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Arabic Program

Validation

It is completely possible to gain USNA academic course credits for Arabic coursework you have completed outside of the Naval Academy curriculum, and this is referred to as course "validation." There are a number of reasons why an individual would want to validate courses, and there are a variety of  ways to validate courses within the Arabic major. 

The first option for validation within the Arabic major consists of the Language Validation Exam which is administered during Plebe Summer, as well as during evenings periodically throughout the academic year. This is a great method to gain validation for the bulk of the introductory Arabic language courses for students who may have studied Arabic in high school or at another institution prior to attending the Naval Academy, who have had experiences living in an Arabic speaking country, or for students whose household involved speaking Arabic as one of their primary languages. Students in any of these situations, or who feel that they have a basic understanding of Arabic for any other reason, are highly encouraged to reach out to Arabic faculty and attempt taking the Arabic Language Validation Exam.

Another option for validation within the Arabic major consists of completing Arabic courses whileStudying Abroad at another institution in order to validate classes at USNA which those courses resembled. Before departing on a study abroad opportunity, you and your academic advisor should discuss the courses you intend to take at the abroad program, as well as any USNA courses for which you hope to gain validation upon return. If the host institution's course is a close enough equivalent to the USNA course for which you are seeking validation (as indicated by the course description and syllabus, and at the discretion of the Arabic Faculty), then validation may be acquired based on your keeping full and accurate records of the coursework you completed while abroad. It is important that good files are kept on all Arabic courses taken abroad, including syllabi, required texts, homework assignments, papers and projects, exams and presentations, as well as any and all of your work. These files are to be brought to USNA for submission to the Arabic faculty to finalize and approve any possible Arabic major validations.

Historically, midshipmen who have studied abroad in the Arab World have validated between 6 and 15 total credit hours for their matrices. In addition to validation for Arabic language courses, other validations have been awarded by the appropriate USNA departments in a wide variety of major disciplines, depending on the host institutions' offerings. 

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