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Challenge Examination

Russian Challenge Examination Instructions

IMPORTANT:  You are responsible for complying with all information and instructions on this flyer.  If you do not comply, you may not be able to receive your exam credit.

  1. BYU students must enroll in the designated course in order to test for 16 hours of lower-division language credit.  Russian students enroll in Russian 330. 
  2. You may take the exam if you are a native speaker of Russian.
  3. The Center for Language Study will email students with the dates of the Oral Proficiency Interview-Computer (OPIc) exam, which is what the Russian Program has decided to use as our Challenge Exam.
  4. If you wish to test for credit, please first enroll in Russ 330, and then wait for an information email from the Center for Language Study with further instructions. You must take the OPIc during the semester when you are enrolled in RUSS 330.
  5. Before you take the OPIc exam, you must request your Challenge Exam credit at this website: https://challengeexam.byu.edu. If you are not enrolled in the 330 course, your Challenge Exam credit request will be canceled.
  6. Russian students test for Russian 101, 102, 201 and 202 (four credits for each). Please select this bundle of courses. 
  7. University policy will not allow you to accept credit for a class you have already taken.  For example, if you took a Russian 101 class before your mission, you cannot accept exam credit for this class unless you petition through the Records office.
  8. The University will charge you a non-refundable $20 fee to apply for Challenge Exam credit. The YMessage system will send you an email informing you that there has been a charge posted to your account on My Financial Center.
  9. You must submit your challenge exam form and pay your $20 validation fee before you can receive credit for your selected courses.
  10. Go to https://ymessage.byu.edu or check challengeexam.byu.edu under “Exam Status” to see if your exam form has been approved.
  11. The Center for Language Studies will email you the dates of the OPIc. You do not have to contact the Department of German and Russian to get this information, even though the challenge exam website tells you to do this.

POST-EXAMINATION

  1. Your 330 instructor will fill in the grades for the 16 credit hours. S/he will do this after course grades are submitted at the end of the semester/term.
  2. You must complete your 330 course with a passing grade in order to claim your credits.
  3. BYU students receive letter grades for their courses.  The department does not give pass or fail grades.  
  4. Check https://ymessage.byu.edu to see if your grades are ready for you to accept online. You will get the email after final course grades have been submitted and your challenge grades entered on your exam form. 
  5. You may refuse any credit you do not wish to have posted on your transcript. However, once you refuse credit for a class you cannot go back and request those credits later. 
  6. Remember the University’s policy that you cannot accept exam credit for a course you have already taken.  The Records Office will enforce this policy.  The only way to have an exception is to petition through their office.
  7. Your grades post to your transcript after you have accepted them.    
  8. You have one year to accept your grades.  
  9. All challenge exam grades that you accept are calculated into your overall GPA.
  10. If you have questions about these instructions, please contact the Department of German and Russian in 3112 JFSB.