English Placement Policies for Students whose First Language is not English
Students whose first language is not English need to refer to the ESL Testing website for further information on the placement policies they must follow at Iowa State University. This includes students with ACT-E/SAT-V scores and students with transfer credit for English 150 and 250.
Automatic Exemption from English 150
Students can be exempted from English 150 and receive 3 hours of "T" credit for 150 if they meet one of the following criteria AND receive a "C" or better in English 250 taken at Iowa State University:
- If using ACT-E scores: ACT-E score of 24 or higher OR ACT-E score of 23 and high school rank of at least 75% or higher.
- If using SAT-V scores: SAT-V score of 550 or higher OR SAT-V score of 540 and high school rank of at least 75% or higher.
Students who do not have a high school rank but do have an ACT-E of 23 or SAT-V of 540 must take English 150 unless they pass the English 150 Placement Assessment.
This policy affects not only new students but also current students who have not yet fulfilled their ISUComm Foundation Courses requirements.
English 150 Placement Assessment
This is a test that allows students an opportunity to challenge their placement in English 150 if students' ACT-E/SAT-V scores are not high enough to automatically place them in English 250. Students are given 30 minutes to plan and write an essay on a prompt the ISUComm Foundation Courses Director has prepared. There is no fee to take the English 150 Placement Assessment.
The English 150 Placement Assessment will be administered by the Testing Office in January, April, June, July, August, and November. Students are to contact their college advising office for actual dates of the English 150 Placement Assessment. If a student demonstrates sufficiently high writing skills, student is placed in English 250. Listed below are the skills required for such a placement.
- Relevant examples and details to back up assertions.
- Good organization—sense of development and generally unified paragraphs.
- Fair command of vocabulary and sentence structure.
- Grammar, punctuation, spelling largely correct, with some occasional problems perhaps; overall, though, correctness doesn't seriously inhibit reading.
NOTE: Students who are exempted from or who place out of English 150 will receive 3 hours of "T" credit for English 150 only if they take English 250 at Iowa State University and receive at least a "C" in the course. English 250 must normally be completed by the end of the student's sophomore year.
For additional information, students should contact their college advising office.
Advanced Placement (AP) Credit for English 150
English Language and Composition Exam. Students who earn a score of 3 or better receive credit by examination for English 150.
English Literature and Composition Exam. Students who earn a score of 4 or better receive credit by examination for English 150. Students who have already placed into English 250 because of an ACT-E or SAT-V scores receive 3 credits of 100 Literature.
Students do not receive credit for English 250 based on Advanced Placement Exam scores.