over, the instructor will be able to determine your level of knowledge in the Bengali language and place you into the correct course. Feedback on specific elements of test performance is provided at the instructor’s discretion, and 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.