French and Francophone Studies

FFS Placement Exam

All incoming Vassar students who have studied French before, and intend to continue, should take the FFS placement exam. It is intended to assist you in your choice of a course in French and Francophone Studies during pre-registration. As such, it is only an approximate measure of language mastery.

Students who have not studied French before do not need to take the placement exam and can register for French 105a–106b Elementary French.

Remember:

This online exam focuses on knowledge of basic grammatical structures; it does not evaluate oral and written skills.

The results of your exam will be known to you and to members of the Department of French and Francophone Studies who direct placement testing.

These scores will not affect the status of a student’s admission to Vassar and will not be reported to all members of the department, to the Registrar, or recorded on your academic transcript.

Students with further questions about placement in a French course are encouraged to consult with members of the department at the “Advanced Placement Advising” session during New Student Orientation.

Instructions

Please follow these steps to register and complete the online placement test (it is called WebCAPE). You will need to create your own password:

  1. Go to the Emmersion website to take the exam.
  2. Enter your information to register and create an account.
  3. Once your information has been entered, click “Create Account.”
  4. Once the account has been created, click “Sign In” to proceed.
  5. Sign in using the email address and password you just used to create your account. Be sure to save this login information in the event you need to access your account again. You can log back in at any time at the Emmersion website.
  6. After signing in, you will be brought to your Dashboard. From here, you can select the language(s) you would like to take by clicking on “Take Test” and proceeding through the exam.
  7. Once you have finished the exam, please print your results and give them to your advisor.

Note:-

This is not a proficiency test. For students wishing to satisfy the foreign language exit requirement by examination, a separate “Proficiency Examination” is offered at the beginning of fall semester.