Current UT-Austin students who would like to receive credit by exam for Sanskrit should purchase the DAE (Departmentally Administered Exam) form from Student Testing Services and then contact Prof. Donald Davis in the Department of Asian Studies to schedule an exam. Students will receive credit and be placed into the appropriate level of Sanskrit based on the results of the DAE. Credit is permitted only for lower-division courses (SAN 506, 507, 312K, and 312L), depending on the results of exam.
Exam Format
The placement exam consists first of a recitation passage to test your ability to read Devanagari script. Then follow simple Sanskrit sentences of increasing difficulty. Examinees translate the sentences into English and answer questions about particular words and phrases as a way to test their grammatical knowledge. Either English or Sanskrit grammatical identifications/explanations are accepted. Finally, a short excerpt (2-3 ślokas) from a Sanskrit text of intermediate difficulty (e.g. Mahābhārata, Hitopadeśa, or a Purāṇa) will be presented for translation into English. Students must be able to read Devanagari well to place into any level beyond first semester. We also expect students to be able to use standard transliteration of Sanskrit, using diacritical marks: tadudāhāraṇam aham idaṃ vākyaṃ romalipau likhāmi.