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Testing and Placement Guidelines

 

No TOEFL or TOEFL Below 520: International students without TOEFL scores or with TOEFL scores below 520 will receive a letter from CTC stating that they must arrive at school earlier than other students. This is necessary because they are required to take a series of English language tests at this time. These tests will determine if students need DSLA courses, if they need more advanced programs (non-transferable credit), or if they are ready to begin regular academic courses (transferable credit). The tests will also tell which DSLA courses are appropriate for each student.

This early testing is extremely important because it generally saves students time and money. Unlike other schools which require students to complete all courses of an English language program before taking academic courses, CTC identifies student language deficiencies, or weaknesses, and requires only those courses needed to improve necessary language skills. If students can demonstrate through testing that they don't need specific English language courses, they are allowed to skip those courses and go on to more advanced ones. Therefore, it's possible, based on results of early testing, that a student may be allowed to:

  1. take DSLA classes from different levels at the same time
  2. take some DSLA courses and some regular academic courses at the same time
  3. demonstrate ESL mastery and skip DSLA entirely

Also, if a student successfully completes all DSLA courses, he is eligible to move into more advanced non-transferable credit courses and may be eligible to move into regular academic courses.


TOEFL 520+: Students who enter with a TOEFL score of 520 or more do not need to take DSLA courses or participate in early English language testing. They must, however, follow the same placement procedures as all other American students and take the CTC Placement Test. This is a test of general skills in reading, writing, and math. It will determine if other non-transferable credit courses (at a higher level than DSLA) are needed before taking academic courses.