<p>Ok so it's a long story but my D only took 2 years of Spanish in HS. I know 3 are required for her program (COM-Advertising). What is her best solution? She'd rather not have to take Spanish at U of I so maybe community college, on-line class, something else? Will U of I accept any on-line courses? Anyone have any suggestions? Also, if she took it at a comm college she would need to take 2 classes to finish the requirement, right? Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>You can go to transfer.org and see which courses if any at your community college will transfer to U of I. Are you sure only 3 years are required, I thought it was 4 years of a high school language. . . The transfer.org website is a big confusing to use, just a warning. I’m currently taking Spanish classes here (I want to get a minor) and the classes are not at all difficult (although I love the language so that helps).</p>
<p>Thanks for your help. I will look into it. Yeah COM only requires 3 years but LAS and many others are 4. My daughter should have listened to me way back when tho I did understand her rationale.</p>
<p>If she goes the community college route, she would need only one semester to complete the COM requirement. The requirement is three college semesters of the same language. Each high school year equals one semester, but any community college semester counts as one college semester even if taken while in high school.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. drusba. Here’s another question then. If she takes it at a community college can it be taken pass/fail and if not does the grade factor in to her overall U of I GPA? Or would it just count as a transfer on a separate transcript. Also, does it need to be taken before she graduates HS or does she just need to take it before finishing U of I? If I understand what you’re saying she would only need to take 1 semester of 3rd level Spanish - though there’s just NO WAY she’d survive that at U of I. She couldn’t go back and take Spanish I and then be done could she? I’m sure that’s wishful thinking:)</p>
<p>She only has to fulfill the language requirement before she graduates from the U of I. Also, she cannot just take Spanish I and then be done, she has to get up to a certain course (I forget the course number right now) and that will fulfill the requirement. Also you should keep this in mind: The longer she waits to take the class, the more knowledge she will forget about the language, so it’s better to just get it out of the way as soon as possible. Good luck!</p>
<p>You need two years of language to be admitted to UIUC; they recommend (and it definitely is not something to construe as a requirement even though recommended) that you complete before attending UIUC whatever language level you will need to graduate from UIUC. That is three high school years for some of the colleges but four for others (including the largest college, LAS), with each high school year being deemed the equivalent of one semester in college. Overall UIUC even recommends completing four high school years on the assumption that anyone could eventually end up in LAS even though they start in a different college.</p>
<p>You thus do not need to complete the requirement before starting at UIUC but obviously it would be helpful if you want to avoid taken language while attending UIUC. You can complete the requirement at a community college even while you are at UIUC (such as a summer class). However, you may face a barrier there. If you have not completed the required college language requirement before your summer orientation session (you will have one in the summer after you are admitted), you are required to take a language placement test. If the result of that test shows you should be placed in the third semester of the language you can then take it at a CC. However, if the result of that test is you should take a course below third semester level you may be stuck with that placement test result and may be required to take the lower course. </p>
<p>I do not know the answer to the pass fail course at a CC. As long as it is acceptable for transfer it should be OK but you need to find out if such a course is acceptable. I do know that any transferable college course taken at a CC during high school is transferred with grade, if one has been given, and that grade is part of your college record and used to calculate your overall GPA (UIUC always shows for you two GPAs, one showing UIUC only grades and one showing overall which includes transferred courses). </p>
<p>Obviously, it seems your major concern is that if she is required to take language at UIUC she may fail. But you may be misconstruing how it works. What course she begins with is determined by the placement test. Many who take that test with two years of high school language do get placed into third semester; however, just as many or more get placed below third semester and the first course they actually take is a one semester course that covers both Spanish I and Spanish II (or any other language you took in high school). In other words, you start at the beginning again but it is acclerated on the concept that mainly you may start to remember things and learn things faster because they are covering what you took before. Most do fine in those courses even ones who struggled with language in high school. If you are actually placed into third semester, then likely you have the ability to do it but even then you have the choice to take that combined I and II level course first but do not receive college credit for it if your placement test put you in third semester. Finally, you also have the option of taking three semesters of a language you did not take in high school to fulfill the requirement.</p>
<p>Throwing this out there in case anyone else needs the info. I just found out our high school will accept 2 different on-line courses for credit only (no grades). That means my D can take on-line Spanish III - semester one and two in high school. Then the 3rd year of language requirement will be completed in HS so she’ll have it met before she signs up for classes at U of I. Yippee!! It won’t be easy because she’ll need to complete both semester classes before the end of May (I know what she’ll be doing over Spring Break). The one’s through IVS are 17 lessons and the one through BYU is 7. Not sure which route she’ll go.</p>
<p>Anyway here’s the info - again these are the 2 that our suburban Chicago HS accepts:
IVS - Illinois Virtual School ILvirtual.org and BYU - isbyuedu.org. Cost is CHEAP (relatively speaking) at $128 for BYU and $248 for IVS for the class. I was surprised the number of classes that were offered and depending on individual HS’s policy there are some choices out there. Only thing is any student wanting to do this needs to get moving! Class starts March 15. I regret I didn’t know this earlier. It would have been nice to crank out some of the required classes like Senior Government and some of the English classes on-line. Oh well, I’ll know it next time.</p>
<p>Hope this helps someone else.</p>
<p>As someone who took the BYU Spanish 3 course, I can say I was very disappointed with the quality of it… I’m not quite sure what the standards out there are for online courses, but there were a disappointing number of basic mistakes and inefficiencies in their system. (For example, the class follows the pattern of showing the student a complicated reading section or listening section, then showing the vocab after… Regardless of whether or not one can figure out the basic meaning of the passage, it’s better to teach the student the words first.)</p>
<p>Considering my family paid money for it, it didn’t live up to my expectations at all. I can’t speak on the IVS course though. I’m taking Spanish 4 now (that’s its own long story related to a school schedule change) and in our class we refer to our group of BYU summer course alumni as the Mormon-Spanish speakers… Because we missed out on the skill-building and in-person support that other students had.</p>
<p>Wow! I’m disappointed to hear that about the BYU class but I’m glad you shared your story with me. We are leaning toward the IVS one but at this point we just need to get the course completed before she graduates.</p>
<p>Can you tell me Regenesus did you take both Spanish III - 1st and 2nd semester? How long did it take to complete the course? How many hours did you spend on it? What was the final exam like? Did you get anything out of the class?</p>
<p>Yes, I took both the 1st and 2nd semester. The system is actually sort of awkward because the teacher is different for the two semesters, so the style of the course abruptly switches halfway through. The difficulty also really jumped up for the 2nd semester; way more writing assignments are expected than the 1st.</p>
<p>If you complete the course at a relaxed pace, I’d say it’s a month’s work. I completed the 1st semester in two weeks as I was a little pressed for time that summer, and the 2nd one in three weeks, if I recall correctly. (They were three intense weeks though…) I’m not quite sure how many hours I spent.</p>
<p>The final exams were fairly standard. I actually thought they were pretty similar to the Spanish exams the teachers at my school put together. I did learn Spanish 3 from the class. I’m not sure if I can say much more than that. I have a wonderful Spanish 4 teacher who managed to iron out the kinks in my Spanish left behind by the course, so it hasn’t been a serious issue for me. I felt it prepared me sufficiently, but nothing more than that.</p>
<p>If you want more specific information, learning the subjunctive tense over the computer is very difficult. The 1st semester is essentially a review of Spanish 2 with some new concepts, while the 2nd semester deals with some odd tenses, including subjunctive. It’s doable, but I’d at least recommend having a teacher to go to in person for help during the course if at all possible.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the detailed info. I think my D’s goal at this point is just simply to survive and pass the Spanish class. She’s trying to just finish out the U of I requirement of 3 years for her major. She won’t be going on to Spanish IV and doubtfully will never take Spanish again. So at this point it’s just get 'er done as quickly as possible. I hate to admit it but she’s not expecting to learn anything ouf of the class but just crossing it off her list of requirements (and trying to avoid taking it in college) and do it in survival mode. Thankfully no grade is reported since it will be pass/fail only.</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that you were able to finish the class at a very rapid pace. That’s her goal. She needs to have both done in 2 months or less (before she graduates HS). She will have Spring Break in there so she can work non-stop then. Ironically we will be in Mexico though at the time. I think you’re right about needing a teacher to help (or her in case Spanish friends or HS kids in AP Spanish). It sounds like 1st semester was pretty easy so she just needs to get going on it. But you do scare me when you say 2nd smester was 3 intense weeks. Were you working 4-5 hours a day on it? The reason I ask is she’ll still have her regular senior classes to worry about (and as you all know those are NOT easy either) so she won’t have that much time to devote to the class. Was it a lot of busy work or what?</p>
<p>Haha alright, maybe I exaggerated on the second semester a bit, but it certainly felt stressful when I was working on it during the summer. The class requires you to make a “portfolio,” which is a sort of anthology of essays and recordings you add on to once every lesson. It also comprises the bulk of the class’s time-consuming work.</p>
<p>Looking at my folder on the computer, over the course of both semesters I cumulatively typed five pages in Spanish and made three audio recordings. It’s a little tougher than typing five pages in English, but your daughter should be fine.</p>
<p>I certainly wasn’t working 4 to 5 hours a day, it was probably more like 30 minutes to an hour each day. From my estimates, as long as she has enough motivation and doesn’t struggle with the Language, she should be able to both enjoy Spring Break and finish the first half of the class. If all you’re worried about is getting the credit before graduation, then I’d recommend it more than before.</p>
<p>Hey Regenesus, How was the final for BYU Spanish 3 as my son hates spanish and was planning on going into engineering which only required 2 years but now he’s going to get a dual degree in business too so he needs 3 years spanish. He’s not planning on ever using spanish again and he can get help from his dad who speaks spanish. So how hard is the class really for someone who is not motivated?</p>
<p>I know you weren’t asking me grodgr and I hope Regenesus responds (not trying to steal your question) but I did want to add my update. </p>
<p>My D is in the process of finishing Spanish III - 1st and 2nd semester through IVS. I would definitely say this was the best option for her. Much like was posted about the BYU course is the same as IVS. My D completed 1st semester in just over 2 weeks - working like crazy but got through it. 2nd semester is a lot harder and much more labor-intensive. That being said she is almost done with the class (2 weeks max). So throwing this out there for any future students who cannot stand the thought of a 3rd or 4th year of a language, there is a viable option out there - on-line coursework. Check it out.</p>
<p>Now back to grodgr… by the way, having a dad who speaks spanish will definitely help. That and google translator, spanishdict, bing, babylon. We now know them all but none of them help with conditional tense, perfect tense, etc. That’s just impossible all the way around. LOL.</p>
<p>How was the final? Is it a proctored final or is there a final at all? Is it just written work class work or do you send in verbal via mp3/audio also? Thanks.</p>
<p>The final was a moderately difficult multiple-choice (and maybe some true/false) test. You use a scantron-type answer sheet like on the ACT. Probably like 100 questions or something. I’m a fairly high-performing student and was able to get a decent grade on it mostly from cramming the night before.</p>
<p>Aside from that, though… As I mentioned earlier, you must send in a “portfolio” of your work from the whole class. Basically that means emailing a collection of written work and audio recordings to BYU.</p>
<p>I don’t know the extent to which your son is “not motivated,” but if he’s at least willing to bite the bullet and do the work correctly the class shouldn’t be awful. It’s an option, just not a wonderful one.</p>
<p>Is the final an open book test that I do at home…or do I have to go somewhere to take it in front of someone?</p>
<p>Haha unfortunately no, it is not open-book. Because I took the class as part of my high school education it was administered to me by a guidance counselor at the school. I believe they have strict rules in terms of who is allowed to order the exam and where they will send it.</p>