Did anyone take a language placement test at BB?

<p>We are at BB and the lady who gave the scheduling advice presentation in the college of arts & sciences kept stressing how important it was to take the foreign language placement test in the morning- in D’s case, Spanish. D was planning on waiting for her AP score to come in since the new catalog gives credit for SP 103 for a 3, 103 and 201 for a 4, and 103, 201, and 202 for a 5. </p>

<p>Anyway, D wasn’t planning on take the placement test, but now feels she should. I was wondering if any of your students had taken the test at BB and if so, how did it go?</p>

<p>My S did not take the placement test because he had no interest in taking any more Spanish but he did take the CLEP which gave him credit for SP 101, 201 and 202 plus an extra 4 HU credits (14 total). My S did not take AP Spanish - so if your D did take AP I’d think she’d do at least as well my S. </p>

<p>I suppose since you’re there she could take the placement test and still do CLEP this summer. But seriously think about taking that CLEP while it’s still fresh in her mind.</p>

<p>My daughter took it and placed in 201. Are you saying that if she gets a 4 or a 5 on AP Spanish Lang that she could end up with 6 credits?</p>

<p>Sniner - I’ll tell you the same thing. Have your D take the CLEP test. I think that piece of advice is the single best thing I heard on these boards (and I’ve learned plenty).</p>

<p>If she got a 4 on AP Spanish she’d get 7 credit hours.
If she got a 5 on AP Spanish she’d get 10 hours. </p>

<p>But maybe ClEP is still the way to go?</p>

<p>I know for AP Latin if you score a 5 you get 14 credit hours. You’d get 11 hours for a 4.
D thinks she did well, but we shall see.</p>

<p>My D plans on majoring in Spanish. She will be happy placing in 201 since that class has open spots. Right now 202 has no open spots, and she doesn’t want to take a semester off from Spanish.</p>

<p>We did the placement test online before Bama Bound, but I haven’t seen the result end up in Degree Works. It placed D in French 201. But she also took the CLEP which placed her in 202. She wants to continue her French and is in IHP. She is currently enrolled in FR 201 Honors.</p>

<p>Modifies advice to say if she’s taking Spanish as a major probably no need to take CLEP test - but you should probably get the advice of others here who are far more knowledgeable than me.</p>

<p>Class2012mom- did your son get the credit right away or only after taking the next level Spanish class at Bama? Seems I read something about needing to take a class at Bama to get the credits earned from the Clep.</p>

<p>You need to take a class at Bama to get placement credit, but not to get CLEP credit.</p>

<p>He got the credit in Degreeworks about 10 days after he took the test. He has no plans of taking Spanish at UA. </p>

<p>I think it may be that a student needs to take a class to get the prior learning credit if they only take the placement test and not the CLEP test.</p>

<p>Thanks for the clarification.</p>

<p>Well, D is taking the test right now. She wouldn’t have if the advisor yesterday didn’t tell her a few times that she thought she should instead of waiting for AP scores to come in.</p>

<p>For those new to CLEP tests, let me further put in a plug for it. Depending on your CLEP score, you may get credit for 1, 2, 3, or 4 classes at UA (or 4, 8, 11, or 14 credits). The test really is worth your while. UA only recently (this Fall 2012) altered its policy of how much credit is given for a similar AP test. It used to only pass you out of 1 class (regardless of AP score), but now it is scaled like the CLEP and you can earn more credit depending on your AP result. </p>

<p>Still, CLEP has an advantage for some people. Consider this:
My S had only 3 years of Spanish in HS…yet he scored well enough to earn all 14 credits through the CLEP. I marvel at this, because in contrast, in order to take the AP exam at his particular HS, he realistically would need to have taken all 4 years of Spanish in HS + enroll in AP Spanish 4 at HS his Senior year (which his schedule never could accommodate). </p>

<p>His great CLEP score is not due to the test being easy (or ‘easier’ than the AP test). Rather, it is probably due to some fabulous teaching + his ability to learn well through listening. (And, our HS does not even have a language lab w/ headphones and such, so I really am amazed that he did as well as he did…) </p>

<p>Be mindful that about half of the CLEP test is purely auditory: you listen to a lengthy passage and are asked questions about that passage, all in the foreign language. You have to keep a lot in your mind while you’re listening. He said it was one of the more challenging tests he has ever taken. Whew.</p>

<p>D took the placement test and placed into SP 353. If she successfully completes this course, will they then go back and give her credit for SP 101, 102, 201, and 202? I assume the answer is yes. BUT if she gets a 5 on the AP Spanish test, she would automatically get the credits and not have to wait to successful complete SP 353, correct? Taking the placement test really helped her to know which Spanish class to sign up for. She’s glad she did it since the plan would have been to sign up for SP 201. However, she really wants the AP credits.</p>

<p>Ughhhh OK so I need advice please…D did NOT take the placement test at BB. Her advisor told her to just wait for the AP test and of course she listened to the advisor instead of what I told her. </p>

<p>So waiting for AP scores, but she is taking CLEP next week for Spanish. She has had 4 years of Spanish, all of it honors. How in the world do we determine what Spanish would be best for her now??</p>

<p>She does not want to stretch it too far, she wants a bit of review and then move forward.</p>

<p>Suggestions Please? She will minor in Spanish-</p>

<p>S took 3 years of spanish but wasn’t able to take it last year because of scheduling conflicts. He will need to review before taking the CLEP test. Can someone tell me if he has to take the CLEP test before entering UA as a freshman to get the credits, or can he take it later in the year (even in the summer between freshman/sophomore year) and still get credit at UA for it?</p>

<p>A UA student can take a CELP test to earn UA credit at any time provided that they haven’t recently taken the equivalent course(s) at UA.</p>

<p>And, further to what SeaTide said…you can retake the test only every 6 months. </p>

<p>For those who don’t know, also, you get your test results back immediately! They will score your test while you wait. It will take ~2 weeks to get the results posted on your UA account. Sending the test scores to your 1st school is included in the test cost; if you want to send them to multiple places, there is an additional charge.</p>