[Vocabulary] Place out of ?what is the meaning ?

[nininaz]

Hello Teachers,
I need some help on the Bold context.
I am confused about the phrase 'place out of ' and the role of them in the following sentence.
Is Place out of is the phrase or place is verb and out of is preposition or adverb ?

"W: But I already studied Spanish in high school.
M: Oh. How many Spanish classes did you take?
W: I took four years of high school Spanish courses.
M: In that case, you may not need to take two semesters here.
W: Really?
M: You can take a placement test. If you get a high test score, you
can place out of the first semester of Spanish. You will only need
to take one semester. "

It is extremely kind of you to give me the reference from the below dictionaries , I couldn't find any appropriate matching for" the Verb lace and Adverb: out of"
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/place
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/out


Thanks in advanced.

 

[Gillnetter]

You are trying to figure out the meaning by looking at which word means. That won't work here. "To place out" has to be taken as a whole. It is not all that common, but in the US it means to be exempt from a requirement in a school. If, for example, I have spoken Spanish for years, I could take a test in Spanish. If I scored high enough I would not have to take any Spanish classes.

 

[SoothingDave]

Or would be placed into the second year/semester Spanish class instead of the first.