The College Board offers Accuplacer as a way to determine the skills of an incoming student. The test helps place students where they are most likely to thrive in their academic pursuits. It meets the assessment needs of community colleges, four-year colleges, technical schools, and high schools.

Accuplacer is a web-based assessment tool to determine skills in reading, writing, and math. It is untimed. Students can normally complete it in less than 90 minutes. All questions must be answered, and students cannot go back over a previous question once they answer it. Accuplacer test scores become available as soon as the student completes the exam.

Accuplacer may determine whether a student goes directly into a college-level course or a remedial class. Preparation for the exam can help assure proper placement of students.

The test can also establish a benchmark for a program, assess incoming high school students, and determine the needs of displaced workers. It can also play a role in an orientation program serving geographically-separated students.

The test is adaptive, which means that the difficulty of the test will tend to increase, depending on the student’s success in earlier portions of Accuplacer.

In the test of reading comprehension, the student answers multiple-choice questions about the meaning of a particular paragraph. It simply tests the ability to understand material as it is already written.

In testing grammar skills, the student looks at multiple-choice items and chooses the sentence that has the best grammar. The first of the four choices repeats the words originally offered, and the three remaining choices offer alternative structures.

The Accuplacer math section tests high school arithmetic and algebra and college-level math. The test may also include a direct writing assessment. The student provides a writing sample, and Accuplacer scores it using computer technology. The essays are checked for focus, organization, development and support, sentence structure, and mechanical convention. Schools have the option of placing a time limit on the essay exam.

Accuplacer can also test ESL (English as a Second Language) skills. The test includes sentence meaning, language use, reading skills, and listening skills. It also includes an ESL version of the direct writing assessment.

In addition to these academic skills, Accuplacer can assess computer skills. It tests for such computer basics as file management, word processing, and information technology. This assessment can determine whether a student has the computer skills that an institution or specific program requires.