Latvian placement exams are offered for registered students at UW. Students with no previous exposure to Latvian are able to register for LATV 101: First Year Latvian via MyPlan or MyUW at any time. Scandinavian Studies does not offer testing to those outside UW (e.g., high-school students seeking admission, prospective students, extension students, etc.), nor does it offer testing in languages not currently taught by the department.

International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) exams in Latvian 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.

Students interested in a placement test should send an email to uwscand@uw.edu with your student number, the language you are interested in, and your experience with the language (high school experience, college experience, and at-home experience). There is no proficiency test offered for Latvian by the department at this time, so students looking to complete a proficiency assessment in Latvian should contact the UW Language Learning Center.

There is no cost associated with the Latvian placement test.

The Latvian placement assessment is based on all four primary language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Assessment for listening and speaking skills is through an oral interview with faculty. Writing is assessed by short written responses in Latvian while taking the placement survey.

The Scandinavian Studies Department does not offer study materials for the test.

The Scandinavian Studies Department does not currently provide proficiency tests for the languages taught in the department. Students looking to complete a proficiency assessment in Latvian should contact the UW Language Learning Center.

If the result isn't confirmed by faculty at the end of the oral assessment, students looking to confirm the results of their placement assessment should email uwscand@uw.edu.

You can take the Latvian placement test once - once is all that should be needed.

Once the interview is over, the instructor will be able to determine your level of knowledge in Latvian and place you into the correct course. Feedback on specific elements of assessment performance will be given at the discretion of the instructor. Your placement will be 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.