Prepare for the ACCUPLACER Test: The Ultimate Guide (2023)
Are you applying for college or university and need to take the ACCUPLACER test as part of your registration process? If so, this ACCUPLACER study guide will answer your questions, and show you how best to prepare for your exam.
What is the ACCUPLACER test?
The ACCUPLACER Test, distributed by the College Board, is an exam used for college placement. More than 1,500 institutions employ this exam as a component of their process of enrollment. The exam aims to measure the strengths and weaknesses of a prospective student, in certain subject areas. Technical schools and colleges use the ACCUPLACER exam results to assign you to courses they deem appropriate. They will also take your aims and academic background into consideration.
The questions on the ACCUPLACER exam are multiple-choice. The exception is the WritePlacer section which involves an essay question. The ACCUPLACER test is computer-adaptive. This means, the complexity of the questions varies in response to your answers and thus your level of skill. If you get a lot of questions right, you will be presented with harder questions.
The following sub-tests make up the ACCUPLACER test:
- Writing (25 questions)
- Reading (20 questions)
- Arithmetic (20 questions)
- WritePlacer (1 written essay question)
- Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, & Statistics (20 questions)
- Advanced Algebra & Functions (20 questions)
There are no time limits for any of these subtests.
FREE ACCUPLACER Tests
Prepterminal has prepared a short practice test, so you can get a taste of what is going to be on the real exam.
Math Test
Reading Test
Writing Test
The ACCUPLACER Test Registration Process
ACCUPLACER tests are administered by colleges, universities, and high schools.
High School ACCUPLACER Registration
High schools that employ the ACCUPLACER exam, make time for students to complete their tests. The ACCUPLACER test may be given to students after they get their standardized marks on their SAT or ACT.
University or College ACCUPLACER Registration
There are several ways a student can organize to take the ACCUPLACER tests at a university or a college. The particular way of registering will vary according to the school where the prospective student plans to complete the exam.
- Walk-in registration: Some universities and colleges let students take their ACCUPLACER tests during scheduled testing times. These times may be posted on the website of the postsecondary institution. Students must turn up to the test during the open testing hours and must make sure they set aside enough time to complete the test.
- Online registration: Some universities and colleges employ online registration methods to schedule the ACCUPLACER exam. In these cases, registration forms will be available via their websites. Students can schedule a time and date for a certain ACCUPLACER test.
- Email or phone registration: In some cases, a university or a college will not have the exam registration form or drop-in test times published on its website. In such cases, you will need to contact the school and arrange a time to complete the exam. Often the best way to do this is via phone or email.
The 5 Sections of the ACCUPLACER Test
1. Reading Test
- Vocabulary
- Synthesis
- Information and Ideas
- Rhetoric
2. Writing Test
The writing test assesses a student’s capacity to edit and revise a multi-paragraph section of text. The questions on this test address two general areas of knowledge and skill. Each of these skill areas contains 3 subtopics:
- The ‘expression of ideas’ area – includes organization, development, and effective language employment.
- The ‘standard English conventions’ area – includes sentence usage, structure, and punctuation.
3. Math Tests
The Arithmetic exam includes the order of operations, computations, estimation, and rounding, identifying equivalent values across formats, and comparing and ordering values in various formats. The exam measures the following skill and knowledge areas:
- Number Comparisons and Equivalents
- Decimal Operations
- Percent
- Whole Number Operations
- Fraction Operations
4. The Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics (QAS) Test
The QAS measures the following skills and knowledge areas:
- Linear Equations
- Linear Applications and Graphs
- Probability Sets
- Rational numbers
- Descriptive Statistics
- Geometry Concepts
- Ratio and Proportional Relationships
- Exponents
- Algebraic Expressions
5. The Advanced Algebra and Functions (AAF) Test
The AAF exam measures the following areas of skill and knowledge:
- Polynomial Equations
- Functions
- Linear Equations
- Linear Applications and Graphs
- Factoring
- Quadratics
- Exponential and Logarithmic Equations
- Trigonometry
- Radical and Rational Equations
6. WritePlacer Essay
As well as the multiple-choice question-based tests, ACCUPLACER has a WritePlacer test. Universities may use your WritePlacer and WritePlacer ESL scores together with your other ACCUPLACER exam scores to place you into developmental, college-level, and/or English as a second language subject courses. In the WritePlacer test, you will need to write an essay in response to one of the several prompts provided by the ACCUPLACER system. You will then need to enter your essay into an onscreen text box and submit it, to receive a score.
ACCUPLACER Scoring
Why You Need to Practice for the ACCUPLACER Test
The aim of the ACCUPLACER Placement test is to measure your understanding of the English and math ideas you learned in high school. Your ACCUPLACER Placement test score result will determine which courses you will need to take at college or university. If you don’t achieve a good score on your Acculplacer test, you may end up in a remedial English or math class. This may mean that you will need to go over the material you learned in high school.
We, at Prepterminal, have created several practice tests to help you score high on your ACCUPLACER test. Check out our reading and writing quizzes to test your current level. We have also developed a math quiz that covers algebra and arithmetic
Prepterminal’s ACCUPLACER Prep Course
