Placement Testing

Student Success

Placement Testing Information

Description of the Tests

Reading Comprehension

This test is designed to measure how well you are able to understand what you read. Some questions are the sentence relationship type, in which you must choose how two sentences are related. Others refer to reading passages of various lengths.

Sentence Skills

There are two kinds of questions. Sentence correction questions ask you to choose a word or a phrase to substitute for an underlined portion of a sentence. Construction shift questions ask that a sentence be rewritten in a specific way without changing the meaning.

Arithmetic Skills

This test measures your abilities in operations with whole numbers, fractions, decimals and percents. Questions include rate, percent, and measurement problems; geometry problems; and distribution of a quantity into its fractional parts.

Elementary Algebra

This test includes operations with integers, rational numbers, and algebraic expressions. Questions include solving systems of linear equations, solving quadratic equations by factoring, solving verbal problems presented in algebraic context, geometric reasoning, translating written phrases into algebraic expressions, and graphing.

College-Level Mathematics

This test assesses proficiency from intermediate algebra through precalculus. Six categories are covered: algebraic operations, solutions of equations and inequalities, coordinating geometry, applications, functions and trigonometry.

Sample Questions for Reading Comprehension

Question 1 (Narrative Question)

Read the statement or passage and then choose the best answer to the question based on what is stated or implied.

Myths are stories, the products of fertile imagination, sometimes simple, often containing profound truths. They are not meant to be taken too literally. Details may sometimes appear childish, but most myths express a culture's most serious beliefs about human beings, eternity, and God.

The main idea of this passage is that myths

  1. are created primarily to entertain young children
  2. are purposely written for the reader who lacks imagination
  3. provide the reader with a means of escape from reality
  4. illustrate the values that are considered important to a society

Question 2 (Sentence Relationship Question)

Two sentences are followed by a question or statement. Read the sentences and choose the best answer or completion.

The Midwest is experiencing its worst drought in 15 years. Corn and soybean prices are expected to be very high this year.

What does the second sentence do?

  1. it restates the idea found in the first
  2. it states an effect
  3. it gives an example
  4. it analyzes the statement made in the first

Sample Questions for Sentence Skills

Question 1 (Sentence Correction Question)

Select the best version of the bold part of the sentence. The first choice is the same as the original sentence. If you think the original sentence is best, choose the first answer.

Ms. Rose planning to teach a course in biology next summer.

  1. planning
  2. are planning
  3. with a plan
  4. plans

Question 2 (Construct Shift Question)

Rewrite the sentence in your head, following the directions given below. Keep in mind that your new sentence should be well written and should have essentially the same meaning as the sentence given you.

Being a female jockey, she was often interviewed.

Rewrite, beginning with: She was often interviewed ...

The next words will be

  1. on account of she was
  2. by her being
  3. because she was
  4. being as she was

Sample Questions for Arithmetic Skills

Question 1

All of the following are ways to write 20 percent of N, EXCEPT

  1. 0.20 N
  2. 20/100 N
  3. 1/5 N
  4. 20 N

Question 2

Which of the following is closest to of 10.5?

  1. 3
  2. 4
  3. 5
  4. 8

Question 3

Three people who work full time are to work together on a project, but their total time on the project is to be equivalent to that of only one person working full time. If one of the people is budgeted for one-half of his time to the project and a second person for one-third of her time, what part of the third worker's time should be budgeted to his project?

  1. 1/3
  2. 1/4
  3. 1/6
  4. 1/8

Sample Questions for Elementary Algebra Skills

Question 1

If a number is divided by 4 and then 3 is subtracted, the result is 0. What is that number?

  1. 12
  2. 4
  3. 3
  4. 2

Question 2

16x - 8 =

  1. 8x
  2. 8(2x - x)
  3. 8(2x - 1)
  4. 8(2x - 8)

Question 3

If x2 - x - 6 = 0, then x is

  1. -2 or 3
  2. -1 or 6
  3. 1 or -6
  4. 2 or -3

Sample Questions for College-Level Math Skills

Question 1

If f(x) = x4 - x + 2, then f(-x) =

  1. x4 - x
  2. x4 + x
  3. x4 - x + 2
  4. x4 + x + 2
  5. x4 + x - 2

Question 2

The equation x2 + 2ix - 4 = 0 has as its root

Question 3

In triangle ABC, a = 12, b = 16, and sin B = 2/3. What is the measure of angle A in degrees? _____

Answers to Sample Questions

Reading Comprehension

  1. d
  2. b

Sentence Skills

  1. d
  2. c

Arithmetic

  1. d
  2. a
  3. c

Elementary Algebra

  1. a
  2. c
  3. a

College-Level Math

  1. d
  2. e
  3. 30