Mathematics Placement

Before You Begin

You will need your official W&J student username and password to login to the Math Placements.  Don’t have your username and password?  Please check your personal email address for a message from your admission counselor with instructions on how to set up your account, or contact the Office of Admission at 724-223-6025.

About

Our mathematics placement assessment, developed by the Mathematics Department, consists of 30 multiple-choice questions.  The Mathematics Department has correlated the scores on this assessment with student success in our various introductory courses.  Topics covered include simplifying algebraic expressions, solving equations and inequalities, and working with functions including trigonometric and exponential functions.

You cannot “flunk” the mathematics placement assessment.  The Department uses your score to assess how your high school background has prepared you for success in classes many incoming students take early in their college careers, based on your own command of certain mathematical skills and our expectations of our students in those classes.

We use this placement tool to assess your preparation for a number of our introductory courses, so there is no calculus on this test.  PLEASE NOTE: You will have one hour to complete the test; the time will be kept by the online system used to administer it.  No calculator is allowed.  If you use a calculator or other resource to assist you on the test, you risk inflating your true score and thereby may place yourself into a course for which you are unprepared.

Good Resources for Brushing Up

A frequent comment from students when they take our mathematics placement assessment is that they don’t do as well as they’d like because they spent their senior years taking calculus, and there seems to be no calculus questions on the test.  There is no calculus on the test because we are assessing essential skills for success in calculus as well as in our other courses.  If you have done well in calculus in high school, then you should know how to solve equations, work with trig functions, simplify radicals, etc.

More frequently, students don’t do as well as they’d like on our mathematics placement assessment because they may be a little rusty.  It is in your best interest to review before you take the test.  Here are some resources:

• Your high school class notes and exams
• Paul’s Online Math Notes (http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu), particularly the “Extras/Reviews” section on Algebra and Trigonometry
• Tutorials available through the Khan Academy website (khanacademy.org)
• Schaum’s Outline of Precalculus, 3rd edition, by Fred Safier.  Available through various merchants for about $20 (new)

There is a short sample exam available to help you get used to the computer system you’ll take the test in.

Math Placement Assessment Instructions

Log into W&J Sakai to access the mathematics placement assessment (you will enter your username and password at the top of the page).  Follow these steps:

1. Click on the "Math Placement" tab on the top of your Sakai page
2. Click the "Tests & Quizzes" tab on the left side of the screen.  You’ll see both the sample exam and the actual exam there.
3. After you have worked through the sample problems (highly recommended) and you are ready to take the actual mathematics placement assessment, click the link for "Math Placement Exam" under the title "Take an Assessment"
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to take and submit the math placement

Upon completion of this assessment, a score will be generated that will determine your math placement.  It will be verified by the Mathematics Department prior to when your course schedule is generated.  Keep an eye on your W&J email in the coming weeks for more information regarding your course selection process.

Click on "Math Placement" below to access the placement.

Math Placement