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Exam for Acceleration without Prior Instruction

Criteria & Procedures

Procedures for Exams for Acceleration of specific courses without prior instruction:

For information and requirements about the specific Exam for Acceleration assessments from the University of Texas, please visit the Study Guides on UT High School's website.

High School Courses: Please review the course list for offered exams on the UT website. Each semester exam ordered has a 3-hour time limit. For full course credit, Semester 1 (A) and Semester 2 (B) must be ordered to receive a full year's credit. A student may not attempt to earn credit by examination for a specific high school course more than two times. All English exams have questions based on a book. See the Study Guide for your course. The Social Studies exams and English exams have an essay portion. 

Middle School Math: *See the Middle School Course Guide for the sequence of math courses taken in LTISD, and consider what math courses to take at high school if you are accelerating. Any high school course taken in middle school does not factor into GPA.

Foreign Language: Exams for acceleration in a foreign language or languages other than English (LOTE) are purchased from Avant Assessments. The listening, reading, writing, and speaking portions are administered online. Sample tests are available on their website. These tests are untimed and usually take 1.5-2 hours to complete all components.

The district does not provide textbooks or calculators for those requesting to take an Exam for Acceleration. These exams cost between $35 and $70 per exam (LTISD pays for the exams taken on the dates listed below), so if you need to cancel a registration, please get in touch with Kathy Burbank at burbankk@ltisdschools.org as soon as possible. An email verification that you have registered will be sent with details about the exam on the ordering/registration date listed below.

Grades 6-12

Students in grades 6-12 will take the exam at home using the Proctorio service provided by the University of Texas. Proctorio includes an identification process, requires a webcam for video recording, and uses a lockdown browser to ensure a secure testing experience. Please see the Q & A document below for more information. Students will have a 60-day window to take the exams. Once the exams have been ordered, parents will receive an email from UT about their child's test administration for students in grades 6-8. In grades 9-12, students will have an email sent to their LTISD email account (@ltisdschools.net). Students will need to take the test within 60 days of receiving the email from UT.

A facilitator with Avant proctors Foreign Language exams. You will schedule a specific time to take the exam. A link to register will be sent to your school email address.

Ordering Information and Dates: 

The district orders exams four times a year at no cost to the families of enrolled students. Listed below are the dates that exams will be ordered. Registration ordering deadlines are imposed due to the time requirement for purchase orders and processing. A student may take a specific examination only once during each window. A second attempt will be the family's responsibility for ordering and payment.  (CBE Re-Exam Request Form)

Exams are ordered on the dates below. UT usually takes 10–15 days to send test login information. Some exams, such as English, have an essay that takes longer to grade. March may not be an option for seniors to receive the results before graduation. Students will have a 60-day window to take the exams. It is preferred that exams are taken before the first day of the school year so that schedules can be adjusted. Schedule changes do not take place once school begins except for Semester exams.

1. Request approval from your campus.

2. Once those request forms linked above are routed through the appropriate signatures and sent to Kathy Burbank, complete this form to order the exam officially to be paid by the district. Please complete all forms before the ordering dates listed below.

Register by the dates listed below so that tests can be ordered on:

  • Winter Registration window closes on December 6, 2024
  • Spring Registration window closes on March 7, 2025
  • Summer Registration window closes on June 6, 2025

If the dates listed above do not work for your student, then you can order directly from UT to order the exams.

Exam for Acceleration for Grade Level Advancement: 

(Testing is done before the new school year for grades 1-8 advancement.)

Students in grades K-5 cannot accelerate a course but can accelerate at the whole grade level. (5th-grade Accelerated Math has a different process and is not done under Exams for Acceleration.) Please discuss this option with your campus Principal or Counselor. Testing should take place to advance a grade level for grades 1-8 during the summer due to the impact on scheduling and loss of instruction in the next grade (if testing is during the school year). Students must pass all four exams (math, language arts, science, and social studies) for the grade level that is being accelerated at 80% or above. The science or social studies test will be administered first, and the other exams will be administered later if 80% is achieved on the first test. If 80% is not achieved on the first exam, additional subjects will not be ordered.

Please get in touch with Kathy Burbank at burbankk@ltisdschools.org for the ordering and scheduling of Grade Level Advancement exams.

Kindergarten Acceleration:

Contact the campus for more information and procedures.

Lake Travis ISD Board Policy

Exam for Acceleration (EA) without Prior Instruction EHDC (Legal) EHDC (Local)

A student in grades 1-8 who has not received instruction at the grade level tested must be accelerated (promoted) one grade if the student meets all of the following requirements:

  • The student achieves a minimum score of 80 percent on the grade-level exam in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.
  • A school district representative recommends accelerating the student to a higher grade level.
  • The student’s parents or guardians give written approval for the acceleration.

Students taking middle school math or high school coursework seeking credit in a subject area where they have not received prior instruction may earn credit by passing the course exam(s) with a grade of 80 percent. 

The grade earned from an Exam for Acceleration is not used to calculate the student’s Weighted Numerical Grade Average at the High School level; it is only used for credit.

According to Texas Administrative Code §74.24 Credit by Exams (c)(6), a student may not attempt to earn credit by examination for a specific high school course more than two times. If a student is given credit in a subject based on an examination in which the student scored 80% or higher, the school district must enter the examination score on the student's transcript, and the student is not required to take an applicable end-of-course assessment instrument for the course. (Algebra 1, Biology, English I, English II, US History)

Schedule changes will NOT be made once a semester has begun. According to TEC §25.092 Admission, Transfer, and Attendance, a student must attend for 90% of the days a class is offered to be given credit for a class.

A student can work directly with UT to schedule an exam for acceleration to test at any time outside the testing window. Register with the University of Texas UT High School. Please send a copy of the results/grade report to the Registrar at your child's campus.

For further information or to cancel an exam, contact Kathy Burbank, burbankk@ltisdschools.org, Director of Accountability & Achievement.