Updated on November 20, 2024.

We are pleased to offer Spanish language courses in-person only for the 2024-25 academic year.

If this is the first time that you are enrolling in a Spanish course at the University of Toronto: Welcome! We have made some changes in our language course sequence, so any student who begins Spanish studies in Fall 2024 onwards has to complete a mandatory placement test - even if they are true beginners in the language - to ensure that you are enrolling in the appropriate level course. If you fail to do so, you risk being removed from the course. Students on the waitlist should also complete the assessment to ensure they are on the waitlist for the correct course.

We have implemented this process to place each student in the course that we consider most appropriate. Please, keep in mind that it is the Department's decision to place students in language courses. Students who consider that they have been placed in the wrong course are welcome to reach out for a conversation with their course instructor and our Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies. If you are found to be enrolled in a different, lower-level course from the one assigned by our unit without this previous conversation, you will be immediately removed from it.

The goal of the placement test is to assess your knowledge accurately. If you claim to know less than you actually do, you are not only committing an academic integrity offense but also disrupting the learning environment for others who do want to improve their skills. Misrepresenting your Spanish language abilities is a serious academic offense. See the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters:

“The University and its members have a responsibility to ensure that a climate that might encourage, or conditions that might enable, cheating, misrepresentation or unfairness not be tolerated. To this end all must acknowledge that seeking credit or other advantages by fraud or misrepresentation, or seeking to disadvantage others by disruptive behaviour is unacceptable, as is any dishonesty or unfairness in dealing with the work or record of a student.”

If it is discovered that you understated your proficiency, you will be reported to the Academic Integrity office and immediately removed from the course.

Students who have previously completed the language placement test and those who have completed the prerequisite language course in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at St. George do not need to retake this test.

Instructions for placement test

Updated on December 18, 2024.

Our Spanish placement period for Winter 2025 is currently closed. It will reopen again from Monday, January 6, 2025 until Thursday, January 23, 2025.

Please note: we will not offer Spanish language courses in UTSG for Summer 2025. However, some students are eligible to join our Summer Abroad program in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, for advanced language courses.

Please note: If you completed the Spanish placement test before the beginning of Fall 2024 courses, and received an email from our team with a final placement, you do not need to take the test again. However, if you did not receive this email from our team, you will need to redo your placement.

The placement test involves the following steps:

• Fill out a background questionnaire (link will be published again on January 6, 2025) about your previous contact or knowledge of Spanish. You will need to login with your UTorID credentials to be able to complete this step.
• Depending on your results, you might be asked to take an online written test and / or have a remote oral interview. Interviews (if needed) will only run from January 6 to January 23, 2025. We will have a very limited number of appointments available. If you need to cancel your appointment, please do so in advance.
• Our placement team will assign you the correct course to enroll in, according to your previous knowledge. You are to enrol in the assigned course. If you do not follow the recommendation, you might be removed from the course you selected at any point in the semester.

If you have any questions about the placement process or your assigned course, please email professor Laura Colantoni - our Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies - at spanport.undergraduate@utoronto.ca