English Placement Test (EPT)

Many newly admitted University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign international students are required to take the EPT according to their pre-arrival scores on any of the following three international ESL tests: the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), or the Duolingo English Test (DET).

1. International undergraduate students:

To be exempt from the Written EPT, students must meet any of the following exemption criteria.

To be exempt from the Oral EPT, students must meet any of the following exemption criteria.

NOTE: Students who only provide DET scores and do not have additional valid proof of speaking ability will still be required to take the Oral EPT.

2. International graduate students:

To be exempt from the all or part of the EPT, you must meet any of the following criteria. If you meet the overall score exemption criteria, you do not need to take either portion of the EPT. If you have to take the written EPT, you can be exempt from the oral EPT by having TOEFL or IELTS speaking scores listed below.

Further details about TOEFL and IELTS requirements are given at the following websites:

• For graduate students/applicants, faculty, or staff: https://grad.illinois.edu/admissions/application-instructions/additional-instructions-international-applicants
• For undergraduate students/applicants, undergraduate transfer, and undergraduate non-degree students/applicants: https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/measurement-evaluation/placement-proficiency/current-cutoffs/2021-cutoff-scores-esl

In addition to the requirements as explained at the above two websites, individual departments and/or advisors may require or encourage students to take the EPT, and students themselves may elect to take the test so that they can enroll in ESL courses at Illinois.

The EPT consists of two parts: a written test and an oral test.

1. Writing Test (100 minutes)
   • Students respond to an integrated writing task involving listening to a lecture, reading articles, and writing an argumentative essay on an academic topic.

   • Based on test performance, students may be placed in required or recommended ESL writing courses.

      

2. Oral Test (30 minutes)
   • Students complete a read-aloud task, conversation response, and graph interpretation.
   • Based on results, students may be exempted from, recommended for, or required to take oral ESL courses.
   • If students are notified that they need only the oral test, they should register using the Oral EPT registration link.

All students are strongly recommended to take the EPT well before classes begin, and if possible, at least two full business days before meeting with their advisor(s) to do final course selection.

Students will be placed into or exempted from the general oral or written ESL service courses based on the results of the test.

• Score requirements and exemptions
• Test Procedures
• Registration procedures
• You're strongly encouraged to take the EPT Practice Test before your test date.
  • Log in with your NetID, and use the enrollment key when prompted: eptpractice2017! [please include the exclamation point (!) in the password]
  • You will need your Illinois NET ID and Password to take the practice test and to register for the test.
  • Information on Illinois NetID
  • Information on Illinois password
• Score Interpretation
• EPT-related Research