Placement FAQs
Placement fees are assigned to student accounts in the Fall term after all New Coug Orientation sessions have ended, or in the semester you took the placement. The fee is $40 and is non-refundable once you have taken the exam and it has been evaluated. Fees are assigned to student accounts after the Writing Program evaluates and posts results in My.Wsu.
The Writing Program uses a coded system when importing results into My.WSU; submissions are not “scored,” but rather are assigned a certain course or course combination, which is represented by that code. You should either reach out to us directly or contact your Advisor to learn your placement result.
If you find that you accidentally submitted the wrong document or inaccurate information, you can resubmit your placement in the same link as long if the link is still available, or you can submit in a different link. Either way, please send writing.program@wsu.edu a brief email with that information. If you submit your placement in the same link as your accidental submission, you will need to clear your web browser’s history, cookies, and cache because Qualtrics will see that you already submitted.
Due to FERPA, we are not allowed to release the information about the Writing Placement Assessment to a parent or guardian. In order to receive placement information, students must contact us with their student ID# and from their WSU email.
Within the submission site, you must upload your written essay in either a PDF or DOC/DOCX file format, as all other formats are unrecognizable by our readers. Consequently, if you do not submit your placement in either a PDF or DOCX format, your submission will not be evaluated.
The prompts used in the placement assessment are created by members of the English department and are curated so that you read and respond to a text of comparable sophistication to what you might engage with in a 100-level writing course. You are not invited to submit an essay you wrote for another class or purpose; the prompt is designed to mimic tasks you might do in a first-year writing course, so it is important that you respond to the prompt.
If you are dissatisfied with your initial placement results, you are allowed to take the placement exam a second time. Please know that the placement result from your 2nd attempt is the final score and it will determine the course you are required to take. You will be billed for a 2nd placement exam if you decide to retake it.
If you have transfer credit from a previous college/university, the credits being transferred must be equivalent to WSU’s English 101 in order for you to be exempt from the Writing Placement process. Visit WSU’s Transfer Center.