Placement and proficiency tests are available to currently admitted and enrolled students at the University of Washington, including non-matriculated students.
Placement Testing
If you are planning to take Japanese classes at UW, you will need to be placed into a class.
- If you don't know any Japanese, please enroll in JAPAN 101.
- If you have taken Japanese in high school, or if you are self-taught or a heritage speaker, please first take the Japanese Placement Test. (Be sure to use your UW email address when you register.) Second, fill out the Japanese Placement Survey Form.
- If you have taken college-level Japanese classes (including AP and IB courses) within the past year, please fill out the Japanese Placement Survey Form. You do not need to take a placement test.
If you would like to study to prepare for placement testing, or to brush up on your skills prior to starting Japanese class at UW, here are materials that might be helpful:
Proficiency Testing
If you would like to demonstrate proficiency in Japanese in order to satisfy a language requirement, you will need to take a proficiency test.
Unlike other language programs at the Department of Asian Languages & Literature, the Japanese Program uses the same Avant test for both placement and proficiency. Register for the Avant Japanese Placement Test using your UW email address. Further instructions on how to schedule your test and receive your results will be provided by Avant.
If you have any questions about your Avant test, please contact Avant Support.
Please review the Department of Asian Languages & Literature's proficiency test reporting and policies prior to registering for your test.
Language Assessment for Fellowships and Other Programs
If you need to prove your language abilities at the second-year level or higher (e.g., for students of JSIS or CISB), please contact our Japanese Language Coordinator, Prof. Akiko Iwata at iwata3@uw.edu.
FLAS language assessment requires a one-on-one evaluation with the instructor of the applicant's language class. Applicants should directly contact their instructor to arrange the assessment.
Other individual language assessments for students outside of our program (for example, for Fulbright programs) should be arranged with our Japanese Language Coordinator, Prof. Akiko Iwata at iwata3@uw.edu.