<p>Does UR have placement tests for incoming freshmen? If so, what subjects do they test and can you do anything to study for them?</p>
<p>go to the website. it's on there</p>
<p>No placement exams. For placement into advanced standing, UR uses AP exam scores. </p>
<p>Advanced Placement is possible in the following subject areas provided you scored a 4 or higher (occassionally, only if you scored a 5) on the exam. (Advanced Placement usually exempts you from intro 100- level classes):</p>
<p>Art, Chemistry (Exempt from 1st semester gen chem OR Placement in QUEST Organic Chemistry - read about Quest courses in your admissions packet), Biology (those with AP credit are allowed into the advanced-standing biology course 112 rather than 110), Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Mathematics, French/German/Spanish, Physics, Earth Science, Psychology, Statistics, Latin, Music Theory</p>
<p>Details are specified here: <a href="http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/AdviserHandbook/AP.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/AdviserHandbook/AP.html</a></p>
<p>In other areas: elective credits may be awarded depending on score, but these credits do not count towards Major requirements.</p>
<p>Writing: Students can be exempt from the only required course for all students: CAS105 if they submit a Petition for Substitution of CAS105 (the form is sent to you in a packet), requires submission of a Research Paper of specified depth/type. Criteria and Petition can be found here: <a href="http://writing.rochester.edu/courses/alternate.html%5B/url%5D">http://writing.rochester.edu/courses/alternate.html</a></p>
<p>i thought there were some sort of placement tests.. hmm. i've been studying german/russian for a while, though never in an official HS class (let alone AP). though I did take the German SAT II</p>
<p>In specific cases such as yours, you would need to speak to the German Professor in the Modern Languages & Cultures Department. It was the same for me and Chinese.</p>
<p>ah ok, thanks</p>
<p>there are some placement exams. For example, you can skip Psychology 101 if you take a test and pass. Many of the langauges you can skip the intro class such as American Sign Language, Chinese, japanese, ect. U need to talk to the language department and set up a meeting with the prof.</p>
<p>i didn't know you could get out of the freshman writing... i was in ap english lit this year and i've written numerous 5-8 page papers and done well on them... would you suggest trying to get out of it? or is it nice to have one "easier" class freshman year?
any advice from current students would be appreciated :)</p>
<p>If you truly feel that you can write a decent college-level essay (and this is NOT asking for much at all), then please please place out of CAS105 if you can. (make sure your writing fits the criteria though before you submit it).</p>
<p>CAS105 is an utter waste of time for people who know how to write. There are literally hundreds of better classes to take that are more challenging, more interesting, and a better use of your time.</p>
<p>(I'm enrolled in HIS296 - Women in East Asia, a writing/history course concurrently with CAS105...and my history course has made the CAS105 course seem a total waste of time because I can apparently write sophomore-junior level essays without having taken CAS105 so...)</p>
<ul>
<li>CAS105 is pretty much a baby class. They walk you through every aspect of writing as if you had no idea how to do something like an MLA citation and what not...</li>
</ul>
<p>So, it's possible to submit papers to test out of CAS? Is there a link to this on U of R's site?</p>
<p>And, would you even recommend testing out? I mean, it's a small class (enrollment capped at 15, right?), which, as a pre-med major will be quite rare until I reach the upper level courses, if even then. I am used to a small school, so would it not be beneficial to take a small class such as CAS to ease the transition? Or are there other small classes I can enroll in as an alternative?</p>
<p>How decent does my writing need to be to test out of CAS? I consider myself a good writer-- very familar with MLA formatting and researching in general-- and my analytical skills are strong.</p>
<p>As a premed major, you get small workshop classes that are required as supplements to your lectures (only intro Biology and Chemistry have workshops). These are 8-10 person problem-based sessions run by TAs and usually wind up being very friendly and very helpful (especially since alot of the exam questions are workshop-style questions).</p>
<p>The link to the CAS105 substitution petition is in a post I made above (honestly, do you guys read these posts?)
[quote]
Writing: Students can be exempt from the only required course for all students: CAS105 if they submit a Petition for Substitution of CAS105 (the form is sent to you in a packet), requires submission of a Research Paper of specified depth/type. Criteria and Petition can be found here: <a href="http://writing.rochester.edu/courses/alternate.html%5B/url%5D">http://writing.rochester.edu/courses/alternate.html</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>CAS105 is actually generally seen as a class of grade deflation - the instructors do not like giving students in CAS105 classes so as to encourage improvement in their writing. Also, 90% of the CAS105 courses are taught by Grad students instead of faculty - this is because CAS105 is the only course that is required of ALL undergrads.</p>
<p>If you think having the small class will help ease the transition, then yes CAS105 would be very helpful for you. But if you're planning on studying abroad of doublemajoring etc, four years isnt much to fit everything in and it's nice to free up as much time as possible.</p>
<p>Haha I do read the previous posts, but generally I skim, as I was in a rush to get back to studying chem :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice as well as the link (again). Do you have any suggestions as alternative classes? I want to major in chem for pre-med, hopefully minors in spanish and art, and a study abroad... so if I could find a class that would tie in with these that would be amazing!</p>
<p>Actually I have to disagree with what awakein said. Firstly, for the most part CAS is an easy A. I did papers the night before in like three hours and aced the class, you shouldn't fail CAS. Secondly its not that bad of class, you have a pretty wide variety of subjects to choose from and I actually enjoyed mine (Constructing Conscience). Opting out is kinda of annoying, and not really worth it. I suggest just taking the class in something you're genuinely interested in and you'll be fine.</p>
<p>I don't know if this is true anymore, but my son graduated in 2006, and the only required course was the freshman writing course. If you scored 750 or higher on the verbal section of the SAT you were not required to take it. Now that there is a writing section in the SAT I don't know if the requirement has changed.</p>
<p>My D, also an '06 was ok with the writing course. They have a wide selection of writing course topics and hers pertained to reading/writing about mystery authors...</p>
<p>Make sure you get a good CAS teacher though...
Mine was insanely difficult
Whereas all my friends were scooting by and doing no work and getting A's, we had to do tons of work and nobody was getting A's...
So yeah...</p>
<p>How do you do that, hopkinslax? Are the CAS classes taught by the same teachers each year? If not, how do you find out who's a good teacher or hard grader or whatever?</p>
<p>Either by:
Talking to sophomores about which ones are good
-or-
When you actually matriculate, use the registrar's website and find the course evaluations</p>