German Language Fluency

Does anyone know where I can get college credit for fluency in German? I can take the exams of the Goethe-Institut, which would allow me to study at most German universities, but these exams don't seem to be accepted for credit anywhere in the USA. I can take 3 years to complete a BA in German through the University of London and since that degree is entirely by examination, I wouldn't really have to study, but it still would take three years. I took the DLPT many years ago, long before I was fluent and it may be possible to take that again. I also took the CLEP German exam, but unfortunately, that exam is only worth a total of 12 semester hours. There was once a GRE subject exam in German, but not since the early 1980's, I think. The FLATS program also only gives 12 hours. Is there any way to get full credit for the German I know? Perhaps I can ask at a nearby college, but it seems like I will have to try the "bending the rules" efforts if I am to succeed with it. It would be nice if I could do a portfolio assessment somewhere based on the score from the "Grosse Deutsche Sprachdiplom" or the "Kleine Deutsche Sprachdiplom" offered by the Goethe-Institut. Does anyone else know anything about this?

 

New York University exams

Excelsior College uses the New York University exams:

http://www2.scps.nyu.edu/dyncon/acfl/gene_prof.html

I believe they award 24 semester-hours of credit for the 16-point exam. My wife Rosie has ordered the Spanish exam, so we'll have more info on this shortly.

After that, she'll take the FLATS exams in Portuguese and Italian. We're still looking for a place to "bank" those credits.

 

Hi friends.
What the point with these "New York University exams"?
I have a little understanding problem, as it seems.

Why do the divide between

- 12-point (2 hour) exam
- 16-point (3 hour) exam
- 4-point (1 hour) exam

?


What do these "points" mean?

Why don´t they divide into, e.g.

- beginner
- intermediate
- advanced

level ?

Is that what it should mean???

Thanks a lot,

T.

 

Don't dispair before giving Ohio University's special project credit option a try.
http://www.ohiou.edu/independent/isproj.htm
I'm willing to bet that others have gone this route for similar needs! A couple calls or letters ought to yield an answer...

Otherwise "portfolio credit," offered by several institutions, is the only other likely route I know of.

--Orson

 

Points mean credit hours. For example if you take the 12 point exam at the NYU you'll be awarded 12 credit hours in liberal arts by Excelsior College. The more points you want to get the more difficult is the exam. To get 16 points you have to write an essay on a more elaborate topic than in the case of the 12 point exam.

Dennis Siemens

 

You can probably get portfolio credit at Thomas Edison. Most of the German programs I looked at required more than fluency. Look for instance at London's program, which includes German grammer, literature, history, and culture. If you have a background in these areas you could try to break down your knowledge into a number of classes, and create a portfolio for each.

 

How many credits for fluency?

Dennis Siemens writes:

> Points mean credit hours. For example if you take the 12 point
> exam at the NYU you'll be awarded 12 credit hours in liberal
> arts by Excelsior College.

Dennis, are you implying that Excelsior gives only 16 credits for the 16-point exam?

Bears' Guide 13th edition Chapter 17 "The Credit Bank Service" says: "Fluency in Spanish will always be worth 24 semester units."

Does the 15th edition still say this? Or is 16 credits now the maximum that you can get?

 

Re: How many credits for fluency?

I'm myself a student of Excelsior College and I discussed with my advisor the NYU language exams as far as I remember there was no mentioning of 24 credits to earn but only up to 16 credit hours.

Dennis Siemens

 

official answer from Excelsior

Here is the official answer from Excelsior College:

# Mr. Israel, Thank you for the recent email message. The
# maximum number of credits that we award for the New York
# Proficiency exam is 16.
#
# I'm not familiar with the MLA exam. Can you be more specific?
# Sincerely,
# Arleen K. Drooby
# Credit Bank Advising Assistant

Dr. Bear told me in e-mail, "It wasn't that long ago that the MLA gave 30." This is a reference to the Modern Language Association's Proficiency Exams, which are still being used in Virginia: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/fld/mla.html . But when I phoned the MLA "English and foreign language programs" phone number given at http://www.mla.org , the man who answered first thought that I was referring to the MLAT (Modern Language Aptitude Test), which is an exam for children that has nothing to do with the MLA. When I phoned him back with more info, he said that the MLA developed these "MLA exams" 40 years ago, and sold and disowned them 20 years ago, and he wishes the people in Virginia would stop calling them "MLA". So it's not surprsing that Excelsior is "not familiar" with it.

Dr. Bear also told me that the 24 figure is still in the latest Bears' Guide, and that "Excelsior read and approved the text last September", presumably including this wrong figure. Excelsior is looking less and less attractive.

 

Rosie wrote NYU Spanish exam

My wife Rosie wrote the NYU Spanish exam today. She finished the 3-hour exam in 1 hour. Of course, since it's only worth 16 credits, it would have been cheaper to take the CLEP exam; but what's done is done.

 

Re: Rosie wrote NYU Spanish exam

Of Feb. 6, I wrote:

> My wife Rosie wrote the NYU Spanish exam today. She
> finished the 3-hour exam in 1 hour.

We got the results today: she passed. 16 credits. Which will be superseded if we can manage to get her 33 credits through the MLA exam!

 

More credit where credit is due...

Hi, when I took the German CLEP test in 1984, I got the maximum 16 sem. hours. Has it changed to 12 s.h. since then? Maybe testing out of courses, as in just taking the final exams, would be an option for some of the undergrad. German course, in order to get even more credit quickly. Viel Glueck- ich druecke Dir die Daumen!! Greeting from Potsdam, Russell

 

Re: More credit where credit is due...

My understanding is that some that institutions award up to 16 credits for a language CLEP, but Excelsior College awards only 12. Who awarded you those 16 credits?

 

In my opinion, taking a NYU Foreign Language proficiency exam instead of a CLEP test is worth only if:
1) you’re going to test for 16 credit hours (that is, including the 12 c.h. general test and the 4 c.h. more difficult essay test);
2) you’re going to test your proficiency in a language that is not covered by CLEP (German, Spanish, French, etc.). At NYU they have test for about 45 languages from all over the world;
3) if you live in a country/region where there is no CLEP testing center: the NYU tests are not computer based, so it’s much easier to find a proctor and/or a testing center where it’s possible to take the exam.
In case you’re going to take a, say, Spanish test, do not hesitate to choose the CLEP one: it’s much easier and much cheaper.

Bests,

Giancarlo