NOVA students take Spanish courses for a variety of reasons, including for personal enjoyment and growth, current or future career opportunities or because it is their heritage language. You may have registered for a Spanish course because your degree requires four semesters of a world language. Must you begin with Spanish 101, though? 

The answer is “No, not necessarily.” You are not required to take 101 if you already know the material covered in the course. You may have learned some Spanish at another school or have spoken it or heard it at home. This means you may possibly start at 102 (or even 201 or 205 or only need to take one course, which would be 202 or 206). This will save you TIME and MONEY.

We have a free placement exam available to you at the Alexandria Testing Center to help make sure you are registered for the right course. Please visit the Testing Center site https://www.nvcc.edu/alexandria/testing/index.html or contact Prof. Martha Davis (mdavis@nvcc.edu) for details.

Also, after attending the first one (or two or three) classes, you realize that you are better served by taking a different level, whether higher or lower, please let your instructor know. He or she can help you switch classes.