Academic skills assessment and course placement activities are designed to evaluate an individual’s skills in reading, English grammar and writing, and mathematics. There is no pass or fail! The results of the assessment will place you in classes that best meet your needs, ensuring that your classes are neither too difficult nor too easy for you. Students whose test scores indicate a need for review work will be placed in Developmental Studies or preparatory courses to assist them in building academic skills and preparing for college-level course work. Admissions staff members are available to answer questions regarding scores, course placement, and program requirements. If you need individualized testing accommodations, please contact Disabilities Services, Wynn Center, room 1309A or call 919-686-3652.

Applicants may take the placement tests after completing the admissions application form. Learn more about placement testing and review the test schedule via the web site or call 919-686-3756 to request a testing schedule. Schedules are also available in the Testing Center, Wynn Center, room 1302. Applicants must present a picture ID before taking the test.

The ASSET is a series of short placement tests developed by American College Testing (ACT). Using these tests enables you and Durham Tech to work together to help you succeed in your educational program. As an alternate mode for placement testing, the college also uses COMPASS, the computer adaptive placement tests from ACT. Both COMPASS and ASSET have three tests of basic skills in writing, reading, and numerical reasoning, plus more advanced tests in algebra. The ASSET tests all use a multiple-choice format and are 25 minutes in length. The 36-question Writing Skills test measures your understanding of appropriate usage in grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, writing strategy, and writing style. The 24-question Reading Skills test measures your ability to find specific information in text and to make logical inferences that extend beyond the text information. The 32-question Numerical Skills test assesses your knowledge and skills in the performance of basic math operations using whole numbers, decimals, and fractions. This test also measures pre-algebra knowledge and skills such as your understanding of prime numbers, absolute values, scientific notation, and square roots. The 25-question Elementary Algebra test measures skills often taught in a first-year high school algebra class, including evaluating and simplifying algebraic expressions, solving linear and quadratic equations, and performing operations with polynomials. The 25-question Intermediate Algebra test measures skills often taught in a second-year high school algebra class, including factoring, graphing, solving linear inequalities, and calculating slope and distance. COMPASS test content is very similar to the ASSET tests, but the tests are untimed. Students take COMPASS tests at a computer terminal but do not need advanced computer skills.

        ASSET and COMPASS Test Schedule

1. In the end, everyone gives up jogging. Some find that their strenuous efforts to earn a living drains away the energy necessary for running.
   a. NO CHANGE
   b. Drain
   c. Has drained
   d. Is draining

Answer: b

The passage below is followed by two questions. After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question. You may look back at the passage as often as you wish.

1. The Industrial Revolution got under way first in England. This is an historical fact of the utmost significance, for it explains in large part England’s primary role in world affairs in the nineteenth century. Consequently, the question of why the Industrial Revolution began where it did is of much more than academic interest.

The problem may be simplified by eliminating those countries that could not, for one reason or another, have generated the Industrial Revolution. Italy at one time had been an economic leader but had dropped behind with the discoveries and the shift of the main trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Spain had been economically predominant in the sixteenth century but had then lost out to the northwestern states for various reasons already noted. Holland had enjoyed her Golden Age in the seventeenth century, but she lacked the raw materials, labor resources, and water power necessary for machine production. The various countries of Central and Eastern Europe had been little affected by the Commercial Revolution and hence did not develop the technical skills, the trade markets, and the capital reserves needed for industrialization.

This leaves only France and Britain as possible leaders, and of the two, England had certain advantages that enabled her to forge far ahead of her rival. In commerce, for example, the two countries were about equal in 1763, or, if anything, France was somewhat in the lead. But France had a population three times that of England. France also lost ground in foreign trade when she was driven out of Canada and India in 1763. Furthermore, the blockade of the British fleet during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars reduced French commerce to about half its 1788 value, and the loss was not restored until 1825.

From L.S. Stavrianos’ The World Since 1500: A Global History.

1. The word forge, as it is used in the third paragraph, means:
   a. Make use of the blast furnace
   b. Alter in order to deceive
   c. Move forward steadily
   d. Produce wrought iron
   
   
2. What reasons does the author give for discussing several countries besides
   England and France?
   a. Enriching the information provided in the passage
   b. Balancing the passage in the interest of fairness
   c. Simplifying the problem confronted in the passage
   d. Eliminating countries whose Golden Age was yet to come

Answers: 1. c 2. c

DIRECTIONS: Solve each problem and choose the correct answer. For some questions, the fifth choice for an answer will be “Not given.” Whenever none of the first four possible answers is correct, choose “Not given” as your answer.

Do not linger over problems that take too much time. Solve as many as you can; then return to the others in the time you have left.

Sample Numerical Skills Test Questions

1. 0.05 + 0.30 = ?
   a. 0.08
   b. 0.305
   c. 0.35
   d. 0.38
   e. Not given

Answer: c

2. The price of gasoline has increased by 5% during the past month. If the price per gallon a month ago was $1.20, what is the current price per gallon?
   a. $1.24
   b. $1.25
   c. $1.26
   d. $1.70
   e. $1.80

Answer: c

Sample Elementary Algebra Test Questions

1. If 5 x 10ⁿ = 0.005, then n = ?
   a. -5
   b. -3
   c. -2
   d. 2
   e. 3

Answer: b

2. If x = -3, then x² - 2x + 1 = ?
   a. 16
   b. 4
   c. 1
   d. -11
   e. -14

Answer: a

Sample Intermediate Algebra Test Questions

1. What are all the real values of x that are solutions for the equation |x - 2| = 6 ?
   a. -8 = x = -4
   b. -8 = x = 4
   c. -8 = x = 8
   d. -4 = x = 4
   e. -4 = x = 8

Answer: e

2. If 3x – 2 = 2y and y = 3z + 5, which of the following is equal to x?
   a. z + 2
   b. z + 7/3
   c. z + 5
   d. 2z + 4
   e. 3z +7

Answer: d