The Writing Exam

All admitted first-year students and all new transfer students are required to take the online placement exam over the summer prior to their first semester.  

The Writing Exam asks you to read several brief selections that represent the kind of work found in Expos courses, and to respond to those examples. The exam also contains questions about your previous writing experience. While we estimate that the exam will take around 2-3 hours for most writers, you have 5 hours in which to complete the exam (to allow time for a break if you need it). 

The timed portion of the exam will begin as soon as you log in and access the selections you will read. Before the timed portion of the exam, you will find a few pages of information and questions. You will read and reflect on the Harvard College Honor Code;  answer some survey questions about your writing background before coming to Harvard; and read some more detailed instructions about taking the exam.  

During the dates that the Writing Exam is open, you can access the exam here. 

As soon as you log in and access the brief selections you will read, your timed work on the exam will begin . (We expect that it will take most writers 2-3 hours to complete the exam; the exam will remain open for 5 hours to give you time to take a break if you need one.) 

Students are expected to take the Writing Exam during the required exam period in June.

•  Thursday, May 30, 2024: Writing Exam opens
•  Wednesday, June 12, 2024: Last day to complete Writing Exam

Students who are unable to complete the exam during those initial June dates may submit a request to take the exam during a make-up exam period later in June. Beginning in mid-May, the online registration system will be open for petitions.

To receive your Expos placement recommendation on time, you must complete the Writing Exam during the May 30  – June 12 exam period. In cases of unavoidable conflict, the Writing Program may grant extensions to students who are unable to complete the exam during the required June exam period or during the make-up period later in June.

 

The Writing Exam allows the Writing Program to advise students about the first-year expository writing requirement. Every placement exam is read by at least one member of the Writing Program faculty, who will use it as a basis for recommending whether students should enroll directly in Expository Writing 20 or whether they would be better served by enrolling first enrolling in the fall term elective, Expos Studio 10: Introduction to Expository Writing, prior to completing the writing requirement. Students will receive their placement recommendation in mid-July if they complete their Writing Exam during the first June exam period.

Students who are recommended for Expository Writing 20 will receive a term assignment which indicates whether they should plan to take Expos 20 in the fall or spring.

Students who are recommended for Expos Studio 10 will meet with a Writing Program faculty member in August to discuss their writing background, learn about Expos Studio 10 and Expos 20, and make an informed choice about which course to enroll in for the fall. Those advising conferences are held on Zoom. (Expos Studio 10 is only offered in the fall term.)  

*Students who are recommended for Expos 20 are also eligible to fulfill the writing requirement with Humanities 10a and 10b.   

Do not compose your answers in the placement exam screen. Write your answers in a word-processing program, saving your work as you go, and then then copy and paste your final responses into the essay windows on the placement exam screen. Please save a final copy of your responses for yourself to ensure your work is not lost, in the event that there are any technical issues with your submission.

Any text you enter in the exam field will be lost if you log out, refresh the page, or refresh your remaining time.

Please note that the placement exam platform will not format footnotes; any citations should be in MLA parenthetical citation format (including author’s last name and page number from the source in the parentheses.) For more information about this citation format, please see the Harvard Guide to Using Sources.

Please also note that italics and underlining will be lost when you paste your text into the placement exam platform.

For questions specific to the Writing Exam, please contact the Writing Program at: expos@fas.harvard.edu 

For general information and questions about other placement exams, contact:  placement-help@fas.harvard.edu or consult the Placement Exams website.

For technical issues during the exam, contact: ithelp@harvard.edu | (617) 495-9000