ASL Placement Testing and Transfer Credit

PLACEMENT TESTING, CREDIT BY EXAMINATION, TRANSFER and TRANSIENT CREDIT

• If you have had no formal training in ASL, or one year of high school or community college ASL, it is recommended that you begin with Elementary ASL I.
• If you think that you may be able to place into a course level higher than ASL I because of additional experience, please sign up for one of the placement testing dates (information below).
• If you wish to obtain credit, Credit By Examination (CBE) testing and Retroactive Credit are available. Consult Placement and Alternative Credit for more information.

ASL placement exams and CBE tests cover not only whether or not you can sign at a certain level, but also if you have mastered the related concepts for a level. For example, being able to inflect verbs is good, but you also need to know what you are doing when you inflect verbs - you need to be aware of distribution and other aspects. Questions related to culture and history are also a part of this test.

Placement exams and CBE are NOT the same as Sign Communication Proficiency Interviews, Sign Language Proficiency Interviews, or American Sign Language Proficiency Interviews.  The SCPI, SLPI or ASLPI are intended to be evaluations of your final ASL skills, after completion of most of your coursework, to document your ASL levels for future employment needs.

ASL Placement Test Schedule 

For upcoming placement dates, see the information about Placement and Alternative Credit.

TRANSFER AND TRANSIENT CREDIT

Because course content across institutions is not equivalent, transfer students wishing to continue their ASL studies at Kent State must take the placement test to document equivalency and in order to ensure that they are enrolled in the right course. Even if transfer credit is awarded after evaluation of a transcript, this does not necessarily constitute permission to enroll in the next level of ASL.

Transient students are those who matriculate at Kent State and then take a course outside (for example, during the summer months when they may be living elsewhere). Transient credit requests must be pre-approved by the department chairperson before you take the course or the credits will not be accepted. Because many Ohio institutions do not have curricula equivalent to ours, not all requests can be approved. Do not take outside coursework assuming that you will be able to transfer the credits and/or continue to the next level of ASL.