<p>I’ve searched the board pretty thoroughly but I’m still confused about some elements of foreign language (spanish, in particular) at UVa.</p>
<li><p>Can you take it Pass/Fail?</p></li>
<li><p>How is the online placement test set up? (Not even so much “what is the content?”, just like, is it fill in the blank, multiple choice, etc?)</p></li>
<li><p>Is it timed?</p></li>
<li><p>From what other people have said in the past, it sounds like this placement test destroys people. Can anyone verify?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>it's not that the placement test "destroys you" its that for lang in college covers more material than in hs more quickly...</p>
<p>if you wanna take it pass fail you can but not for your requirement. ie, you place out of language xxx and want to take language yyy you can take it pass fail, up to a point (24 credits for non transfers i believe, total, over 4 yrs). if you havent placed out of a lang yet, you have to take it for a grade, sorry.</p>
<p>i didnt take the online placement exam so i cant answer your specific questions about that sorry.</p>
<p>No area or major requirement can be taken pass/fail.</p>
<p>I took the french placement exam for sh1ts and giggles, and it was multiple choice, if I remember correctly. It wasn't timed.</p>
<p>When I took the french placement exam, I hadn't been in a french class in over a year and a half, and I found it to be pretty easy. Then again, I was a decent french student, so YMMV. I wouldn't say that it destroys people at all.</p>
<p>Look, unless you've got extremely poor language skills, the language requirement shouldn't be too hard for you to complete. Some languages have rough reputations, but from what I've seen most are fairly lax. You might want to avoid chinese or italian (which, oddly, has harsh grading distributions and tough grading - ask jags), but you should be fine in spanish, french or even russian. I took a semester of russian during my first year and didn't find it to be terribly difficult, and I learned quite a bit about the language and russian culture.</p>
<p>well maybe my friends here just arent as smart as you, cav, but they are the kind of people who are not good at languages i guess and it is kicking their butts (they are still definitely passing, but they have nowhere near an A, if you know what i mean). personally im good at languages so i have no issue with it, but its kind of a pain to have to go to every class. i mean it just depends. if youre the kind of person who wasnt good at languages in hs then youre just gonna have to work hard to do well. its mostly showing up to class, memorizing vocab, and doing your hw every night... a lot like hs which gets annoying but it helps i guess.</p>
<p>I took the Chinese placement test and it was half multiple choice and half essay questions (..ew to the nth degree).</p>
<p>Difficulty also differs from different 'tracks'. For Chinese at least, there's a certain track for the native/semi native/someone who's been in contact with Chinese before students. The grading is quite easy there, just do your hw and a decent amount of studying and you've got an A. I wouldn't know about the true beginner/I wouldn't know a Chinese character if it came up and bit me classes though.</p>
<p>unless you're serious about it, don't take a language that doesn't use our alphabet. if you just want to take a language to pass the requirement, take whatever u took in high school. if you're retarded with regards to speaking foreign languages, take latin--foreign languages classes (at least italian, french, spanish, etc) don't allow you to speak in english (at least they're not supposed to) in class following the first day.</p>
<p>There could be, you have to check the course catalog--worse comes to worst, you just start in the intro class and have it easy street for a while.</p>
<p>Eek, can't read or write is the real kicker. You could message the department chair and ask, or just take the class they recommend from the placement test. Oh, right. The teachers also interview you, so they'll place you accurately.</p>