Credit by Examination
There are three ways for regularly admitted students to
receive academic credits and/or advanced placement by examination: 1) College
Entrance Examination Board’s (CEEB) Advanced Placement Program (AP); 2)
College-Level Examination Program (CLEP); and 3) successful achievement on an Elizabethtown College faculty examination (Challenge Testing).
CEEB Advanced Placement Examinations
With the approval of the Department concerned, the College
grants advanced placement and credit to students who perform satisfactorily on
a CEEB AP Examination. A complete list of how AP exams transfer to
Elizabethtown is
available on the Registration and Records’ website in the transfer credit
section.
CLEP Examinations
Students who have completed high school (or its equivalent)
prior to taking the CLEP Examinations may be awarded Elizabethtown College
credits according
to the recommendations of the American Council on Education (ACE) in
place when the exam was taken. Refer to the College Board website at
www.college board.com/student/testing/clep/scores.html for the current CLEP
transfer recommendations or pick up a copy of the current ACE recommen-dations
for CLEP Examinations from the Registration and Records office. All CLEP
Examinations successfully must be completed prior to achievement of sophomore
status (30 or more recorded College credits). Up to 29 credits may be awarded
for CLEP exams and none of the credits may duplicate college credits completed
or enrolled in at the time of the examination. In order to fulfill
Elizabethtown’s Power of Language Core requirement, the CLEP English
Composition exam must be taken with the essay.
Challenge Testing
Challenge Testing is a comprehensive term encompassing all
tests prepared
and/or administrated by Elizabethtown College faculty. The types of Challenge
Tests are Tests for Academic Credit and Tests for Placement and/or Waiver.
Tests for Academic
Credit are Challenge Examinations requested by a regularly admitted
Elizabethtown College student in hopes of receiving credit for a parti-cular
course in the College Catalog. Requests for Challenge Examinations must be
approved by the Chair of the Department in which the course is listed.
Practicums, internships, research courses, First-Year Seminar and First-Year
Colloquium in the Core Program are excluded from Challenge Examinations.
Tests for Placement
and/or Waiver are given for placement in a course sequence such as modern
languages and mathematics. Credit is not awarded.
All Challenge Testing is graded on a Pass/No Pass basis. A
grade of Pass
indicates that the credit and/or advanced placement is to be awarded.
Challenge Tests given at the initiative of the College are
administered without fee to the student. There is a per-test fee for Challenge
Tests given at the request of the student. The fee is for the test itself and
is charged regardless of the test results. In addition, 50 percent of the
appropriate part-time tuition rate in effect at the time the test is
administered is charged for academic credit awarded as a result of performance
on Challenge Tests.
Placement Testing
Entering students are placed in mathematics, English writing,
and modern language classes on the basis of criteria established by the
relevant Academic Departments.
Mathematics placement is determined by the Department of
Mathematical Sciences using: 1) high school mathematics courses taken and
performance in those courses; 2) SAT mathematics score; 3) the student’s
intended major; and
4) student self-evaluation. Students who need additional
preparation before taking a college-level math course are placed in Mathematics 011. Students with
a placement of Mathematics 011 are required to complete this course prior to
enrolling in a Mathematics Core course. Mathematics 011 does not satisfy the
Mathematics Area of Understanding and does not count toward graduation credits. Students may challenge their placement level by taking a mathematics
placement Challenge Exam during the fall orientation program.
Placement in English writing courses is determined by the
Department of English according to a combination of SAT verbal score and
performance in high school English courses. Most students are placed in English
100, Writing and Language. Some students
are placed in English 150, Advanced Writing and Language, or Philosophy 110,
Logic and Critical Thinking. All satisfy the Power of Language – English requirement in the Core
Program.
Students are placed into modern languages as determined by
the Department of Modern Languages based on language background and placement test results.
Students who have studied a modern language in high school for two years or
more must take the appropriate modern language placement test. If students have
studied more than one modern language, they take the placement test in the language in which they have had the most intensive study or the language that
they wish to study further at the college level. Students who have studied a
language for less than two full years or not at all do not take the placement test and
are normally placed at the 111 or beginning level of a
language.
Students who wish to use a modern language to fulfill the
100-level Power of Language – Other
Area of Understanding in the Core Program complete a modern language course at the 111, 112, 211 or 212 level.
Students who demonstrate competence at the 111 level enroll in 112. Students who
demonstrate competence at the 112 level enroll in 211. If competence is demonstrated at the 211 level, the appropriate course is 212. If competence is
demonstrated at the 212 level, then any 300-level course in that language can
be used to satisfy the Power of Language – Other requirement, or students can pursue a different language.
