Japanese Studies Program

Language Exams

Are you interested in taking a Japanese language course? If you are taking Japanese course for your college or department requirements, please consult with your college or department advisor first.

If you have never had any exposure to the language, JAPN 10A is the right class for you. If you have, please check this chart to find out what you need to do to be placed in an appropriate course. If you have been exposed to Japanese, you need to take a language exam. There are two types of language exams available; Japanese Placement Exam and Japanese Proficiency Exam.

Japanese Placement Exam (SPOT)

The Japanese Placement Exam or the Simple Proficiency-Oriented Test (SPOT) is for students who have had previous study or exposure to the language. The exam will help you determine the course level in which to enroll.

The exam consists of two parts: 1) the listening exam and 2) interview with lecturers after the exam

Listening Exam:

The listening exam is 15 minutes long.

The format of the listening exam is to listen to an exam CD and fill in the corresponding blanks () with a hiragana symbol. There are 10 practice questions followed by 120 exam questions.

Example:spot sample

Interview:

Grading of the exam may take three days. After the exam is graded, students are notified of a lecturer to contact for an interview. Please make an appointment and take an interview.

Dates and Time

To schedule a placement exam, please contact the Japanese Studies Program at (858) 534-3598 or via email.

Location:

Please come to HSS 3024 first after which students will be taken to a conference room for exam administration.

What to bring:

Please bring a pen or pencil.

Japanese Proficiency Exam

UCSD Students may wish to have it certified that they have attained a level of conversational and reading proficiency to satisfy their language requirements. Revelle and Eleanor Roosevelt Colleges require such certification for the baccalaureate degree and some UCSD departments have an undergraduate language requirement as part of their major program. We offer a proficiency exam for Japanese.

PROFICIENCY EXAM PROCEDURES

Please follow these procedures.

  1. Contact the approved proficiency exam administrator and make an appointment for the test.

    You must make arrangements to give the tester the “Proficiency Guidelines” and “Proficiency Test Form” before the test date. After the test, the test administrator fills out the form and either certifies that you have passed proficiency or indicates that you are not proficient.

  2. Bring the completed form to the Linguistics Language Program Office, APM 3016. You must return this form to the Language Program whether or not you passed the test.
  3. The Language Program office will contact the test administrator to verify that the test has been given and that the results indicated are correct. If you have passed the test, the Language Program office will notify your college or major department of the results and will also inform the Registrar so the result can be posted to your transcript.