Step 7: Directed Self-Placement

What is Directed Self-Placement

The writing course you take as a first-year college student will be the foundation of your success in college. Every class you take will require critical reading and writing skills. For that reason, it is important that you take the right first-year class.

The decision about your first-year writing course should be made through careful reflection on your own experiences, not just your previous grades, so at CSUMB, we ask you to choose for yourself which first-year reading/writing course you take (that’s the self-placement part). But it’s also important you don’t make a quick or uninformed decision. So we’ve created online experiences to help (that’s the directed part).

Students who do not complete the online experience will be placed into a first-year composition course according to the CSU’s multiple measures, which are based on past performance.

Who does NOT need to do Write to Register?

Students who have passed a college-level composition course (GE area A2) with a C- or above or have earned a score of 3 or above on either the Language and Composition examination or the Composition and Literature examination are not required to complete Write to Register.