You cannot fulfill the foreign language requirement of the College of Arts and Sciences or other schools on the Indiana University Bloomington campus (nor the university’s general education requirements) simply by taking the online placement exam. Depending on the requirement, it may be fulfilled by taking AP or IB exams (see the Office of Admissions website). However, normally a student with prior knowledge of Italian must take the online Indiana University placement exam and then complete at least one “validating course” in Italian.
Italian Placement & Special Credit
Placement exam
If you have previous knowledge of Italian, you must take the online placement exam through the Bloomington Evaluation Services and Testing Office. The scores will be made available to you during the orientation session for freshmen or transfer students, or you can check with the Department to obtain your score. The placement exam is used only to place you at the correct level as you start your language study at Indiana University. It is not used to establish proficiency in the language or to receive any university credit. To be clear, if you test out of M100 or M150 with the placement exam, you will NOT receive credit for those courses. If you test out of any 200-level Italian course, see Special Credit, below.
The online placement exam costs $54, which covers all language placement exams for one academic year. This amount will be billed to your Bursar account.
| Score | Placement |
|---|---|
| 41-53 | M150 |
| 54-66 | M200 |
| 67+ | M250 |
If you want to find out your test results, you are not sure in what level to enroll, or you score 75 or higher, please contact the director of language instruction in Italian, Professor Serafin. Very commonly, students who skip this important step enroll in the wrong class and have to switch classes during the semester.
Advanced placement + IB credit
You should consult the Office of Admissions website to find out about credit in Italian given as a result of Advanced Placement (AP) exams or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.
Special credit for M200
To apply for special credit, you must complete the Request for Special Credit Form.
If you take the online placement exam and test into M250, you may apply for special credit for M200 (3 credit hours) after you have completed M250 with a grade of C or better. The M250 course must be the first course in Italian taken at IUB. M250 is considered the “validating course.”
If you take the online placement exam and test into M250 and then contact Prof. Serafin and she decides you can be placed into M300, you may claim special credit for M200 (3 cr.) and M250 (3 cr.) after you have completed M300 with a grade of C or better. M300, which is the “validating course” in this case, must be the first course in Italian taken at Indiana University Bloomington. M301 may be substituted for M300 with her permission.
Fees may be assessed depending on your credit hour enrollment for specified semesters. Special Credit is awarded with an S grade.
A transfer course can NOT be used as a validating course to apply for Special Credit. You can only take the Indiana University Bloomington validating course ONCE in an effort to achieve the minimum grade of C to then apply for Special Credit. Also, if you are fluent in Italian due to being raised or educated in Italy, you are NOT eligible to receive Special Credit in Italian.
Please note that if you have taken a lower level course than the one you are requesting special credit for here at Indiana University Bloomington and skipped that course we cannot award credit for the course.
If you believe you have met the requirements for Special Credit please email us at the Department of French and Italian and we can verify your transcript and send the request over to the Registrar.
Course permissions
Online permission is needed for our individual readings courses, and for our online language classes above M100.
- Online language classes above M100: Please email the Director of Language Instruction in Italian, Prof. Karolina Serafin.
- X493 - Individual Readings and M499 - Readings for Honors: Please download and complete the Permission for Individual Readings Form.
The College of Arts