Placement:

Many students in our second-year program come from outside the UW-Madison language program sequence. Most of those students have taken a placement test. If you have not, you might want to consider taking the test (see "useful links"). If you have, you probably have a pretty good idea of which course you belong in. However, if you question your placement, please consider the following:

1. For the German program at Madison, placement test scores are advisory but not binding.

2. If you consider registering for a course level other than the one recommended by your placement test scores, please think about these issues:

   • The test is designed to place you into the UW-Madison German program and does not necessarily reflect your language-learning experiences in high school. Self-assessment based on performance in high school might not be an accurate measure.

   • The test has no components relating to language production (speaking and writing) because of the need to score it quickly for many test takers. If you believe your productive skills have not been considered as they should have been, please contact your instructor who might briefly assess your writing or speaking skills.

   • Look over the textbook: German 203 covers chapters 1-5, German 204 6-10. You cannot expect a perfect match between your high-school preparation and the university curriculum. Nevertheless, do consider (a) how much the curriculum as described in the textbook matches what you already know; (b) whether you prefer a faster or slower pace; (c) whether a challenge motivates or frustrates you; and (d) how much time you have to spend outside the course in addition to the class meetings - the minimum should be one hour at home for every regular hour in class and more for exams and for difficult or entirely unfamiliar material.

3. You can also contact the course supervisor, Monika Chavez (mmchavez@wisc.edu) with questions about correct placement.

4. You need to earn at least a grade of B to receive retro-credits.

5. Research has shown that students who register for the course into which they got placed, earn higher grades and more retro-credits.