English Placement For New or Returning Student 

Standardized test scores, ACT and the NEW SAT, can be used for placement into reading, English, and math as long as they have been submitted to the Admissions Office.

If you scored a 19 or higher on the ACT English Section, 480 on the NEW SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing , or 570 on the OLD SAT Writing test and your score is less than 3 years old, you do not need to take the English Placement test. 

In addition to SAT/ACT if your high school 7th or 8th semester GPA is a 3.0 or higher on an unweighted 4.0 scale, you will be placed into ENG 101. In order to provide placement your high school transcript must be submitted and processed by the Parkland College Admissions office. 

Please note that beginning June 1, The Parkland English assessment will be a College Board Accuplacer multiple choice writing exam which will be proctored through ZOOM. Students must have created their ParklandOne student username and password so they can log into COBRA to get the directions and Link for the test. If you need an English placement please make an online appointment with the Parkland College Assessment Center. For more information, please see Test Scheduling

Writing Sample (essay):

Students eligible to take the writing sample can make an appointment through the Assessment Center to complete the essay to try and place into English 101. The writing sample is a 60 minute, computer baseed essay, pencil and paper essay must be requested. When writing the essay, one of two given topics will be chosen to write about. These topics are general information/personal opinion topics that do not require specific content information or prior knowledge. The evaluators are more interested in how you state your ideas rather than what those ideas are.

Composition faculty will evaluate your essay to determine if you have the skills necessary for a college-level composition course. They look at the essay's organization and development of ideas as well as how clearly you express your thoughts and how well you use grammar and punctuation. Because the time to write your essay is limited, they suggest that you make your main point clear in the first paragraph and then use subsequent paragraphs to provide supporting details and discussion.

The Center for Academic Success might have test preparation resources. Visit D120 or call 217/351-2441 for more information.

Retesting Policy:

You must wait 48 hours between placement assessments. You can reassess once in a 3 year period.

English Placement scores are valid used for a minimum of 3 academic years.