Placement Testing & Guides

Welcome to UW-Whitewater!

UW-Whitewater at Rock County Transfer and Re-entry students will meet individually with an advisor to determine placements. Contact the Warhawk Solution Center for more information.

Transfer Credits as Placement

• If you have direct equivalents for UW-Whitewater English, Math, or World Languages (French, German, Spanish) courses, then those credits will be used for placement. You can learn more about potential transfer credits at Transfer Wisconsin.

• If you do not have direct equivalents for UW-Whitewater courses in English and Math, you may still be able to receive course waivers along with your transfer credits that would satisfy the placement requirements. Please contact Annie LaValley, the Transfer Review Coordinator in the College of Letters and Sciences, if you have questions about Math and English coursework that are not direct equivalents.

UW System Placement Testing 

• If you do not have direct equivalents or course waivers for UW-Whitewater English and/or Math courses, you must take the UW System Placement Test for whichever equivalents you are missing.
• If you have taken French, German, or Spanish classes previously, but do not have recent transfer credits, and would like to place out of introductory language classes, then you will need to take the appropriate World Language placement exam.
  • Please contact  Pilar Melero, the World Languages Coordinator if you are:
    • A heritage speaker/speaker of Spanish: The World Language Coordinator will determine whether or not you should take the UW System Spanish Placement test.
    • Interested in taking Arabic, Chinese or Japanese and have prior experience with that language.
• UW Whitewater will accept online, unproctored versions of all tests.
• Please take the test(s)  at least 2 weeks before you attend a SOAR, so your scores can be processed and will be available for course registration during the event.

• If you previously completed any of the UW System placement exams, we will be able to access your scores. You can contact the Testing Center before your SOAR date to have your UW System Placement scores uploaded to WINS.

UW-Whitewater at Rock County students should contact the Warhawk Solution Center with any placement questions. 

First Time Taking a UW System Placement Test

• You are encouraged to take in-person, paper and pencil exams at the Testing Center for English and Math placement tests.

• Please schedule your exam by emailing testing@uww.edu. There will be a $30 fee for in-person, paper and pencil test proctoring and scoring.

• You will take an online, unproctored exam for the French, German, and Spanish placement tests.
• Register for UW System World Languages Placement Testing »
• • Please contact Pilar Melero, the World Languages Coordinator if you are:
    • A heritage speaker/speaker of Spanish: The World Language Coordinator will determine whether or not you should take the UW System Spanish Placement test.
    • Interested in taking Arabic, Chinese, or Japanese and have prior experience with that language.

Retaking the Math Placement Exam

• You may retake the Math placement exam one time.
• This must be a an in-person, paper and pencil exam taken at the Testing Center after the period of UW System Regional Testing (April through June) has concluded.

• Please schedule your exam by emailing testing@uww.edu. There will be a $30 fee for test proctoring and scoring.

• If you have more than one score that could be used for placement, the higher of the scores will determine your placement level.
• If you will use UW System Placement Exam scores for your placement, please read the charts starting from the left side.
• If you will use ACT or SAT scores for your placement, please read the charts starting from the right side.
• If your placement level indicates that you have more than one course option, you will have an opportunity to discuss the options with an advisor at a SOAR and/or before course registration.