French Placement Test

Updated March 2025

Overview for Online Placement Exam 

All students who have not yet studied French at Yale are expected to take the Departmental placement exam prior to course preregistration.  If you have absolutely no previous formal or informal exposure to French, you should register for L1 (FREN 110).

The Department strongly recommends that ALL STUDENTS take the placement exam – EVEN students who earned a score of 5 on the Advanced Placement exam, a 6 or 7 on the Advanced-Level International Baccalaureate (IB) exam, a Common European Framework rating of C1, or an A or B on the GCE A-Level exam.  This will ensure that you will be directed to the most appropriate course for your level.

Results:

  • Placement results will be posted on the French Placement Test 2025 site.
  • It is your responsibility to check your Placement results. They will NOT be emailed to you.
  • Placement exam results remain valid for one calendar year.

Placement Contact (for non-technical issues)

Language Program Director,  Candace Skorupa.

View the placement testing page for further information about placement testing and the use of placement scores at Yale.

General Information for Online Testing

Dates for Online Testing

  •  Placement Tests for the Fall 2025 semester: Tuesday, July 1, 2025 at 9 am - Thursday, July 31, 2025 at 12 pm

Results

Unless otherwise noted, placement results are provided in one of the following ways: 1) shown on-screen upon completion of the test, 2) posted to Canvas prior to the start of the semester, or 3) distributed by faculty from the department. Results will be provided by 5 pm on Monday, August 4.

Technical Requirements for Online Testing

Mobile devices are not supported for the online placement tests. You should use a computer with a current version of MacOS or Windows and a recently updated browser.  For Mac users, the Chrome or Firefox browser is preferred.

Technical Support

Live support for the testing platform is available during regular business hours through the chat icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.  If you continue to have problems, please complete the Placement Test Support Form to request help. Technical support for online tests is available during all Yale workdays. On weekends and holidays, you may expect a response on the next workday. For a list of Official Yale Holidays, check the online calendar.

Academic Honesty

Before taking the placement test, please read Yale College’s policy on academic honesty.

Test Link

After checking that your computer meets the technical requirements, please select the test link to register for the placement test. (If you log in outside the stated test dates, the test may be unavailable).

Test Link