Spanish Placement Exam help...

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
1

<p>So I was taking the Spanish placement exam, doing the recommended time for everything, came to the listening section with about 30 minutes left (25 or so is recommended). After the first question (which took ~1 minute to load…) I was confused. 40 questions, recommended high speed internet (I have it), recommended good computer (I have it), recommended 20 minutes (I had 30…) and this simple, 10 second, no video simply audio quicktime file took 1 minute to load? SO I because cautious, and after the next 2 questions (1:30 minute and 1 minute a piece…) I was like okay this isn’t working out. I’ll run out of time WELL before the thing is over, and I don’t have a better computer to use (I honestly don’t foresee any computer running any better…).</p>

<p>So on the thing it says if there are any unforeseen errors, exit out and log back in on a different computer and you will still have time. Having ~23 minutes left, I log off, run over to my moms house (10 minutes away), try to log on and it says “Thanks for taking your Spanish Placement Exam! Your results will arrive Monday August 24th blah blah”. So… What the heck?</p>

<p>I know I did VERY well on the first 150 or whatever questions prior to the reading. I also know I got the first 3 listening right. But I mean, what am I supposed to do now? I get gyped out of skipping Spanish because Harvard’s site was downloading slow?</p>

<p>I emailed them… But I doubt anything hopeful will happen.</p>

<p>This happen to anybody else?</p>

2

<p>I would guess that they’ll have pen/paper exams you can take during freshman week. </p>

<p>Sounds a bit ridiculous - as you’ll find out, Harvard IT can be rather frustrating at times.</p>

3

<p>yea i kept getting mad when each of my questions was taking 30 seconds to load. Luckily i had like an hour left to complete the listening so i was able to finish on time</p>

4

<p>The same thing happened to me! Well, just that I ran out of time with 45 mins left when I reached the listening part, not the part about switching computers.</p>

<p>I wrote them and they wrote back about two days later - they reset my test with 30min extra, so I just hurried through the stuff beforehand and JUST finished (stupid soundfile downloads :/). But I don’t think it matters so much - it’s only for a recommendation, after all.</p>