Directed Self Placement Testing

What is guided self-placement for English?

As of Summer 2018, SPSCC no longer requires students to take the ACCUPLACER exam in order to be eligible to take entry level English courses. Instead, students complete a brief placement survey, and are offered a placement recommendation. Ultimately, students decide with the help of our placement guidelines what course is right for them.

Why am I taking this survey?

The following survey is designed to help you make an educated decision about what English class is right for you at the beginning of your time at SPSCC. This is not a test, but rather a tool to help you advisor decide what entry-level English class would best support your success. At the end of this survey, you will receive a recommendation for placement, along with a list of choices. As a student, it is important for you to make informed and wise self-placement decisions. Inappropriate self-placement decisions may affect the time it takes you to complete your certificate or degree and may impact your ability to receive financial aid.

What can you expect in the survey?

1. This survey should take 20 – 40 minutes.
2. You will read two passages from a text used in a typical English 101 class.
3. You will answer ten multiple-choice questions that test your reading and writing skills.
4. You will also respond to two questions that ask you to reflect on your own skills.

PASSAGE 2: The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler offer their ideas on happiness in their essay “The Sources of Happiness,” found in their book The Art of Happiness.  Read the passage taken from their essay and answer the questions following it:

But there is a better approach: framing any decision we face by asking ourselves, “Will it bring me happiness?”  That simple question can be a powerful tool in helping us skillfully conduct all areas of our lives, not just the decision whether to indulge in drugs or that third piece of banana cream pie.  It puts a new slant on things. Approaching our daily decisions and choices with this question in mind shifts the focus from what we are denying ourselves to what we are seeking—ultimate happiness. A kind of happiness… that is stable and persistent.  A state of happiness that remains, despite life’s ups and downs and normal fluctuations of mood, as part of the very matrix of our being.  With this perspective, it’s easier to make the “right decision” because we are acting to give ourselves something, not denying or withholding something from ourselves—an attitude of moving toward rather than moving away, an attitude of embracing life rather than rejecting it.  This underlying sense of moving toward happiness can have a very profound effect; it makes us more receptive, more open, to the joy of living.

Which of the following best represents the main idea of Passage 2? 

An English instructor assigns the following prompt asking students to respond to Passage 2: 

The authors argue that a simple question can be “a powerful tool” applied to all decisions and choices in our lives, causing a “shift in focus from what we are denying ourselves to what we are seeking—ultimate happiness.” Compose a three-page essay agreeing or disagreeing with the authors’ premise. 

Which of the following statements best addresses the prompt? 

In a typical college-level English course, the instructor will assign a four-page essay asking you to respond to a prompt such as this:

The articles “The Goldilocks Dilemma” and “Homework in the 21^st Century” address the benefits of assigning homework to young learners, but they also consider the problems of such.  Several solutions are introduced in these articles, including a no homework policy, assigning limited homework, and creating teacher-led study groups for homework.  Which solution would be the most effective for elementary level students?  Why?  If none of the solutions would work, explain why and propose a different solution.

 How comfortable are you in completing a similar assignment?