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Placement Process

The South Dakota Board of Regents established a standardized placement process to ensure that entering students are placed into the English course most appropriate for their ability and background. 

English placement is first determined using the ACT English or the 11th grade English Language Arts/Literacy Smarter Balanced scores that are no more than 5 years old. If you do not have current ACT or Smarter Balanced scores, your placement is in pregeneral education courses. The pregeneral education English courses are at the self-support tuition rate and do not meet SGR Goal No. 1 (written communication) requirements.

Furthermore, the Board of Regents requires that students who do not meet the college readiness benchmark score of 18 on the ACT English subtest or 2583 or greater on the Smarter Balance exam to take pregeneral education courses in English to be adequately prepared for English 101.  

Placement in pregeneral education courses may be challenged by taking the ACCUPLACER Next GEN examination. There is a $23.50 charge ($20.00 SDSU fee plus $3.50 RegisterBlast fee) to register for the challenge exam. Study resources (writing sample questions) are available on the website.

Students interested in obtaining prior learning credit for English 101 may consider the College-Level Examination Program College Composition Modular Exam. Click here for more information on CLEP.

English Placement for International Students

International non-native English-speaking undergraduate students entering SDSU have the opportunity to take the ACCUPLACER Exam for placement into the appropriate English writing courses designed for the non-native English speaker, emphasizing skills needed for success in ENGL 101.