registering for the placement exam:

Any student who wishes to take a placement exam, should register ahead of time. The form for registering is available on our website here. Registering ahead of time allows us to adequately prepare the number of exams needed and will also give us a way to contact you should an exam need to be changed due to weather or another unforeseen circumstance.

Who should take a placement exam:

Students are not required to have had previous training in Greek or Hebrew to begin the MDiv or MAR program at Westminster, and those who have studied some Greek or Hebrew are not required to take the placement exam. However, there is no penalty for doing poorly, and taking the exam can work only to the student's advantage. Matriculating students who wish to try to place out of some or all of either or both languages must take the placement exam in the language(s) in question. The exam will determine which class(es) they must take to fulfill the language requirement or if they are exempt from the requirement altogether. (See the Seminary's language requirement and language class tracks). Note that each placement exam (Greek and Hebrew) may only be taken once.

When to take a placement exam: 

Exams are administered four times a year. For specific dates, see the Academic Calendar. Placement exams are offered only on those dates. Students are advised to take the test before initail matriculation in order to prevent complications in registreing for courses that require language prerequisites. Under certain circumstances, permission to take exams at another time can be obtained by special arrangement. Please send an email to the language examiners at academicaffa...@wts.edu.

Note that, based on the sequence of courses with prerequisites, students who do not anticipate being able to place out of some Greek or Hebrew and who hope to complete an MDiv degree in three years or an MAR degree in two years are strongly advised to start either Greek or Hebrew during the summer term before their fall matriculation in order to make it possible to complete the sequence of courses within the planned time frame. In planning their programs, students are further strongly advised against planning to take both intensive Greek and intensive Hebrew during the same January term.

How often a student may take a placement exam:

Placement exams may be taken only once! Register now!

Inclement weather:

Be sure to check our homepage, www.wts.edu, on the day of the exam for any updates about school closings or delays due to inclement weather.

Greek Placement Exam

Who should take this exam:

1. Any matriculating MDiv or MAR student who wishes to place in Greek instruction beyond one of the two elementary tracks (Greek "a" or "aa").
2. All ThM (NT emphasis) and all PhD (Hermeneutics) students are required to take the exam.
3. Additionally, MDiv or MAR students who would like to test out of the first semester of the Greek a track ("summer Greek") may also take this exam.

What is covered on the exam?
The exam is designed to judge the student’s aptitude in Greek in relation to the Greek curriculum of Westminster Theological Seminary. The textbook used at Westminster is J. Gresham Machen’s New Testament Greek for Beginners (revised by Dan G. McCartney). Therefore, the placement exam corresponds to this particular textbook. The exam basically covers three areas, though any part of Greek grammar may also be included.

1. Vocabulary: students are primarily responsible for the vocabulary covered in Machen's grammar, though other NT words may be included.
2. Paradigms: students may be asked to reproduce (in Greek) paradigms covered in Machen's grammar (verbs, participles, nouns, etc.)
3. Translation: the exam will have various Greek sentences that you will be asked to translate and parse verbal forms. No lexical or grammatical helps will be allowed.

Exam results for MDiv and MAR students: MDiv and MAR students who take the regular placement exam will be placed in one of five categories:

1. No further Greek instruction required: the student's knowledge of NT Greek is found to be adequate.
2. Greek "c" (rapid review) track: Student shows a basic grasp of NT Greek grammar, has a basic vocabulary, and is able to translate simple sentences, but needs practice in reading the NT and dealing with complex grammar.
3. Greek "b" (review) track: Student has a rudimentary but defective grasp of basic grammar and vocabulary. (Greek "b" track reviews all of basic grammar, builds vocabulary, practices reading the NT, and learns some advanced grammar concepts.)
4. Second semester of Greek "a" (NT 012a): If a student desires to test out only of NT 011a, then he/she may be eligible to take the second semester of Greek "a" beginning in the fall semester.
   
5. Greek "a" or "aa" (elementary) track: Student shows only minimal remembrance of syntax or vocabulary.

PhD (Hermeneutics) and ThM (NT emphasis) students must pass the placement exam in order to commence their program of study.

Hebrew Placement Exam

Who should take this exam: Students who have already attained some knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and who wish to try to place otu of some or all of the required Hebrew courses.

All ThM (OT emphasis) and all PhD (Hermeneutics) students are required to take the exam.

What the exam covers:
The Hebrew placement exam will test skills and concepts covered in all three of the semesters of Hebrew taught at Westminster. If a student wishes to try to test only out of Hebrew 1, he or she may take a special version of the placement exam for that purpose. The examination in either case, will last two hours.

1. Basic (Hebrew 1) Knowledge: The exam will require both reproduction of memorized material and application of grammatical and syntactical matters including any of the following: the alphabet; identifying sewas and dageshim; characteristics of gutturals; the noun in absolute and construct, masculine and feminine, singular, dual, and plural; prepositions; the names and functions of the major Masoretic accents; the independent
   personal and demonstrative pronouns; the pronominal suffixes on both nouns and verbs; the complete strong verb (i.e., the perfect, imperfect, imperatives, participles, and infinitives of all stems) and translation of sentences containing any of the preceding elements. [Note: the exam for placing out of Hebrew 1 only will not test material beyond this point.]
2. Intermediate (Hebrew 2) Knowledge: parsing/recognition and explanation of the inflectional patterns of any/all of the various types of "weak" verbs; types and functions of waws; and issues of basic syntax above and below the clause level. Translation of narrative and direct discourse.
3. Further (Hebrew 3) Knowledge: translation of challenging narrative and non-narrative Biblical texts.
   
   Please note the following:
   
   Paradigms: Students may be asked not only to recognize, but to reproduce paradigms in Hebrew of items in the lists above.
   
   Parsing: Students will be asked to parse some verbs in isolation and some in the context of the short passages they will translate. (Parsing will include both strong and weak verbs, and at points may ask for explanations of the inflectional patterns of particular weak verbs in comparison with strong verbs.)
   
   Translation: On the last passage of the exam, MDiv and MAR students will be allowed to use a standard, non-analytical lexicon. The rest of the translations must be done without any lexical helps, and Th.M. and Ph.D. students may not use a lexicon on any part of the exam.

Students preparing for the examination are encouraged to review an introductory Hebrew grammar and to have a knowledge of the high frequency vocabulary, i.e., any noun, verb or other particle occurring over 50 times.

Exam results: Based on the results of the exam, a student will be placed into Hebrew 1, 2, 3, or exempted from Hebrew coursework altogether. To be exempted from a class, a student must demonstrate complete mastery of that course’s content. For planning purposes, students should know that exemption from all three semesters is very rare.

PhD (Hermeneutics) and ThM (OT emphasis) students must pass the placement exam in order to commence their programs of study.

Greek and Hebrew Language Course Tracks:

Available Greek Tracks

Available Hebrew tracks