What is the compass test?

Question

I'm a rising HS senior this year & I've heard my graduate friends discussing the compass test, and I have no idea what it is and kept my mouth shut at the risk of sounding stupid. I figure I'll probably have to take it next year so could someone tell me what exactly the compass test is?

Answer 1

COMPASS is an untimed, computerized test that helps your college evaluate your skills and place you into appropriate courses. COMPASS offers tests in reading, writing, math, writing essay, and English as a Second Language (ESL). You will receive your COMPASS test results immediately upon completion of testing, and your score report will include placement messages informing you what courses you should take and how to register.

COMPASS is not used like a traditional test. There is generally no "passing score." Rather, COMPASS scores indicate areas in which you are strong and areas in which you may need help. Thus, COMPASS can identify problems in major subject areas before they disrupt your educational progress, giving you the opportunity to prepare more effectively for needed courses. You and your institution can use scores from COMPASS tests to prepare a course of study that will be appropriate, relevant, and meaningful for you.

some examples:

(Algebra)

2. Which of the following expressions represents the product of 3 less than twice x and 2 more than the quantity 3 times x ?

A.  Ã¢Â€Â“6x2 + 25x + 6

B.  6x2 + 5x + 6

C.  6x2 – 5x + 6

D.  6x2 – 5x – 6

E.  6x2 – 13x – 6

(Reading)

Sample Humanities Passage: Reading Placement

When I'm in New York but feeling lonely for Wyoming I look for the Western movie ads in the subway. But the men I see in those posters with their stern, humorless looks remind me of no one I know in the West. In our earnestness to romanticize the cowboy we've ironically disesteemed his true character. If he's "strong and silent" it's because there's probably no one to talk to. If he "rides away into the sunset" it's because he's been on horseback since four in the morning moving cattle and he's trying, fifteen hours later, to get home to his family. If he's "a rugged individualist" he's also part of a team: ranch work is teamwork and even the glorified open-range cowboys of the 1880s rode up and down the Chisholm Trail in the company of twenty or thirty other riders. It's not toughness but "toughing it out" that counts. In other words, this macho, cultural artifact the cowboy has become is simply a man who possesses resilience, patience, and an instinct for survival. "Cowboys are just like a pile of rocks—everything happens to them. They get climbed on, kicked, rained and snowed on, scuffed up by the wind. Their job is 'just to take it,'" one old-timer told me.

(Referring)

1. According to the passage, cowboys are probably "strong and silent" because:

A. their work leaves them no time for conversation.

B. they have been cautioned not to complain.

C. they are stern and humorless.

D. there is no one nearby to listen to them.

E. their work makes them too tired to talk.

(Reasoning)

2. For which of the following statements does the passage give apparently contradictory evidence?

A. The cowboy's work takes endurance.

B. Cowboys work alone.

C. Cowboys are adequately paid.

D. The cowboy's image has become romanticized in American culture.

E. Cowboys think of themselves as humorless.