Proficiency Exams

Proficiency exams allow undergraduate students to gain exemption from the Non-English Language Proficiency requirement in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences by establishing that your ability in a second language is equivalent to that of someone who has studied that language for four semesters at the college level.

Proficiency exams are intended for students with knowledge of a second language that cannot be documented through academic transcripts. That knowledge may have been gained through time abroad, attending high school where the primary language of instruction was not English, or through regular contact with speakers of a second language at home or in the community at large. Proficiency exams require testing in reading, writing, speaking and listening in a second language.

If you are a native speaker of English and wish to prove proficiency in a second language, there are two paths:

  • If you wish to claim proficiency in a language taught at KU, you should consult the department offering that language.  If there is an online placement exam available for that language, you should take that exam first to get a sense of how your knowledge corresponds to the levels of instruction at KU.  Completion of a course at the fourth semester of language study (or above) is also sufficient to fulfill the four-semester language requirement.
  • If you wish to claim proficiency in a language not taught at KU, you should contact College Advising & Student Services.

If you are a native speaker of a language other than English, it is most likely that your proficiency in a second language can be proved through academic transcripts.  This might be as simple as establishing that the language of instruction in your high school was a language other than English, that you have appropriate scores on standardized English tests, or that you have completed required coursework in the Applied English Center.  For more information about requesting exemption from the four-semester requirement, you should contact College Advising & Student Services.