The EAP Program consists of college credit courses that meet the needs of students who are interested in improving their speaking and writing skills in English before pursuing a college degree.

Non-native speakers who graduated from a foreign (non-English speaking) high school or those who have been instructed in English for less than eight years in core classes will take this exam to determine placement into the EAP program. Scores for this exam are valid for two years. Students who place into at least two areas on the Accuplacer-ESL are no longer eligible to take ESOL classes.

Your application to the College covers the fee for the first sitting. Effective June 1, 2014, any attempt after the first sitting will cost $32 regardless of the number of subtests. The Accuplacer-ESL placement test can be administered to non-students for a $65 sitting fee.

Accuplacer-ESL Placement Levels

ESL Listening

The ESL Listening test consists of 20 questions and measures the ability of nonnative speakers of English to listen to and understand one or more people speaking in English. There are two content areas assessed:

• Literal Comprehension
  • Identify the main idea or main subject of a passage
  • Identify factual details and information
  • Understand instructions

• Implied Meaning
  • Understand the relationship between ideas (e.g., sequence of events, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, problem and solution)
  • Make inferences
  • Make predictions
  • Identify the speaker’s purpose, tone or point of view.

ESL Reading

Practice Test: - Practice Sample Questions 

The ESL Reading Skills test consists of 20 questions and assesses students’ comprehension of short passages. The test contains brief passages of 50 words or less and moderate-length passages of 50 to 90 words. There are two content areas:

• Literal Comprehension
• Inference

ESL Language Use

Practice Test:  - Practice Sample Questions 

The ESL Language Use test consists of 20 questions and measures students’ proficiency in using correct grammar in English sentences. There are five content areas that are assessed:

• Nouns, Pronouns and Pronoun Case Structure
• Sentence Structure
• Subject-Verb Agreement
• Adverbs, Adjectives and Verbs
• Subordination and Coordination

ESL Essay

The ESL Essay is designed to determine a student’s writing skills. Assessment will evaluate a student’s ability to write an essay using correct grammatical form, mechanics and punctuation.