Placement Tests

All placement tests are offered online.

You need a working internet connection to take the placement test.

Please choose one of the following placement test periods. You can take the placement test online at any time within your chosen placement test period.

Your registration is important so that we can send you the link to the test platform and inform you about your placement test result.

In order to register for the online placement test, please choose your desired placement test period from the chart above and fill in the online registration form.

In order to open the registration form you will have to login using your valid campusID. If you have not received your campusID yet, please wait until you have received the email with your personal account data. If have not yet received your campusID one week before the end of the last registration deadline, please contact us by e-mail. In this case we will send you a link so that you can register as a guest.

Registration closes automatically on the day before the start of the respective placement test period.

Upon successful registration, you will receive an email on the first day of your placement test period. This email contains the link to the test platform as well as further instructions.

The links are usually sent out in the afternoon (12.00 noon at the earliest). If you do not receive an email during the day, please contact us by email or phone.

Please read the instructions carefully before you start the placement test.

You need a working internet connection to take the placement test.

On Friday after the end of your placement test period, you will receive an email in which we let you know for which course(s) you have been placed. You can then register for these courses online during the registration period. As a general rule, we cannot certify placement test results.

If you have not received a result that day, please check whether our email has ended up in the spam folder of your email inbox. If this is not the case, please contact us by email or phone.

As a general rule, we cannot certify placement test results.

You do not have to take a placement test if you ...

• have done a placement test at the Language Learning Center in the preceding semester,
• have successfully completed a language course at the Language Learning Center within the past two years,
•  want to register for one of our courses A1.1 Chinese, A1 French, A1 German as a foreign language, A1.1 German Sign Language, A1 Italian, A1 Swedish or A1 Spanish and have no prior knowledge of these languages,
• can submit a certificate as proof that you have passed a language examination on a specified CEFR-level within the past two years. A scan of this certificate has to be sent to sprachlernzentrum@th-koeln.de before the date of the first placement test. Please note that school-leaving certificates / high school diplomas such as the German ‘Abitur’ or ‘Fachabitur’ cannot be accepted as certification of a language level.

Our placements tests for German as a Foreign Language, English, French, Italian and Spanish are computer based C-tests*. The maximum time for these tests is 25 minutes.

*C-Tests consist of a sequence of short texts in which gaps have to be filled by completing words.The answers have to be correct in terms of meaning, grammar and orthography.
C-Test format: Sample test for German as a Foreign Language, English, French, Italian and Spanish (campusID login)