We want you to be successful in your college courses so your college placement test is an important first step. The course placement tests will assess your current skill levels in reading, writing, and math (or English language proficiency if you are an ESL student). Your placement test scores will determine which courses you may enroll in at EPCC.
If you are a new student, you must complete placement testing before attending a New Student Orientation. If you are a returning or transfer student, check with your counselor or advisor about whether or not you need to take (or retake) one or more parts of the placement test.
Before you take the placement test, take time to refresh your reading, writing, and math skills so that you can do your very best on your test. You'll find lots of helpful information about the placement test on our website and through other EPCC resources available to help you make the most of your college studies.
Pre-Assessment Activity Module (PAAM)
At the Log in page, enter your EPCC ID number and your password. First time users enter your Birth date in MMDDYY format as your password. Your password might be different if you have changed it previously.
Pre-Assessment Activity Module (PAAM) Texas Success Initiative (TSI) Assessment
What is the TSI?
The Texas State Legislature mandates that institutions assess all entering undergraduate students for readiness to enroll into college-level course work in the academic areas of mathematics, writing, and reading and to provide individualized developmental education programs to those students not demonstrating this readiness. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) requires the reporting of developmental progression and outcomes for all students engaged in developmental education. Students will complete the TSI when they have passed the reading, writing and math sections of TSI Assessment, or when they have received a passing grade in the last level of developmental education or a college level course in reading, writing, and math. Students that are not TSI complete must take the developmental course prior to taking a college level course.
If I am Exempt from TSI, Do I Still Take the Academic Placement Tests?
All students must meet the College’s course prerequisites. Prior to the first enrollment, every student must either take a placement test or have transcripts evaluated for the appropriate placement into courses. Students may be exempt from TSI by taking the ACT, SAT, TAAS, or the STAAR (EOC).
What If I Don’t Place into College-Level Courses When I Take the Placement Test?
All students must meet EPCC’s academic prerequisites through placement testing and/or previous college level course completion at other institutions. If you do not test into college-level course work and have not completed development course work at a previous institution, developmental education courses will be made available to assist you in meeting institutional academic prerequisites. You must receive academic advising prior to registration until you have successfully completed the developmental education program or have re-tested out of developmental education. You may retake the placement test to try to place into college-level course work or higher into the developmental education sequence. NOTE: If English is your second language, and you need to improve reading, writing, or speaking in English, please take the Accuplacer ESL test before taking the TSI. At the top level of the ESL levels, you can start taking credit academic courses without taking remedial courses.
How can I prepare or retest for the TSI?
New students are strongly encouraged to participate in academic test preparation to assure best results on the TSI. Or, if you are not satisfied with you TSI results, you may request a retest to opt-out of developmental education and into college-level course work, or to place into a more advanced level allowing for earlier satisfaction of academic prerequisites. EPCC campuses are here to help students improve their college placement test scores with the PREP Program. PREP offers computer assisted tutorials in math, reading, and writing. Help is also available in the form of a 2 to 3 day TSI Boot Camp. You’ll review and then retest. For more information, contact the PREP Program at your nearest campus.
Test Exemptions
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Spanish Placement
The Spanish Placement test is a computer-based test available at all campuses and has a fee of $10.00. This same placement test will also be available at the high schools partnered with EPCC through the ACCUPLACER platform. Each section has 25 questions and a 20 minute time limit (80 minutes max test time). Students may not have to take all four sections, depending on their skill level. Students must wait three months before retesting. It is recommended that if you do not take the recommended course within one year of testing, you should retest and scores are not transferrable.
Section |
Answers Correct |
Placement |
1 | 0-19
| SPAN 1411 |
1 | 20+ | Place into Section 2 |
2 | 0-19 | SPAN 1412 |
2 | 20+ | Place into Section 3 |
3 | 0-19 | SPAN 2311 |
3 | 20+ | SPAN 2312* & Place into Section 4 |
4 | 0-19 | SPAN 2313 |
4 | 20+ | SPAN 2315 |
*Non‐native speakers who place into SPAN 2313 or SPAN 2315 can register into SPAN 2312 as an option
Accuplacer ESL
The Accuplacer ESL exam assesses students who speak English as a second language in order to prepare them for a successful academic experience. The exam is a multiple-choice format (except for WritePlacer, the written essay assessment).
There's no time limit. The test is adaptive. Questions are presented based on individual's skill level. The response to each question drives the difficulty level of the next question. This means that the questions are chosen for you on the basis of your answers to previous questions. This technique selects just the right questions for your ability level. Because the test works this way, you must answer every question when it is first given.
You can change your answer to a particular question before moving on to the next question, but you cannot leave a question out or come back to it later to change your answer. If you do not know the answer to a question, try to eliminate one or more of the choices. Then pick from the remaining choices.
Accuplacer ESL Cut Scores and Placement
|
Accuplacer ESL Writeplacer Score |
Grammar Score |
Reading Skills Score |
ESL Bridge or Pre-Bridge | 1 to 2 | Less than 35 | 35 to 56 |
Placement into ESOL Bridge or Pre-Bridge will be determined by the Center for College Access and Development.
Accuplacer Listening Score |
ESOL 0325 | 35 to 59 |
ESOL 0326 | 60 to 74 |
ESOL 0327 | 75 to 120 |
Accuplacer ESL Reading Skills Score |
ESOL 0344 | 57 to 81 |
ESOL 0345 | 82 to 101 |
|
Accuplacer ESL Writeplacer Score |
Accuplacer ESL Language Usage Score |
ESOL 0354 | 3 | Less than 75 |
| 2 | 35 to 74 |
ESOL 0355 | 4 | No score required |
| 3 | 75 or higher |
Documents
 | Assessment Testing Referral Form |  | Authorization to Retrieve Scores Cross Institutional |  | Distance Testing Process |
|
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