Departmental exam information will continually be updated towards the end of the summer. Please check back periodically for placement exam information that has not yet been posted.
Foreign Languages
Language placement at Columbia is determined in one of two ways. Students who wish to continue with a language they studied in secondary school MUST either take a Columbia language department placement exam in order to register for a course in that language OR submit results from SAT II Subject Tests or Advanced Placement exams. Those students who have demonstrated proficiency in a language via SAT II or AP should refer to the Academic Planning Guide for New Students, pages 52-53, for specific course placement information. Students who have not taken an SAT II Subject Test or an AP exam must take a Columbia departmental exam in order to determine appropriate placement. Placement exams are scheduled for the languages listed below.
If you need to take a placement exam in any of the other foreign languages offered at Columbia, or if the placement exam times below conflict with other mandatory NSOP events that you must attend, you should try to make alternative arrangements through the language program coordinator in the given department. Contact information for these coordinators, when not listed below, can be found here.
Please note: If you are exempt from the Columbia College foreign-language requirement per your placement exam results, you must contact the department to receive a certificate of exemption and deliver that certificate to your advising dean in the Berick Center for Student Advising.
Arabic
TBA
Chinese
TBA
French
TBA
German
TBA
Hebrew
TBA
Hindu-Urdu
TBA
Hungarian
TBA
Italian
TBA
Japanese
TBA
Korean
TBA
Latin
Thursday, September 2 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Hamilton 616 (in-person)
Questions? Please contact Marcus Folch at mf2664@columbia.edu
Persian
TBA
Portuguese
Tuesday, September 14 at 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
201 Casa Hispanica (in-person)
Questions? Please contact Professor José Antonio Castellanos-Pazos at jc846@columbia.edu or Professor Ana Paula Huback at aph2129@columbia.edu.
Russian
TBA
Sanskrit
TBA
Spanish
Part I: Take the Spanish placement exam online any time prior to September 2.
You may take the exam only once. It consists of multiple-choice questions about vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension. There is no oral or listening component to the exam. Since it is an adaptive test, the length varies from one individual to another, with an average time of 20 minutes. Students and the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures will be notified of score and placement recommendation immediately upon completion of the exam. You should save a screen-shot of your score. In addition, you can access, view, take another screenshot, or print your placement exam results by logging-in to the exam website.
- Part II: Tuesday, September 2, 9:00-11:00 a.m., 1:00-4:00 p.m., or 4:00-6:00 p.m. Online via Zoom
If your score on the online test qualifies for exemption from the language requirement at Columbia (higher than 625), you will be required to take another version of the exam on Tuesday, September 2. If your score qualifies you to take this second exam, please register for it here.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Lee B. Abraham, 402 Casa Hispánica, 212-854-3764, lba2133@columbia.edu.
Tamil
TBA
Tibetan
TBA
Turkish
TBA
Vietnamese
TBA
Yiddish
TBA