<p>I just signed up to take the French foreign language placement exam, and I have no idea what this is going to be like. I've never practiced for one of these, nor have I ever received any information regarding the structure of them. I don't even know anyone that has taken or will take it, and I haven't even heard what will be asked on this test. Basically, I will be just a clueless newb when I walk into Kane Hall on Saturday, June 28. So... I'm really worried that I might not do well, but I also want to be placed in a class suited to my ability, or even higher. So my history of French...</p>
<p>Freshman year: French III, B+ and A
Sophomore year: French IV, A and A
Junior year: AP French, B+ and B+
AP French exam: 1
Senior year: first semester of French VI, B</p>
<p>I'm worried about not doing well mainly because of two reasons. The first is that I suck at speaking the language; I stuttered so much during the speaking portion of the AP exam, which I think is why I got a 1. Not having any practice or experience doesn't help either. The second is that my grade trend in the classes have been negative, and I stopped taking it this semester, so I may have forgotten a lot. And if my failure of the AP exam is any indication of how well I would do on the placement exam, well then that's not a good sign.</p>
<p>I've heard that this test is one hour long. I was wondering, how could they possibly know how proficient you are in the language in one hour? And I'm pretty sure there has to be a broad range of students taking this test, from first year to sixth. Anyone with more information on this?</p>
<p>I took the french placement test yesterday and it wasn't too bad. There is no listening portion for the test (there is for Spanish and Korean and some other languages) which I thought was good but it's all multiple choice. It's mostly fill-in-the blank questions, some of which are really easy (like, Il a beaucoup ____ fleurs, and the answer is de because it's always beaucoup de). Others have to do with masculine or feminine which is just luck of the draw (like, is it de la or du?). I had the hardest time with things like Si il ___ something something, ils ____ something something. You have to fill in the blank with the correct verb tenses and they're in conditional, future, subjunctive, and pretty much every other tense. Also, they had a lot of questions like Elles sont certaines que il _____ and you have to fill in the blank with the correct verb tense, whether subjunctive or not. That one's not because there is no doubt (they are certain) but you have to figure out when to use the subjunctive. I had some issues with that. But it's really not too bad overall, you have to know masculine/feminine, things like beaucoup de/assez de/etc, the difference in imparfait and passe compose, and a little bit of direct and indirect objects and pronouns (lui, leur, le, la, y, en, lequel, dont, celui, ce que, ce qui, etc). It probably sounds really hard from this but it's not too bad. Really! It's 100 questions and you have an hour to do it but it only took me about half the time to do it. </p>