SPAN Credit by Exam

The Credit by Exam (CBE) in Spanish is offered on a rolling basis in Blackboard. The students interested in taking this exam should contact:

The CBE will be offered on these days:

Fall 2024

  1. Wednesday, September 25
  2. Wednesday, October 23
  3. Wednesday, November 20

Remember to email either Professor Olmedo Gobante or Professor Magnetti if you are interested to take the exam 72 hours prior to the desired date. They will inform you if your request has been approved. Once you are approved, please use the form below to register for you preferred time slot.

 

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Upper Level Exam

To qualify for the "Fast Track" exam, students must demonstrate native or near-native proficiency prior to taking the exam. The qualification is based primarily on the linguistic skills of the student, not their ethnicity or nationality. The exam cannot be repeated. Credit is earned based on test scores.

In order to comply with university policy, effective Fall 2017, new and transferring Native and Heritage Spanish speakers may earn up to 6 credit hours by taking a shorter advanced “Fast Track” Spanish exam. 

Students scoring 80% or more in the exam will receive credit for SPAN 3003 and 3033.
A score of 79% or below receives no credit.

Students with native and near-native Spanish proficiency may take a fast track exam to earn credit for up to 9 credit hours of Spanish credit for the following courses: SPAN 3003, SPAN 3033, and SPAN 4003. :

Students scoring 80% or more in the exam will receive credit for SPAN 3003, 3033, and 4003.
Students scoring 70-79% in the exam will receive credit for SPAN 3003 and 3033.
A score of 69% or lower receives no credit.

 

Lower Level Exam

There are 4 lower level credit exams available. Each exam may take up to two hours and consists of several sections on vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, and listening.

Students scoring 80% or more in this exam will receive 12 hours of Spanish credit for the following courses: SPAN 2013, SPAN 2003, SPAN 1013, and SPAN 1003.

Students scoring 70-79% will receive 9 hours of Spanish credit for SPAN 2003, SPAN 1013, and SPAN 1003.

Students scoring 60-69% will receive 6 hours of Spanish credit for SPAN 1013 and SPAN 1003.

A score of 59% or lower receives no credit. The exam cannot be repeated.

Students scoring 80% or more in this exam will receive 9 hours of Spanish credit for the following courses: SPAN 2003, SPAN 1013, and SPAN 1003.

Students scoring 70-79% will receive 6 hours of Spanish credit for SPAN 1013, and SPAN 1003.

Students scoring 60-69% will receive 3 hours of Spanish credit for SPAN 1003.

A score of 59% or lower receives no credit. The exam cannot be repeated.

Students scoring 80% or more in this exam will receive 6 hours of Spanish credit for the following courses: SPAN 1013 and SPAN 1003.

Students scoring 70-79% will receive 3 hours of Spanish credit for SPAN 1003.

A score of 69% or lower receives no credit. The exam cannot be repeated.

Students scoring 80% or more in this exam will receive 3 hours of Spanish credit for the following course: SPAN 1003.

A score of 79% or lower receives no credit. The exam cannot be repeated.

 

EXAM INFORMATION

The CBE is offered online through the UofA Blackboard platform. It will be available the 24 hrs. of the corresponding days. It is required to download and install the “Respondus Lockdown Browser" before taking the exam. This software also provides the additional proctoring method that it is used for the exam: the Respondus Monitor Webcam. Students taking the exam must use a computer or device that has a webcam. In order to download and install this software, students must follow this link:  https://tips.uark.edu/lockdown-student-quickstart/

Once students’ preregistration has been approved, they will have access to the section-platform called “Credit by Exam” listed with the rest of their courses in Blackboard. Although the exam will only be available on the corresponding day, students will have access to a short quiz ("system check required before taking the exam" / one question) in the platform. All students taking the CBE are required to take this short quiz prior to the day of the exam. They must use the “Respondus Lockdown Browser & Monitor Webcam” with the same computer or device that they will use on the day of the exam. This quiz will allow the professors to verify that the students’ equipment is ready for the exam.

All students taking CBE must read the instructions related to our section-platform so that they learn how to navigate in it to be able to take the “short quiz” and later the exam.

 

TOPICS AND MATERIALS

Preparing for the Upper Level Exam

The exam will assess students’ Spanish skills in a variety of ways, including fill in the blank grammar questions, reading comprehension exercises, and short writing exercises.

Native and Heritage Speakers students may not be familiar with the names of the grammatical structures, so they need to make sure to know them before the exam: subjuntivo, imperfecto, infinitivo, etc.

Before the exam, students must review the following topics:

  • Difference between the imperfect and the preterite.
  • Uses of the present, future, and conditional.
  • Uses of the subjunctive.
  • Uses of the infinitive and the gerund in Spanish.
  • Accent marks.
  • Spelling differences in English-Spanish cognate words (immigration, psychology, governor, etc.)

 

Preparing for the Lower Level Exam

Each exam consists of several sections on vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, and listening.

Vocabulary: shopping and commerce, professions and the business world, the arts, animals and the environment, and health-related issues.

Grammatical structures: imperfect subjunctive, past perfect subjunctive, conditional clauses / simple tenses (conditional and imperfect subjunctive), conditional clauses / compound tenses (perfect conditional and past perfect subjunctive), nominal clauses (uses of the present indicative, present subjunctive and the infinite), sequence of tenses, non-fault structure (el se inocente), and passive voice.

Reading, writing, and listening: these sections’ components will be based on the vocabulary theme and the grammatical structures.

Vocabulary: sports, pastimes, and travel.

Grammatical structures: verb “to be” (ser vs. estar), the prepositions por and para, difference between the imperfect and the preterite, nominal clauses (present indicative vs. present subjunctive / present perfect indicative vs. present perfect subjunctive), and adjective clauses (present indicative vs. present subjunctive / present perfect indicative vs. present perfect subjunctive).

Reading, writing, and listening: these sections’ components will be based on the vocabulary theme and the grammatical structures.

Vocabulary: food, clothing, and health.

Grammatical structures: regular, irregular and stem change verbs in the present indicative, verb “to be” (ser vs. estar), regular, irregular and stem change verbs in the preterite, difference between the imperfect and the preterite, the prepositions por and para, and present indicative vs. present subjunctive in nominal clauses.

Reading, writing, and listening: these sections’ components will be based on the vocabulary theme and the grammatical structures.

Vocabulary: personal information, family relationships, university life, homes, and places around towns.

Grammatical structures: regular and irregular verbs in the present indicative, verb “to be” (ser vs. estar), regular verbs in the preterite, demostrative pronouns, adverbs, direct object pronouns, and the verb “to know” (saber vs. conocer).

Reading, writing, and listening: these sections’ components will be based on the vocabulary theme and the grammatical structures.

 

Materials for the Lower and Upper Level Exams:

For a grammar review, students should consult any advanced grammar book and/or see the following links: 

CREDIT PROCESS

After the student is notified that s/he passed the exam, the student must complete the appropriate number of credit by exam forms (i.e. one for each course that s/he will be receiving credit for). The credit by exam form is in located here on the Registrar's website.

Then, the student must send them to Manuel Olmedo Gobante at molmedog@uark.edu  (Upper Level) or Brenda Magnetti (lower Level) at bmagnet@uark.edu in order to start the process with the WLLC chair and the registrar.

 

BILLING AND TRANSCRIPT

 Once the student completes the credit by exam forms, they will be sent to the registrar, which will bill his/her account and update his/her transcripts.