A student interested in testing into the second level of Italian, must make arrangements to take the placement exam in the Spring of their eighth grade year. The test is offered every May and covers the major grammatical and vocabulary points taught in our level one course. The Italian Placement Exam consists of two parts: a 100 point objective exam and an oral interview.

The Objective Part of the exam consists of the following parts:
1. Listening comprehension
2. Gender and number of nouns, articles. adjectives
3. Uses of essere and stare,. avere, fore, dare. dovere. potere, sapere, volere
4. Verb forms in the present tense, present perfect, familiar commands
5. Adjectives
6. Subject and direct object pronouns
7. Interrogative words
8. Prepositions of position, possession. in versus a
9. Directions
10. Vocabulary use in context
11. Telling time, describing weather, seasons, months
12. Describing foods, meals, house, school subjects, shopping

The oral interview will consis of 10 questions asking about general infonnation based on the items listed In the Objective Test.

To prepare for the Objective Exam, students should have mastered:

A. Verb forms: the forms and uses of the verbs listed above;

• the present tense of the regular verbs of all three conjugations, including stem-changing verbs;
• the present tense of the irregular verbs listed above;
• the idiomatic uses of avere and fare;
• uses of the verb piacere;
• uses of the command forms with tu, noi, voi;
• the present perfect of regular verbs, including the special ones listed above.

B. Articles:

• definite and indefinite, singular and plural, and the concept of gender.

C. Nouns:

• singular and plural formation
• concept of gender
• calendar, holidays, weather, seasons, family, school, health, foods, shopping

D. Adjectives:

• the rules of agreement: gender and number
• position
• cardinal and ordinal numbers
• demonstrative adjectives
• possessive adjectives

E. Pronouns:

• subject pronouns, familiar and formal
• direct object pronouns and position demonstratives

F. Prepositions:

• prepositions: da, di. a, in. con

In addition, students should be familiar with the vocabulary of:

• talking about dates, telling time, expressing the times of the day;
• describing weather;
• describing oneself and others, including things and places such as items in the classroom, school, home, family, human body, health, animals, food and stores;
• indicating colors, nationality, possession, cardinal and ordinal numbers;
• expressing likes and dislikes;
• asking and answering questions;
• the geography of Italy, Italian education, Italian family, Italian main monuments, Italian fashion, Italian cuisine.

For a student to pass into Italian Two, she/he must pass both parts of the exam with a minimum combined score of 70%.