Non-Credit Proficiency Certification and Credit by Examination in World Languages
Some students seek to satisfy language requirements by means other than taking coursework. If their situations fall within the criteria established by Penn State’s Foreign Language Placement Policy, they may request that the relevant language and literature departments provide Non-Credit Proficiency Certification.
SGLLC offers proficiency language certification for the following languages we teach:
Arabic
Chinese (Mandarin)
French
German
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Ukrainian
As of January 1, 2026, SGLLC will stop arranging proficiency language exams for languages we do not offer, as we do not have excellent, highly-trained instructors able to deliver & access exams that meet professional standards.
Please note the following important information about students already enrolled:
Any student who is already enrolled at Penn State is “grandfathered in” by the existing practices. For those students, when requested, we will try our best to find someone who is qualified to offer an exam that meets professional standards for languages that we don’t offer in SGLLC.
Students who enroll at Penn State after January 1, 2026, however, are not “grandfathered in.” In cases like these, most BTAA schools require a formal, third-party certification through organizations like ACTFL, ALTA, Avant, CLEP, AP, or IB or utilize another university’s testing services (U Penn Language Center, Brigham Young U FLATS, or NYU’s School of Professional Studies).
Non-Credit Proficiency Certification: this process does not confer credits. There is a fee of $60 for this optional service. This is the more common type of certification offered by the School of Global Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at University Park. However, in each individual case students should check with the relevant department whether certification options are available.
The Penn State requirements regarding world languages emphasize reaching a certain level of proficiency rather than obtaining a certain number of credits in a world language, unless specified by the student’s program. This focus is consistent with many situations where students need to document just their proficiency in a language and not necessarily the credits they took in that language.
Students seeking Non-Credit Proficiency Certification in Foreign Languages should use the Non-Credit form available here. Please contact the department that offers the language curriculum (as specified on the form) at least one semester prior to when the certification will be needed or the semester before graduation. Please do not wait until you are close to graduation. It is not guaranteed that all requests will be fulfilled. If the language department cannot fulfill the request, the student will be notified and can seek alternative means of documenting proficiency (such as taking an external standardized exam in the language or taking a different language). If the language department can fulfill the request, the certification fee must be paid before the examination is administered. For questions about this policy, contact the relevant language department, or the School of Global Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (Contact: 466 Burrowes Building, (814) 865-7233, langlit@psu.edu).
Request for the Non-Credit Proficiency Certification in Foreign Languages