In early March of 2011, Julie Garrison, a 23-year-old transfer student from Ohio State University, sat in a cramped room at Armstrong working diligently to pass the only thing standing between her and a remedial English course — the Regents' Test.
Garrison was one of the roughly 1,000 students taking the exam that March.
"I was so nervous about the possibility of failing. The topics I had to choose from were absolutely ridiculous, because you would never write about them in a normal English class," she said. "Then, my hand started cramping right around the time the testers announced there were only five minutes remaining. The whole experience was just really stressful."
Like about 75 percent of Armstrong students who take the Regents' Test, Garrison passed it on her first attempt. The other 25 percent either had to retake the test or enroll in a regents remediation course, depending on the overall scores raters gave them.
This March, 1,337 students were signed up to face the same daunting scenario, until university officials sent out an e-mail notification Feb. 21, announcing Armstrong's exemption from the Regents' Exam.
In early March of 2011, Julie Garrison, a 23-year-old transfer student from Ohio State University, sat in a cramped room at Armstrong working diligently to pass the only thing standing between her and a remedial English course — the Regents' Test.
Garrison was one of the roughly 1,000 students taking the exam that March.
"I was so nervous about the possibility of failing. The topics I had to choose from were absolutely ridiculous, because you would never write about them in a normal English class," she said. "Then, my hand started cramping right around the time the testers announced there were only five minutes remaining. The whole experience was just really stressful."
Like about 75 percent of Armstrong students who take the Regents' Test, Garrison passed it on her first attempt. The other 25 percent either had to retake the test or enroll in a regents remediation course, depending on the overall scores raters gave them.
This March, 1,337 students were signed up to face the same daunting scenario, until university officials sent out an e-mail notification Feb. 21, announcing Armstrong's exemption from the Regents' Exam.
The Board of Regents
In October 2009, the Board of Regents approved a new core curriculum for the University System of Georgia, requiring all institutions to develop learning outcome and assessment measures in various subject areas.