German placement exams are offered for registered students at UW.

Students with no previous exposure to German are able to register for GERMAN 101: First Year German via MyPlan or MyUW at any time.

The German 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.

Yes, the table for placement in comparison to AP/IB scores below. College Board Advanced Placement (AP) exams are scored on a scale of 1 – 5. At the UW, scores of 3 or higher are considered for college credit awards or placement into UW courses. The table below shows the UW’s departmental policies for awarding course equivalencies and credits for each exam.

Areas of Inquiry

• Ssc = Social Sciences
• NS = Natural Sciences
• A&H = Arts & Humanities

Basic Skills:

• C = Composition
• R = Reasoning
• FL = Foreign (World) Language

Higher Level

Standard Level

Students who havetaken high-school level German, are self-taught, or are heritage speakers should first register for and complete the AVANT online German Placement Test found here.

To ensure correct reporting of results, students should use their UW.edu email addresses and include their student ID numbers when registering. Then, after taking the test they should contact the Director of the Language Program at brandl@uw.edu. 

The College of Arts & Sciences has a graduation requirement that needs students to demonstrate proficiency in a world language at college level through at least the first year.

Students can meet this requirement either by taking and passing GERMAN 103 at UW, by passing an approved equivalent course at another college, or by taking the German Placement Test listed above and getting a score that shows ability above a level equivalent to GERMAN 103.

Students wishing to take the online test to demonstrate proficiency can learn more and register here.

Once you have registered and paid for German Placement Test, AVANT will send further instructions regarding proctoring and test scheduling. If you have any questions on testing administration, or need technical assistance with proctoring, please contact Avant Assessment Support at support@avantassessment.com. 

There is a fee for both the online AVANT German placement test and AVANT German proficiency test. For full information on costs, please see here. A few fee waivers are available, please contact Kye Terrasi (kterrasi@uw.edu).

The placement/ proficiency exam in German is offered online by AVANT, and will cover all four primary language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

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. Once students have registered and paid for their chosen proficiency 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.

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.

Yes, you can find sample tests available here, a user guide here, and a technology guide for remote testing here.

Contact Kye Terrasi (kterrasi@uw.edu)

Unfortunately, however, the department is not able to provide breakdowns of proficiency test scores for exams taken through AVANT for students

There is no current limit to the number of times a student can attempt placement or proficiency tests in German 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. Results are valid for one academic 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.