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SFA Departmental Placement Exam

Students already enrolled at SFA may acquire pass credit by successfully completing internally administered examinations or by a departmental advanced placement system that allows students to bypass certain courses.

Departments currently awarding either advanced placement or credit by examination are listed below. Students interested in taking an internally administered examination should contact the appropriate department to seek approval and to pre-register.

  1. Accounting 231: Students must provide evidence of some practical experience or education in accounting and should inquire about the content of the examination prior to making application to take the test. The minimal passing grade is B.

  2. Art: Students who receive unanimous consent from all members of the Advanced Standing Committee may waive the prerequisites ART 100 and/or ART 110, and go to the next highest level course. If a student receives a grade of less than C in the next highest level course, the student will then be required to take that course for which he or she received advanced placement. If the student is given a grade of C or above, the student will be allowed to replace the bypassed hours with an additional art elective. If the student receives a grade of A in the next highest level course, he or she may petition the Advanced Standing Committee for credit in the bypassed course. Interested students should check with the chair for portfolio submission deadlines.

  3. Chemistry 133 and 134 (General Chemistry): The minimal passing grade on these examinations is C. A separate lab test is administered for Chemistry 133-134 lab.

  4. Communication 111 and 201: For credit to be granted in COM 201, students must take a written examination over photography principles with a minimum score of 85 and, in addition, submit a portfolio of prints which will be evaluated by a committee of three photography professors. To qualify for the advanced placement exam in COM 111, students must have completed two years of high school speech, not including drama and theatre activities, with an A average. The exam itself consists of a written test over speech communication principles and a 10-minute persuasive speech to be delivered by the student before a panel of three communication professors. The minimal passing grade is B.

  5. Computer Science 101 and 121: To qualify for the examination a student must provide evidence of some practical experience or education in computer application software and the operating system. The examination consists of a written component and a computer-based competency component. Applicants should inquire about the content of the examination prior to making application to take the test. The examination can be taken only once per student. The minimal passing grade is B.

  6. English: Qualified students may earn advanced placement credit as a consequence of their performance in one of the accelerated courses for freshmen—ENG 133 and ENG 235. Students who have a score of 28 or higher on the English section of the ACT or a 580 or higher on the SAT Reading Test are eligible to enroll in ENG 133. Those who perform well in this course, earning an A, will be recommended by the instructor for advanced-placement credit in ENG 132. A grade of B or C will earn credit for ENG 131.

    Students with a score of 31 or higher on the English section of the ACT or of 650 or higher on the SAT Reading Test are eligible to enroll in ENG 235, a 6-hour course that meets daily throughout each fall semester. The instructor may recommend at the conclusion of ENG 235 that a student receive advanced-placement credit for 3 hours in ENG 131 or for 6 hours in both ENG 131 and 132 if the student performs well, usually earning a grade of A or B.

  7. Geology 131 and 132 (General Geology): The minimal passing grade is B.

  8. History 151 and 152 (Western Civilization) and 133 and 134 (United States History): The minimal passing grade is B.

  9. Mathematics 133 (Plane Trigonometry), 138 (College Algebra), and 139 (Plane Analytic Geometry): The minimal passing grade is C.

  10. Military Science: Students who have prior military service and students who participated in JROTC in high school may be eligible for advanced placement not to exceed four semesters. Eligibility will be determined by the professor of military science after interviewing the student.

  11. Modern Languages: Advanced placement with credit for courses bypassed may be earned in French and Spanish. Such credit is available in the sequence of French and Spanish 131-132, 231-232, 303; Spanish 235-320. In the 131-303 sequence, the student must earn a grade of C or higher in the course taken in order to receive bypass credit. In the case of 235-320, the student must earn a grade of A or a high B with recommendation of the instructor. Bypass credit may be earned only in sequence. Repeated courses do not carry bypass credit. In all cases, the student must apply for bypass credit from the dean of the College of Liberal and Applied Arts through the Department of Modern Languages.
    Students who are unsure as to proper placement in language courses are strongly encouraged to take the placement examination offered free each semester by the department. The examination carries no credit and is for placement only. On the basis of the score earned on the examination, the language adviser recommends a course commensurate with the student’s level of competence in the language.

    The student who chooses not to take the placement examination may use the following as a guide:

    1. With two years of previous language training, the student may enroll in 132.
    2. With three years of previous training, the student may enroll in 231.
    3. With four or more years of previous training, the student may enroll in 232.

  12. Music: Through internally administered examinations, students may earn a maximum of 6 hours credit in music theory. The minimal passing grade is B.

  13. Physics 110 (Fundamentals of Electronics), 131 (Mechanics & Heat), and 132 (Electricity, Sound, & Light): The minimal passing grade is B.

  14. Political Science 141 and 142: The minimal passing grade is C. To be eligible to take one or both tests, an entering (beginning) freshman student presents an ACT Composite Score of 25 or more, or an ACT Composite Score of 23 or more with ACT Social Studies Score of 27 or more. Freshman students with SAT composite scores of 1110 or more, or SAT Reading scores of 650 or more, are also eligible to take the exam(s). All other students must present evidence of an overall GPA of 3.00 or better to be eligible to take the exam(s).

    Advanced Placement Examinations for PSC 141 and PSC 142 are designed to determine the general information about American national and Texas state governments that the student has acquired. Material covered on each exam is readily available in any standard college-level American government or Texas state government textbook.

  15. Sociology 137 (Introduction to Sociology): Student seeking pass credit for Sociology 137 must earn a score of 50 or better on the Introduction to Sociology CLEP exam.

  16. Theatre: All courses currently offered by the Department of Theatre are available for advanced placement. The awarding of advanced placement signifies that the student has successfully met all academic and/or performance objectives for the course under consideration.
    The faculty member, when satisfied that the student has successfully met the objectives for the particular course, will recommend to the theatre faculty that advanced placement be awarded. The student will be granted advanced placement upon the approval vote of a majority of the theatre faculty. Notification of the awarding of advanced placement will be entered on the student’s official SFA transcript.

  17. SPH 172 and SPH 272 (Beginning and Intermediate American Sign Language): The SPH 172 Placement Test consists of:

    1. A computer-based test with vocabulary, phrases, numbers and finger-spelling

    2. Signing the “Three Little Pigs” following a model provided by the department. The SPH 272 departmental exam consists of:

      1. A computer-based receptive test

      2. An interview with a faculty member; for both tests a score of 80 percent or better is required

Students desiring to be considered for advanced placement should contact the departmental instructor currently or most recently teaching the particular course. The faculty member and student will devise an evaluation procedure consisting of examinations and/or projects that will attempt to assess the student’s competencies in the specific course content.

The awarding of advanced placement entitles the student to enroll in the next level course within the appropriate area of concentration, or place out of an area requirement if advanced credit is not stipulated in the degree plan. The awarding of advanced placement does not carry university credit nor require the student to pay tuition charges for awarded courses.

SFA students also can gain credit through the following programs:

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