Are you college-ready?

For the second year, St. Johns River Community College, in cooperation with local high schools, is offering a free College Placement Test (CPT) to eligible high school juniors according to an announcement received by Historic City News.

The goal is to help identify and remediate college-bound students before they begin college and avoid costly preparatory classes. Testing begins in October. Interested students should contact their guidance counselor for a test application.

SJRCC Open Campus Provost Melanie Brown, Ph.D., explained that to be considered college-ready, specific scores in reading, writing and mathematics must be made in order to bypass preparatory classes. “About 70% of high school students statewide who enter community colleges need some type of remediation,” Brown said.

Juniors who do not score well on the CPT will have the option of enrolling in high school electives that count as college prep classes during their senior year. “This initiative will help students start their college careers with real college courses and without spending up to an entire year in remedial courses,” Brown said.

The initiative comes after the passing of Senate Bill 1908 that requires both secondary and postsecondary schools to combine efforts to provide high school juniors better access to testing as well as making remediation available to high school seniors.

Eligible students should be in the 11th grade and must have scored at levels 2, 3, or 4 on the mathematics portion of the 10th grade FCAT or levels 2 or 3 on the reading portion of the 10th grade FCAT. There is no GPA requirement. The student’s scores on the CPT will be used by the high school to determine whether the student has the math and reading skills required for entrance into college credit classes.