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SUNY GCC - Genesee Community College

The Ability to Benefit Test is to allow a student who does not have a high school diploma or a homeschooled student to be eligible for TAP. Therefore, the individual must achieve a federally determined minimum score on the Ability to Benefit (ATB) Accuplacer exam.

The required scores are:

  • Reading: 233
  • Writing: 235
  • Arithmetic: 230

Students who do not meet or exceed all three passing scores may retake the exam. There must be a two-week waiting period between the initial test and the retest.

Retest Policy Update: Effective in September 2022

  • If a student does not pass, they can retake test every 14 days until they pass.
  • Only the section where a student did not pass can be taken (taking a whole test in one sitting is no longer necessary.)

If you are a homeschooled student, please contact ACE office to complete the registration process first. ATB Testing can be taken at Batavia main campus only.

Photo ID is required for all testers. If you do not have a current and valid government ID or school district ID, here are the ways you can get one to take the Accuplacer test:

For further inquiries regarding placement testing, please contact placement@genesee.edu.

Reading

There are 20 multiple choice questions in the Reading Comprehension Accuplacer.

The reading placement test is a broad-spectrum computer-adaptive assessment of test takers’ developed ability to derive meaning from a range of prose texts and to determine the meaning of words and phrases in short and extended contexts. Passages on the test cover a range of content areas (including literature and literary nonfiction, careers/history/social studies, humanities, and science), writing modes (informative/explanatory, argument, and narrative), and complexities (relatively easy to very challenging). Both single and paired passages are included. The test pool includes both authentic texts (previously published passages excerpted or minimally adapted from their published form) and commissioned texts (written specifically for the test). Four broad knowledge and skill categories are assessed:

  • Information and Ideas (reading closely, determining central ideas and themes, summarizing, understanding relationships)
  • Rhetoric (analyzing word choice rhetorically, analyzing text structure, analyzing point of view, analyzing purpose, analyzing arguments)
  • Synthesis (analyzing multiple texts)
  • Vocabulary

Reading Practice Websites:

Writing

There are 25 multiple choice questions administered on the Writing test with two types of questions.

The next-generation ACCUPLACER Writing placement test is a broad-spectrum computer-adaptive assessment of test takers’ developed ability to revise and edit a range of prose texts for effective expression of ideas and for conformity to the conventions of Standard Written English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation. Passages on the test cover a range of content areas (including literary nonfiction, careers/history/social studies, humanities, and science), writing modes (informative/explanatory, argument, and narrative), and complexities (relatively easy to very challenging). All passages are commissioned—that is, written specifically for the test—so that “errors” (a collective term for a wide range of rhetorical and conventions-related problems) can more effectively be introduced into them. Questions are multiple choice in format and appear in sets built around a common, extended passage; no discrete (standalone) questions are included. In answering the questions, test takers must determine the best revision or editing decision in a particular case (or that no change should be made to the passage as originally presented). Two broad knowledge and skill categories are assessed:

  • Expression of Ideas (development, organization, effective language use)
  • Standard English Conventions (sentence structure, usage, and punctuation)

Online Writing Lab

Math

There are a total of 40 questions to test the student’s Arithmetic and Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics skills. The Arithmetic test focuses on computation, order of operations, estimation and rounding, comparing and ordering values in different formats, and recognizing equivalent values across formats. The Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics (QAS) test assesses the following knowledge and skills.

Math Practice Websites:

Arithmetic

There are 20 multiple choice questions administered on the Arithmetic test, divided into the following content areas:

  • Operations with whole numbers – Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions and mixed numbers, including order of operations, estimation and rounding, and applying operations to real-life contexts.
  • Operations with fractions – Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions and mixed numbers, including order of operations, estimation and rounding, and applying operations to real-life contexts.
  • Operations with decimals – Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of decimal numbers, including order of operations, estimation and rounding, and applying operations to real-life contexts.
  • Operations with percentages – Calculation with percent with or without a context, including percent increase, percent decrease, determining the percent of a number, and applying percent to real-life contexts.
  • Number comparisons and equivalents – Comparisons of differently formatted values by ordering, using the number line, and using equality/inequality symbol notation; and evaluation of equivalent number statements (to assess mental math strategies).

**Students with a 263 or higher on the Arithmetic need to take the Next Generation Accuplacer Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics**

Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics

There are 20 multiple choice questions administered on the Quantitative reasoning, algebra, and statistics test, divided into the following content areas:

  • Rational numbers — Calculating and applying rational numbers (with or without a context), including usage of absolute value.
  • Ratio and proportional relationships — Calculating with rates, ratios, and proportions (with or without a context), and using unit conversions.
  • Exponents — Calculating with exponents, radicals, fractional exponents, and applying scientific notation.
  • Algebraic expressions — Creating and evaluating expressions to represent situations, and using properties of operations to combine like terms and identify equivalent expressions.
  • Linear equations — Creating linear equations in one or two variables, solving linear equations, simplifying linear equations and inequalities, and solving systems of two linear equations.
  • Linear applications and graphs — Applying linear equations to real-life contexts, using elementary linear functions to describe relationships, and graphing linear equations in two variables, linear inequalities, parallel and perpendicular lines, and systems of equations.
  • Probability and sets — Calculating probability (simple, compound, and conditional), and defining sample spaces and events using set notation.
  • Descriptive statistics — Interpreting graphical displays of data (histograms, box plots, and scatterplots), describing shape and spread of a sample set, and calculating measures of center.
  • Geometry concepts for Pre-Algebra — Determining area and perimeter, circle area and circumference, and volume of prisms.
  • Geometry concepts for Algebra 1 — Creating expressions for area, perimeter, and volume, using distance formula and Pythagorean theorem, and evaluating basic geometric transformations.