Why must I take the Math Placement Assessment (MPA)? Is Loyola University Chicago alone in requiring such a test?
All first-year students and most transfer students at Loyola are required to take the Math Placement Assessment (MPA) for placement. You will find that this is standard practice at colleges and universities across the country. Students are exempt from taking the placement test if they have earned appropriate scores on the AP-Calculus (AB or BC) exam or on the SAT-II math exam (cf answers to questions 4, 5, and 6). Additionally, placements into Math 117 can be made based upon an appropriate ACT or SAT math score. The goal of Loyola’s MPA is to place each new student in a math (or statistics) course in which the student will excel: one for which you are well prepared yet not so well equipped that you will find the course to be too easy or perhaps boring. No doubt, if you have not taken mathematics in your senior year of high school, then you will certainly want to review algebra I and II, trigonometry, and precalculus (assuming you have taken these courses in high school). National mathe
