Language Placement and Credit by Exam

Modern & Classical Languages

Per Arts & Sciences college requirements, many Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees require the completion of at least eight semester hours of work in a modern or classical language. Some majors request twelve semester hours of a foreign language. Normally, completing courses 1010 and 1020 (first and second semester) in a single language satisfies this requirement. The requirement may also be satisfied by appropriate scores on the placement test given each semester by the department, or sufficiently high scores on nationally administered language tests, such as CLEP, taken before being admitted to UW.

For information about the English Oral Proficiency Interview, see the English Language Center’s website.

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Options for Language Credit

Students may receive up to 12 hours (3 semesters) in academic credit by examination.

Per University policy, you may not earn credit by examination where you already have college credit at the same level or above. For example, if you already have college credit posted for a second semester course, you may receive credit hours by examination for the third semester, but not for the first and second. This includes AP credit.

Students with a native language other than English will not receive University credit for language courses below the 4000-level in their native language.

Foreign Language Achievement Testing (administered by BYU) is available in 52 languages including Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Arabic, and Mandarin (both Simplified & Traditional). Credit for languages not offered by UW will appear as LANG on your transcript.

REVIEW Credit OPTIONS

Assessment Data

Nearly half of all students that take the credit by exam receive 12 hours of credit. That's equivalent to one semester of block tuition for the cost of $180.

Graphic pie charts showing credit hours earned with testing.