Japanese Placement, Graduation Requirements, and Language Assessment | Asian Languages & Literature

Placement

If you don’t know what Japanese class you should take, you need to be placed into a class. You only need to be placed if you are planning to take Japanese classes at UW.

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, 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), fill out the Japanese Placement Survey Form. You do not need to take any test.

If you would like to study to prepare for placement testing, or to brush up your skills prior to starting Japanese class at UW, here are materials that might be helpful:

First-year Japanese Review: https://canvas.uw.edu/enroll/A9MKAP

Second-year Japanese Review: https://canvas.uw.edu/enroll/PYL7WA

Graduation Requirement

The College of Arts & Sciences has a one-year foreign language requirement. You can meet this requirement by taking and passing Japan 103 at UW, by passing a similar course at another college, or by taking the Japanese Placement Test and getting a score that shows ability at or above the 103 level. If you wish to take the Japanese Placement Test, sign up for it here (and be sure to use your UW email address when you register for the test).

Once you have registered and paid for Japanese Placement Test, the vendor, AVANT, will send you further instructions regarding proctoring and you can schedule the test. If you have any questions, please ask Avant Assessment Support at support@avantassessment.com.

Please see here for IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT TESTING DEADLINES AND POLICIES.

If you need to prove your language abilities at the 2nd year or higher level (e.g. for students of JSIS or CISB), please contact our Japanese language coordinator, Akiko Iwata at iwata3@uw.edu.

Language Assessment (for fellowships and other programs)

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 our program (for example, for Fulbright programs) should be arranged with our Japanese language coordinator, Akiko Iwata at iwata3@uw.edu.