Placement Testing

Dual enrollment students who are juniors or seniors only need to take a placement test if the course they are taking has a math or English prerequisite or if they have not taken the SAT/ACT exams. All other dual enrollment students not yet juniors or seniors are required to take all three placement tests (reading, math and English).

The ACCUPLACER ESL is an untimed, computer-adaptive test designed to assess the English proficiency of non-native speakers. Colleges use the results to place students into the appropriate level of ESL or English coursework.

The exam typically consists of the following sections:

• Reading Skills: Measures your comprehension of short passages (up to 90 words) through literal comprehension and inference questions.
• WritePlacer ESL: An essay section where you are given 60 minutes to write a ~300-word essay responding to a prompt, using clear reasoning and examples.

The CCAC English Self-Directed Questionnaire is an assessment tool used by the Community College of Allegheny County to determine the best initial English courses for incoming students. It replaces a traditional, high-stakes placement exam with a guided reflection to ensure students are placed into classes where they will succeed.

Complete the questionnaire

The ACCUPLACER Reading assessment is a computer-adaptive test designed by the College Board to evaluate your ability to comprehend and analyze college-level texts. Colleges use these scores to place you in appropriate English and reading-intensive courses, or to identify if you need academic support.

The CCAC BIO 110 Waiver is an optional placement test that allows students with prior biology experience to bypass the introductory BIO 110 (Introduction to Biological Science) prerequisite, enabling them to enroll directly in advanced courses like General Biology or Anatomy & Physiology.

Here are the key details about the test:

• It consists of 100 multiple-choice questions.
• You will have a 60-minute time limit to complete it.
• A passing score of 70 or above will exempt you from taking the BIO 110 prerequisite, enabling you to enroll directly in advanced biology courses.

There are no practice materials for this test, but this is the open textbook that you can use to review what the course uses: https://openstax.org/details/books/biology-2e.

Once you complete your placement assessments, Academic Advising can help you explore our programs and register for classes.

ALEKS PPL (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces) is an AI-powered, adaptive assessment tool used by universities to evaluate your math skills and accurately place you in the right college-level math or statistics course.

The program is broken down into three core stages:

• The Placement Assessment: You will be given around 20 to 30 open-response questions. The system adapts to your answers, adjusting the next question based on your previous responses to precisely map your knowledge.
• Personalized Prep: Once finished, you receive a score from (0 - 100), which represents the percentage of topics you've mastered. The system then generates a customized Prep and Learning Module highlighting your exact knowledge gaps.
• Reassessment: After spending time in the Prep module, most universities allow you to take the assessment again up to 2 times to improve your score and qualify for a higher-level course.

The Placement Assessment covers only pre-calculus topics. Specifically

• Whole numbers, fractions, and decimals
• Percents, proportions, and geometry
• Signed numbers, linear equations, and inequalities
• Lines and systems of linear equations
• Relations and functions
• Integer exponents and factoring
• Quadratic and polynomial functions
• Rational expressions and functions
• Radicals and rational exponents
• Exponentials and logarithms
• Trigonometry
   

You can expect the assessment to take up to 90 minutes to complete. You should set aside that amount of time to take it in a single setting with no aid (no calculator; no book, or friends, or family, or internet searches) other than a pencil and scratch paper. The purpose of the placement assessment is to give an accurate measure of YOUR current mathematical skills so that you will be successful in your mathematics courses. If you get outside help to improve your score, your only reward will be that you are placed into a math class for which you do not yet have the skills to succeed.

When you take the assessment, try to relax. Remember, it's NOT A TEST: the ONLY goal is to determine what you know. At the end of the ALEKS Placement Assessment, you will have a much better sense of your strengths and weaknesses in math. You will then have a chance to work on those weaknesses. There is really no penalty for incorrectly answering a question on the assessment. The most important thing is that you take the assessment seriously and give it an honest effort so that the assessment truly reflects your level of knowledge and math preparedness.

After the assessment, a targeted Prep and Learning Module is available for you to review and learn material, and to improve placement and eventual course outcomes. ALEKS is a “smart” assessment that uses artificial intelligence to present you with learning modules targeted toward your mistakes, so doing the Prep and Learning Module after you take the assessment will help you sharpen your skills in areas where you may be rusty or have gaps in your knowledge. All students are strongly encouraged to spend several hours using the ALEKS Prep and Learning Module. Even if you have achieved placement in your desired course, time spent in ALEKS will better prepare you for your upcoming course and ultimately lead to better grades.

After you complete the assessment, you will be presented with a pie chart showing your areas of strength and weakness. Your overall assessment score appears at the top of the page. If you have taken the assessment more than once, scores on previous assessments are shown below the pie chart. In this case, your highest assessment score is used for placement purposes.

If you forget your assessment score, you can log into ALEKS again to review your scores. 

You must wait 24 hours between placement assessments. There is generally no benefit to re-taking the assessment immediately after completing a prior attempt. Unlike the SAT or ACT, you cannot improve your results by simply re-taking the assessment without spending time in the Prep and Learning Module to refresh material that you may have forgotten or to learn new material.

Yes, after completing the assessment, you must spend a minimum of 5 hours in your Prep and Learning Module before repeating the assessment.

No but you should try to complete your placement assessment once it has begun.

Placement assessments require approximately 90 minutes to complete, but the amount of time will vary depending on the student. There will be a maximum of 30 questions.

ALEKS will provide an on-screen calculator if you need one to solve a particular problem. Otherwise, you may not use a calculator.

You may only use a pen or pencil, paper, and the on-screen calculator provided by ALEKS. You may not receive assistance from friends, family, other websites, textbooks, or any other resource not provided by ALEKS. Using outside resources may lead to improper placement and ultimately course failure.

Be patient! ALEKS scores are loaded into the student information system the next day. You will be able to enroll in your course in most cases the next day.

ALEKS will begin with a brief tutorial before your placement begins.

You will have twelve months of access from the time of your initial assessment.

While working in a Prep and Learning Module, you will periodically complete progress assessments to solidify your gains in knowledge.

No, you must complete a new placement assessment to change your placement result. Click on the placement tab on the upper right of the page from within ALEKS. Only your placement assessment results will be used for course placement.

Congratulations! Continue to use your Prep and Learning Module to improve your chances for success. The placement result above is the minimum preparation required for your course! Take advantage of the targeted review and learning features in ALEKS to get a better grade in your class.

You may contact ALEKS support by phone at (800) 258-2374, or by submitting a ticket:

Submit a ticket to ALEKS support