Urdu proficiency and placement exams are offered for registered students at UW. Students with no previous exposure to the Urdu language are able to register for URDU 101: Elementary Urdu 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 Urdu 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 Urdu language and would like to continue their studies should complete the Urdu Language placement interview and essay. To sign up for an Urdu placement interview, send an email to the Urdu language instructor Jameel Ahmad via jameel7@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 Urdu language and accurately place you into the correct course.

Students who want to take an Urdu 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 Urdu 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 Urdu is available here.

There is no fee for placement testing, but the Urdu 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 Urdu placement and proficiency tests are based on all four primary language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Assessment for listening and speaking skills is conversational, while reading comprehension is assessed by translating from Urdu into English. Writing is assessed by a short 400-word essay/free writing exercise in Urdu.

Yes. For passing first year level requirements, students can get an idea about the translation passage from this link (Chapters 5-11).

For placement test results, students should contact the faculty member they worked with during the placement process for next steps.

For proficiency test results, students should contact the UW Language Learning Center (LLC) via email.

There is no current limit for the number of times a student can take placement or proficiency tests in Urdu. 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 Urdu and place you into the correct course. Feedback on specific elements of assessment performance will be given at the discretion of the instructor. 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.