Graduate Comprehensive Exams (for MA and PhD students in LLC)
Comprehensive Exams for MA, MAT & PhD:
Comprehensive examinations for MA, MAT and PhD candidates are scheduled on the Thursday
and Friday prior to beginning classes in the Spring semester.
Make-up exams are held on the first Thursday and/or Friday in April.
Exams generally begin in the morning and are held at the Ted Mimms Language Laboratory in the Humanities Classroom Building. Examinees are expected to write their answers on computer, and will be provided one by the lab. Completed exams are then e-mailed as attachments to the graduate director directly from the lab for subsequent distribution to the committee.
If you have any questions, please contact the graduate advisor for your program, or the graduate director, Prof. Francisco Sanchez (sanchezf@mailbox.sc.edu).
Graduate Reading-Knowledge Exams
Arabic | Chinese | French | German | Italian | Japanese | Latin | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish
The Graduate Reading Proficiency Exam is for graduate students who are majoring in other disciplines. FREN, GERM, LATN, and SPAN 615 are designed to prepare students to take the examination(s) that satisfies the basic FL graduate reading requirement. The courses are available on a pass / fail basis only.
Foreign Language and/or Research Methods
Language and research methods requirements for the Master’s degree vary from program to program and must be approved by the academic program’s graduate director and the dean of The Graduate School. Programs which directly involve language study may have additional language requirements. Satisfying the requirement may entail one or more of the following: successful completion of an intensive reading course in a language approved by The Graduate School (e.g., SPAN 615), successful completion of a course at the intermediate level of language proficiency within six years previous of the award of the degree, or a passing grade on a language reading proficiency examination administered by the UofSC Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (DLLC).Students should contact DLLC for language course and testing information. Programs which directly involve language study may have additional language requirements.
Students have three opportunities to pass the language course or satisfy the reading proficiency examination. The Graduate School must be notified by the academic program of a student’s successful completion of the language requirement.
The student should make arrangements to complete the foreign language and/or research
methods requirements at the earliest opportunity. Certification of foreign language
and/or research methods competency for master’s students remains valid for six years,
after which it must be revalidated.
Chinese Reading Exam, contact Prof. Tan Ye.
The graduate reading exam in French requires the translation from French into English
of a 500 word passage. Candidates will have two hours and may use a dictionary and
one additional grammar aid, such as a verb dictionary. Additional materials are not
allowed.
Students may prepare for the exam by consulting a good grammar review book and
by doing practice translations. Additional preparation is offered in French 615, but
students do not need to be enrolled in French 615 in order to take the exam. French
615 is generally offered once a year (in either the spring or summer sessions).
The Graduate French Reading Exam will be given Thursday, December 14, 4:00 p.m. in HUCB 415. Please contact Prof. Jeanne Garane at garanej@mailbox.sc.edu to sign up for the
exam. Please write "French Reading Proficiency Exam" in the subject line.
German Reading exam
The graduate reading exam in German requires the translation into English of a 400-word
passage. Candidates will have two hours and may use a dictionary. Candidates without
advanced translation skills are strongly encouraged to take German 615, even if they
have studied German previously.
German 615 assumes no previous knowledge of the language. It is generally offered
in the Spring semester with at least three scheduled exam dates. Please direct all
inquiries to Professor Kurt Goblirsch at kurt@sc.edu.
Students may take the scheduled exams even if they are not registered for German 615.
Please contact the instructor at least two weeks in advance to reserve a spot.
Italian Reading Exam
Contact Prof. Pia Bertucci
The graduate reading exam in Japanese requires the translation from Japanese into English of two passages. One passage is lower intermediate level with about 400 Japanese characters (about 200 English word translation) and the other passage is upper intermediate level with about 400 Japanese characters (about 200 English word translation). The lower intermediate level passage does not have “furigana (kanji reading aid)” but the upper intermediate level passage includes “furigana.”
Candidates will have two hours to complete the exam. Candidates may use one Japanese-English dictionary and one additional grammar aid such as a grammar dictionary. No other additional materials are allowed.
Students are suggested to prepare for the exam by doing practice translations using good intermediate level reading comprehension practice books.
The graduate reading exam in Japanese is given during finals week in the fall and in the spring upon requests. Graduate school students who wish to take the graduate reading exam in Japanese, please contact Shunko Muroya, Japanese Program instructor, at muroya@mailbox.sc.edu to sign up for the exam at least two weeks in advance. Please write "Graduate reading exam in Japanese” in the subject area.
Latin Reading Exam
The next opportunity to take the Latin Reading Exam will be at the end of Summer II
during the final exam scheduled for Latin 615. Students who wish to take the exam
must take it during one of these times. You should bring a student ID and writing materials. You may consult a Latin dictionary
during the test. No electronic devices of any kind are permitted.
Please note that most students do not have enough experience with Latin to pass the
Graduate Reading Exam without proper preparation. Students must be prepared to translate
into English unedited passages from Classical Latin authors. Students are strongly
urged to take the intensive courses offered by the Classics program that will prepare
students for the exam. Latin 614-615 will be offered Summer I and Summer II, respectively,
2012. Students who wish to pass the Graduate Reading Exam in Latin should take these
two courses.
Students interested in taking the exam during January of the Spring semester should
contact Dr. Gardner for further details.
For information, contact Prof. Hunter Gardner.
Portuguese Reading Exam, contact Prof. Andrew Rajca
Russian Reading Exam, contact Prof. Judith Kalb.
Spanish Reading Examination Information
Students are encouraged to take SPAN 615 when offered. However, in the absence of the course, students have the opportunity to take an examination offered twice a year, typically in December and April the week after classes have had their last meeting. Students may use a Spanish/English dictionary for the examination. The examination is a 500-word passage in the area of Humanities. Students have 90 minutes in which to render the passage into English; the professor will e-mail the results to the students, and provide notification to the student’s home program and to the Graduate School, as appropriate. Students who receive no notification by email should contact the professor within three days of the exam.
The Spring 2021 Spanish reading exam will take place on Blackboard on Wednesday April 28 from 4 to 5:30 pm. Please contact Prof. Rebecca Janzen at janzenr@mailbox.sc.edu with your name, email address, graduate program and name and email of graduate advisor/director to enroll.
The only reference material you will be allowed to bring to the exam is a Spanish/English dictionary.