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Reading and writing skills are put to the test for another time by the Regents

By Daniel Bell
Editor

There will be some new math additions to the Regents' Test as early as this semester and an entirely new section starting fall 2003. The math section will not count until new students who register for fall 2003 classes take the test.

According to Dr. Virginia Carson, vice president for academic affairs, the Board of Regents currently has a pool of new items that they will begin testing at select colleges this fall. Carson strongly believes that Georgia Highlands College will be among those schools chosen to participate in the new testing.

The Board of Regents will then take the feedback from those items and put together a whole new math section that will be given on a volunteer basis in spring 2003. This section will not count toward a student's grade at that time.

Then, beginning with first-time students who register starting fall 2003, the math portion will be added to the Regents' Test and will need to be passed before students can graduate or transfer.

"The math portion will start with new students next August," said Carson. "If someone becomes a new student the summer before that, they will not have to take the math exam."

She recommends that students who will be starting college next year‚ and do not wish to take the math section‚ take classes the summer before. That way, they are registered students before the new test is in place.

Dr. Tim Floyd, chair of academic support, said he thought students would "do just as well with a math section" as they do now with the reading and composition sections. He said he does not feel that the failure rate will increase at all.

The Regents' Test is a graduation requirement throughout the University System of Georgia for all students in transfer degree programs. The test currently has two parts, measuring skills in both competence in reading and composition.

Students must take the test in the semester after they have completed 30 semester hours‚ and it is recommended that they take English 1101 before attempting the test.

Students who have earned 45 hours and have not passed or attempted the Regents' Test must take a remedial class for the section they have not completed. That is, if students fail the reading portion, they must then take a remedial class for reading, but only if they have completed 45 hours of semester credit.

The next Regents' Test will be given Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., but the registration deadline has already passed. For information concerning the next test date‚ go to the Assessment Center in the FC Library or contact Phyllis Chunn, Assessment Center coordinator, at (706) 802-5318.