<p>Took my Arabic placement test yesterday through the First Class thing. The exam is multiple choice and there were 73 questions. It gets progressively harder and they tell you to stop when you think that you are getting out of your comfort zone instead of guessing and getting more wrong. I didn't do as well as I had hoped bc I had a grammar-driven prof instead of a vocabulary type prof and that hurt me. You're not supposed to use a dictionary or anything like that. But the biggest thing I wanted to tell you guys is that there were images that you had to work with, that never came up on the screen! I missed 3-4 questions that way. I called the First Class support center (that doesn't open up till 4 pm and I was taking the test at 2pm) and the Arabic Dept. with no response! Totally frustrated!</p>
<p>Sorry to say, but welcome to GW. When S was going through registration last summer, he emailed people & never got responses to his emails. Not everything is explained very well either. Fortunately for you, I don’t think you register until after CI. Last year, S had to register in early June; CI was after that.</p>
<p>Here’s what they don’t tell you: The language placement tests are just a diagnostic tool. They won’t prohibit you from registering for a particular level. If you truly feel that you belong in a higher-level language class, you can register for it. However, I would STRONGLY recommend registering for the level the diagnostic said. A language credit is a language credit, no matter what level it is, and you don’t want to ruin your GPA because you signed up for a class that was too hard.</p>
<p>Bear with me, I’m in a bad mood…I’ve worked so hard for so long for the great GPA and now it doesn’t even seem to matter that much anymore. I know what I know in Arabic but I’m afraid to register for a class that I don’t know much about, especially the prof and what he might be like. GWsenior, you knew that you wanted to go to law school so you had to keep up the good GPA. I’m not sure what I want to do anymore and grad school sure doesn’t sound that fun either. God, I think I’m burned out!</p>