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University Regents' Testing Program
Each institution of the University System of Georgia must assure the other institutions, and the System as a whole, that students obtaining degrees from that institution possess literary competence, that is, certain minimum skills of reading and writing. Therefore, students enrolled in undergraduate degree programs shall pass the Regents’ Test as a requirement for graduation. The policy of the Board of Regents states, “A student holding a baccalaureate degree or higher from a regionally accredited institution of higher education will not be required to complete the Regents’ Test in order to receive a degree from a University System institution.”
Moreover, students will be considered as having passed a part of the test if they achieve a score on another standardized test as specified by the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academics and Fiscal Affairs, University System of Georgia. The following tests and scores are approved, and other tests will be considered as data becomes available:
Students with SAT-1 Verbal scores of at least 510 or ACT Reading scores of at least 23 will be considered to have fulfilled the reading comprehension requirements of the Regents’ Test and do not have to take the reading portion of the Regents’ Test (Scores from institutional SAT or residual ACT tests will not be acceptable for this purpose).
Students with College Board Advanced Placement English Language and Composition or English Literature and Composition scores of at least 3, International Baccalaureate higher-level English scores of at least 4, or SAT II Writing scores of at least 650 will be considered as having fulfilled the essay requirement of the Regents’ Test and do not need to take the essay portion.
For more information on Regents’ Test policies as well as sample tests and instructions, see http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwrtp/.
- Students are expected to register for and take both components of the Regents’ Test prior to the accumulation of 45 semester hours of earned credit. Students should not delay initial testing beyond having earned 30 hours of degree credit and may take and fail the test as many times as needed prior to 45 hours without remediation.
- Students who have not taken the Regents’ Test prior to the end of the semester in which they will have accumulated 45 semester hours of earned credit are subject to denial of registration.
- All students who have not passed the test, whether they have taken the test or not, by the time they earn 45 semester hours of degree credit must take the appropriate non-degree credit course or courses in remedial writing, RGTE 0199, and remedial reading, RGTR 0198, in each semester of attendance until they have passed all components of the test. The students must successfully pass the remedial course in reading and/or writing before they are allowed to take the reading and/or writing portion of the test again. Students who fail to enroll in the required remedial course will not be allowed to register at VSU.
- Students transferring within the University System of Georgia shall be subject to all provisions of this policy and to VSU procedures. Students transferring from outside the System with 45 or more earned semester hours shall register for and take the Regents’ Test within the first two semesters of enrollment and in subsequent semesters shall be subject to all provisions of the policy and of VSU procedures.
- Students must follow the same course registration procedure to register for both components of the Regents’ Test and the remedial courses.
- Foreign students on non-immigrant visas who native language is not English may register for an alternative testing program. Students should register through the Foreign Student Advisor. Resident aliens, permanent residents, native speakers of English, and U.S. citizens, regardless of native language, must pass the standard Regents’ Test.
REVIEW
The purpose of the review process is to provide a procedure for correcting errors in the rating of essays. It should be emphasized that because the Test is rated by three independent graders, few such errors occur.