Placement, Credit By Exam, Transfer Credit, and Waivers
If you are starting Italian at GW and wish to enroll in a level higher than ITAL 001, you need to take our placement exam. This includes heritage speakers - those who speak the language at home but have no formal training - and students who have taken the AP or SAT II exams. For complete information about the placement exam please click here.
NOTE: You must take the placement exam prior to your registration, and only register for the course into which you place. Students without proper placement will be removed from their classes. Please also note that the PLACEMENT exam is for placement only. It cannot be used as a waiver or credit exam.
ADVANCED PLACEMENT (AP) EXAM IN ITALIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
The College Board offers and advanced placement exam in Italian Language and Culture. For students who take the exam, a score of 5 will place you into ITAL 030. The Italian program only accepts 5s from the AP exam.
TRANSFER CREDIT FROM U.S. INSTITUTIONS:
The process for receiving transfer credit from other U.S. institutions is similar to receiving study abroad credit. You will need to bring a transfer credit approval form from your appropriate school (ESIA form can be downloaded here). Bring this form and the syllabus of the course you wish to take to Prof. Alessandra Garolla (language courses) or Prof. Lynn Westwater (literature courses) BEFORE you enroll. All transfer credit courses must be pre-approved.
NOTE: At this time RGSLL only accepts transfer credit from accredited 4-year institutions. Courses taken at community colleges will not be accepted.
Waiver exams are offered to exempt students from completing language or literature courses, provided they can demonstrate the required proficiency in the subject. However, students will not receive GW credit from waiver exams.
For Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) students, a waiver exam will allow you to waive departmental language requirements, but it does not exempt you from the Foreign Language GCR. In other words, a waiver exam for ITAL 002 would satisfy the first two prerequisite language courses for our Italian minor, but you will still have to take an additional two semesters either here at GW or at another institution.
Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA) students can waive up to two of the three required years of study in a modern foreign language requirement.
SAT II SUBJECT TEST IN ITALIAN
The College Board offers an SAT II subject test in Italian language. The test is only available with reading comprehension. For CCAS students, a score of 690 or above can waive departmental language requirements, BUT NOT the GCR foreign language requirement.
ESIA students scoring 690 or above will receive a waiver for the first two years of the three-year modern foreign language requirement.
NOTE: Students will not receive GW credit for the SAT II exam.
