CUNY is an abbreviation for City University of New York. There are 23 institutions under this university including community colleges and four year colleges. CUNY assessment test is used for admission in the colleges which comes under this university. The test scores are also utilized by other colleges and universities.
Eligibility-
CUNY is an undergraduate test useful in getting admission to post secondary education programs. City University of New York takes this test as an admission criterion for different programs in its approved colleges. Those individuals which have not appeared in ACT, SAT or NY State regents test can also take CUNY assessment test as an alternative.
Test Overview-
The test consists of three sections- reading, writing and mathematics. The reading test is based on reading comprehension skills. The passages in reading test are taken from subjects like social science, humanities, literature and natural sciences. The writing section involves essay writing. The mathematical test is derived from high school mathematics covering topics from algebra and trigonometry.
Test Format-
The reading section is not timed and taken as computer based test. The examinee has to answer multiple choice questions related to given passages. The questions in reading section deal with extraction of information or ideas from given text or interpretation and generalization of given passages. In essay writing section, a situation is given with two different solutions. The examinee has to write favoring one of the given solutions. The time allotted for writing test is 60 minutes. The mathematical section consists of multiple choice questions derived from topics of pre-algebra, elementary algebra, college algebra and trigonometry. The mathematical section is also not timed and is computer based.
Marking Scheme-
All the sections are given scaled scores. Minimum scores of 70 and 30 in the reading and mathematical sections respectively, are required to get admission in a college. The essay in writing section is checked by two readers and awarded a scaled score in range of 0 to 6. A score of 6 or 5 is considered in upper range where 6 signify exceptional and 5 signify superior. The scores of 4 or 3 are regarded average while 2 or 1 indicates poor writing. The colleges may require taking some courses or gaining credits in addition to qualifying CUNY test.
Schedule and Exam fees-
There are no fixed dates scheduled for this exam. The test may be taken on dates decided by particular college administration. The college may require taking the test either before applying for admission or after having applied. The test dates, fees, reporting of results etc are managed by college administrations themselves according to their own guidelines.