Set Course Placement Scores

Each college or university should establish its own course placement scores to facilitate placement decisions based on factors and data unique to each school. ACCUPLACER doesn’t recommend course placement scores or in any way mandate the scores that any school or state system should use for college placement decisions.

There are several methods you can use to set placement scores. Here's an overview of two methods.

Method 1: Conduct a Standard Setting

This is the preferred score-setting method. Using this method, faculty define the proficiency level necessary for a student to succeed in the course and the placement score corresponding to that proficiency level.

One way to do this is the “bookmark” method, which is the College Board’s recommended approach. Here’s how the bookmark method works:

1. A panel of staff members—generally including faculty, administrators, testing staff, and institutional researchers—is selected and trained.
2. Panelists review a booklet of ACCUPLACER test items that are arranged in order from easiest to hardest.
3. The panelists place a bookmark after the most difficult item that represents the skills a student should have for success in each course in the sequence.
4. A facilitator gathers bookmark data from each panelist, then conducts a discussion to reach a consensus.

Method 2: Use the Skills Insight Statements

Another score-setting method is to use the Skills Insight statements available for each multiple-choice test. The skill/knowledge statements for each ACCUPLACER test are organized across seven performance score bands. The statements are cumulative, meaning that test takers scoring in a particular band for a given test are likely to know and be able to do everything described in their score band as well as in all lower score bands. 

Here’s How This Method Works: 

1. A panel of staff members—generally including faculty, administrators, testing staff, and institutional researchers—is selected and trained.
2. Panelists develop a list of prerequisite skills and abilities or performance level descriptors (PLDs) needed for success in each course.
3. Panelists then compare each PLD list with the Skills Insight statements available for that course to find the matching score band.
4. The lower number of that range is generally used as the initial placement score.

Accessing Skills Insight Statements:

ACCUPLACER Consolidated Skills Insight Statements and skills insight statements specific to each multiple-choice test are available within the Resources of accuplacer.org under Setting Course Placement Policies/Skills Insight Statements.

The ACCUPLACER Career and Workforce Skills Insight Statements provide an easy and intuitive way for career and workforce education and training providers to better understand performance on ACCUPLACER multiple choice tests.

See below for additional resources.