Placement Exams

Arabic Placement Exam

At the beginning of each semester we conduct a placement exam for incoming students (freshmen and transfer) as well as for all students coming back from any non-GU program (including GU-approved programs abroad). This is to ensure proper placement in Arabic courses. This exam will measure students’ abilities in Listening, Reading, Grammar and Vocabulary. The placement exam is not intended as achievement or proficiency exam- rather, its sole purpose is to decide where you most appropriately fit within the sequence of courses offered in the Arabic Department’s curriculum. Students with no prior Arabic experience should not take the Arabic placement exam and must register for ARAB 1011, Intensive Beginner Arabic.

If you have taken the placement exam in the past and/or have not taken an Arabic course the same semester as the exam, you must contact the department before the pre-registration period opens in order to retake the placement exam. The new score will be sent to the Registrar’s Office as your registration authorization.

To take the placement exam, please contact arabic@georgetown.edu

The Placement Exam will be open from October 13th – October 23rd for the Fall 2026 semester and March 15th – March 19th for the Spring. Instructions for the placement exam can be found here.

Results

A placement exam score is only valid for the semester in which the exam is taken.

All students should receive the exam results in Canvas at the end of the placement exam upon pressing submit. Following the Off-Campus exam, the Dean’s Office will contact individual students regarding their course registration.

Who should take the placement exam?

• Non-beginner Arabic students who would like to register for an Arabic course.
• Students who believe they will place out of the College’s foreign language requirement in Arabic, and who do not intend to continue their study of Arabic at Georgetown.
• Students who have already fulfilled eligibility to take the proficiency exam by completing the course requirements but had a gap between the most recent Arabic course taken or the time of the last placement exam must retake a placement exam.
• For students to transfer credits, students must take a placement exam and then be scheduled for a short OPI.
• Students returning from study abroad and/or summer programs.
• If there is a gap between the time of the placement exam and your most recent Arabic course, you will need to retake the placement exam.
• Consortium students.

Things to Consider

• Make sure that you have a reliable Internet connection and set aside ample quiet time to take the exam so that you can complete it in one sitting.
• Close other programs running on the computer. Avoid distraction; focus only on the exam until it is completed.
• Do not resize or refresh the browser window after beginning the exam. Make sure that it is the size you want before you begin.
• Please use an up-to-date version of one of the following browsers: Chrome (Windows and Mac) or Firefox (Windows and Mac).

Important: Internet Explorer has a known problem with text display. Please do not use Internet Explorer to take the online exam.

If you have problems in logging in or other technical difficulties, please contact the Student Help Desk (Email: help@georgetown.edu or call at 202-687-4949).