English Placement Examination for
Entering Stanford Graduate Students

The Stanford English Placement exam is given to entering graduate students who have been required to take it by the Graduate Admissions Office. The exam is designed to assess readiness to begin graduate study using English as the medium of instruction.  Most international graduate students admitted to Stanford have read academic material in English for a number of years and have mastered English grammar. Therefore, the focus of the exam is on listening, speaking, and writing.

• Written Composition
  This is a 60-minute exam in which you will read a short passage and write an essay based on it. Write in an academic style. You may not use a dictionary or other aids. The topic will be suitable for students from any country and field of study.
• Listening Comprehension
  This is a 30-minute, 50 item exam in which you will listen to a brief statement, look at three drawings, and decide which drawing fits the statement. This part tests your ability to comprehend an utterance of rapidly spoken English and make a judgment based on that understanding.
  
• Oral Interview
  This is a 30-40 minute interview with an EFS lecturer, typically scheduled a day or two after the other exams. It is used to assess your conversational English proficiency and to give you the results of the other parts of the exam.

There are no preparation guides for this examination. We advise you to practice listening and writing as much as you can in the weeks before the exam.

At the end of the exam, you will be given a form listing any required or recommended courses. Required courses must be completed before graduation will be allowed. Please contact the EFS staff for further information.

Note that this is different from the Teaching Assistant screening exam. For information on that, click here.
 

Updated November 19, 2007