Placement Exam, Prerequisites, and Exemption

FLATS test, Placement Exam, SPAN 3000 Exemption, AP and IB Credit, Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish

If you graduated from high school from an institution in a Spanish speaking country, you are eligible to take classes above the SPAN 3000 level and do not need to take the placement exam. Please write to spanport@colorado.edu with a screen shot of your transcript showing your high school info and request to be registered in the content course of your choice. (Note that you may not take SPAN 3000 Advanced Spanish Language Skills nor SPAN 3002 Advanced Spanish Conversation).   If you major in Spanish, you will replace the SPAN 3000 requirement with two other upper division content courses.  If you minor in Spanish, you will replace the SPAN 2120 and SPAN 3000 requirements with three other upper division content courses.

FLATS test
If you are proficient in a language other than English, you might be able to "test out" of the language requirement for a fee. Please go here and take the steps described on this webpage.

Placement Exam
To assess which level of Spanish might be most appropriate for you, there is an on-line placement exam here.
Even though this exam is not an exemption exam, it is a useful tool to determine your proficiency in Spanish.
Please note that after taking the test you must enroll in the level indicated. Simply taking the placement exam does not automatically enroll you in a course, nor does it grant credits for courses out of which you might place.
Please write to spanport@colorado.edu to be enrolled in a level for which you have not completed the prerequisites and notify us to check your exam score; upon doing so we can enroll you.

SPAN 3000 exemption
If you test into SPAN 3000 with the score of 55 to 60, you are more than welcome to stay in SPAN 3000. If you wish to see if you can be exempt, follow these steps:
a) Register for SPAN 3000.
b) Take a written Spanish exam and receive a score of 70 or higher (out of 100). This exam will be taken on the Friday of the first week of the semester at a time and place determined by the SPAN 3000 Coordinator. This will be the only time the Coordinator is available. Before taking this exam, please email the SPAN 3000 Coordinator to request the document called “SPAN 3000 exemption exam instructions”. If your score in the Spanish placement exam is lower than 55, you do not qualify to take this exam. If you graduated from an institution in a Spanish-speaking country, you are exempt from this exam. Please see information at the top of this document.
c) You will receive the results of the exam by the end of the second week of the semester. If you pass this exam, the SPAN 3000 Coordinator will inform the Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies and they will waive the SPAN 3000 requirement for you to enroll in upper division courses.
d) Please note that this exam does not award class credit. If you wish to complete Spanish Minor or any track of the Spanish Major, you must replace the 5 credits of SPAN 3000 with two other upper division courses in Spanish.
e) International Affairs students who pass the exemption exam must take two of the following three courses: SPAN 3010, SPAN 3100 or SPAN 3120.

AP and IB credit
If you took the AP or the IB exam, please read the information provided here.
Then contact the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at spanport@colorado.edu. In your email, please send a screen shot of your AP or IB score from your transcript (or the AP/IB website). Depending on your score, please request to be registered in the following courses (please indicate a specific section number in your email):

AP credit:
If you have an AP score of 3 on the Spanish Language and Culture exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 2120 (with a specific section).
If you have an AP score of 4 on the Spanish Language and Culture exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 3000 (with a specific section).
If you have an AP score of 5 on the Spanish Language and Culture exam, please review all the SPAN 3000-level content courses and send request to be registered for one of those courses with a specific section.

IB credit:
If you receive a score of 6 on the Spanish AB Standard exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 1020 (with a specific section).
If you receive a score of 4 on Spanish B Standard exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 2110 (with a specific section).
If you receive a score of 4 or 5 on the Spanish B Higher exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 3000 (with a specific section).
If you receive a score of 6 or 7 on the Spanish B Higher exam, please review all the SPAN 3000-level content courses and send request to be registered for one of those courses with specific section.
If you receive a score of 4 on the Spanish A Language and Literature Higher exam, please review all the SPAN 3000-level content courses and send request to be registered for one of those courses with specific section. Do not take SPAN 3100, since you already have credit for this course.

Seal of Biliteracy for Spanish

Congratulations on achieving your Seal of Biliteracy for Spanish! If you wish to continue studying Spanish, you will need to reach out to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese to register for your first Spanish course. But before you reach out, please take these steps to determine correct level:
A. If do not have AP or IB scores, please take the on-line Spanish Placement exam here, to determine if SPAN 2120 or SPAN 3000 is the correct level for you and write to spanport@colorado.edu with this information and request to be registered in section of your choice.
If you score between 55-60 on the on-line placement exam and wish to take the SPAN 3000 exemption exam, please contact the SPAN 3000 coordinator.
B. If you took the AP or the IB exam, please read the information provide here.
Then contact the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at spanport@colorado.edu. In your email, please send a screen shot of your AP or IB score from your transcript (or the AP/IB website). Depending on your score, please request to be registered in the following courses (please indicate a specific section number in your email):

AP credit:
If you have an AP score of 3 on the Spanish Language and Culture exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 2120 (with a specific section).
If you have an AP score of 4 on the Spanish Language and Culture exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 3000 (with a specific section).
If you have an AP score of 5 on the Spanish Language and Culture exam, please review all the SPAN 3000-level content courses and send request to be registered for one of those courses with specific section.

IB credit:
If you receive a score of 4 or 5 on the Spanish B Higher exam, please request to be enrolled in SPAN 3000 (with a specific section).
If you receive a score of 6 or 7 on the Spanish B Higher exam, please review all the SPAN 3000-level content courses and send request to be registered for one of those courses with specific section.
If you receive a score of 4 on the Spanish A Language and Literature Higher exam, please review all the SPAN 3000-level content courses and send request to be registered for one of those courses with specific section. Do not take SPAN 3100, since you already have credit for this course.