Placement tests

Students wishing to register for an English Composition course must either:

• have the prerequisite listed, or
  
• write a 50-minute placement test
  

Registration into composition courses is blocked until one of these conditions is met. 

There is no registration for this test. No previous language testing will be considered.

Testing details

The placement test is offered through Moodle and is accessible only on specific dates during the year (see dates below). If you are unable to write the test when it is available, you will be required to wait for the next available testing period. 

You may only take the test once. If you wish to write the placement test again, you must wait until the following year. 

Incoming students wishing to take the placement test will need to request access to Moodle a minimum of four business days before the end of the testing session. 

• Students can log into Moodle using their Concordia netname and password.
• To have a Moodle account activated on your behalf, please contact assist.english@concordia.ca, and include your full name, student ID, netname, and the email address associated with your Concordia student file. 

The link to the test will become available the day before the testing date. The test is available only from 12:01 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on each testing date.

Assessment

Be sure to allocate at least 50 minutes of uninterrupted time to access the site and complete the test. We strongly recommend that you take the test from a computer, rather than a phone. 

The purpose of the placement test is to determine which composition course is best suited to your writing needs. You cannot pass or fail the test. However, your test is evaluated for the following: comprehension of the reading selection; length and development of the response; including syntax, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, and vocabulary.

Results

You will receive your result within 14 days from the day you take your test. Your result will be sent automatically to the email address listed as your default address on your Concordia Student Centre. 

If you have not received your result by the date stated above, please check which email is listed as your default address and make sure to check the junk folder, as automatic emails are frequently flagged as spam.

Timing

Students cannot take their placement test and their composition course in the same term. Composition courses are in high demand and seats fill up quickly. Once admitted, students should take the placement test at the earliest opportunity to leave ample time to find a spot in their required course before graduating.

Academic integrity

While the placement test does not take place in the context of a course, Concordia’s academic integrity policies apply. 

As noted in Academic Code of Conduct: Any form of cheating, or plagiarism, as well as any other form of dishonest behaviour, intentional or not, related to the obtention of gain, academic or otherwise, or the interference in evaluative exercises committed by a student is an offence under the Academic Code of Conduct. Any attempt at or participation related in any way to an offence by a student is also an offence (Article 18). 

We reserve the right to cross-reference your writing sample against a GenAI misuse checklist. If your entry is flagged for potential misuse you may be asked to rewrite the exam in person. 

All re-writes take place in person.

Sample test

You will be asked to write an essay responding to a short reading, such as the following:

"Animals or humans, which should you save?" was the question posed to 100 introductory psychology students recently. Researchers were interested in learning when students would approve the sacrifice of an animal to save the life of a human. The animal was a family pet, wild animal, or laboratory-raised animal. The person whose life would be saved ranged from a virtuous person (such as a loving husband and father of two children) to a bad person (such as a repeat sex offender).

The acceptability of sacrificing an animal depended on the type of human who would be saved (lowest priority to the bad guys) and the type of animal to be sacrificed (lab rats were the least difficult to kill). The students were more willing to sacrifice an animal to save a good person than a neutral or bad person. Regardless of the type of person to be saved, however, they were less willing to sacrifice a pet than any other type of animal.  There were no differences in answer between the male and female students.

Question: Would you be willing to sacrifice an animal, even your pet, to save the life of a human being?"