Proficiency Credit

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Proficiency examinations offer students the opportunity to obtain credit for experience relevant to certain courses, for individual study of subjects, or for prior learning including courses taken at unaccredited institutions.

Credit earned by proficiency examination in a course is equivalent to credit earned by enrollment in that course for the purposes of satisfying a requirement.

A student who wants to earn credit by taking a proficiency exam must report to the Office of Student Records in order to fill out an application and to pay a fee equal to the tuition for the course for which credit is sought. The student must then obtain the signatures of the appropriate Dean and Vice President of Instruction. When the application is complete, it must be returned to the Office of Student Records before arrangements are made for taking the exam. The time and location of proficiency examinations are decided by the department and depend upon the availability of staff.

While the college recognizes that proficiency credit can be a legitimate form of assessing student knowledge outside of the traditional classroom setting, it will be the practice of the college to grant this form of credit only in rare and extenuating circumstances. Each request will be evaluated on its own merit and the decision of the Vice President of Instruction will be final.

Rend Lake College also recognizes that there are several varieties of industry-recognized certifications. The administration will evaluate whether to grant proficiency credit for industry certification on a request-by-request basis. There is no guarantee that the college will grant proficiency credit for industry-recognized certification.

Content of the proficiency credit examination will be determined solely by the full-time instructor or instructors of the course and the Dean responsible for the program for which Proficiency Credit is sought. In the event the course is only taught by a part-time instructor, that instructor and the Dean will determine the content of the examination. A minimum score of 80% will be required to pass any proficiency test given by Rend Lake College.