The JRMC English Proficiency Test

Lina Sakr

In order to declare Integrated Marketing and Communication (IMC), Communication and Media

Arts (CMA) or Multimedia Journalism (MMJ) majors, the requirements are the same: to get a

minimum grade of B in the Research Writing course as well as in the Introduction to Mass

Communication course and to pass an English Proficiency Test (EPT). According to the Auc

Factbook, in Fall 2017, 212 students were declared in IMC major, 106 students in CMA and 67

students in MMJ.

In Fall 2018, more than 120 students took the test, 72 students passed it, 43 failed it and 18 were

borderline, according to the Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC) departement’

statistics. In an unofficial survey sent to some JRMC students , nine students out of 14 claimed

that they don’t know what skills or capabilities the EPT is testing . As Dr. Rasha Allam, assistant

professor and associate chair at the JRMC department, explained:

RASHA ALLAM (RA): “I think it is clear from its name that it is a proficiency test. So, it
is meaningful for the multimedia journalism students, who should master the writing
skills and it tests some of the basic creative writing skills in terms of grammar in terms of
vocabulary in terms of differentiation between two meanings that common people might
use it simultaneously but they have difference. So, as a journalist, you have to master how
to use the different terms appropriately.”

When the staff of the JRMC Departement were asked, they claimed that every time the

department announces the date of the EPT, many students asked about the importance of the

EPT since the RHET course is already a requirement?

RA: “Writing for the English, when you're writing an essay format, it’s totally

different than writing for journalism, where you have to be precise, to be short and to be to the
point. That is what we are trying to measure, if you are really capable of doing this or not, if you

have that editing skills of the sharp eye to differentiate between different words or not.”

After digging in the JRMC Departement about the implementation of the EPT, Professor Firas

Al Atraqchi, Chair of Department of Journalism and Mass Communication,

Associate Professor of Practice and Caravan Faculty Advisor, said that the JRMC Departement

stopped to require the EPT to declare for a period of time. Then, in 2011, a new decision of re-

implementing the EPT was taken.

RA: “It was there when I was an undergrad in 1998 and it used to be one of the popular
requirements. And we also were required to have the Typing test. I think it stopped for a
while. Then, we asked that we needed to be a requirement again because we found that
some students who are majoring in journalism they have very poor standard of writing in
English language and we need really to get the best to bring out the best.”

At the end, the EPT is still a source of worry for many students. All the 14 students who

answered the survey, claimed that it is a source of worry because they don’t know how the exam

will be and what they should do to be prepared, and the Department can’t provide samples of it

as each exam is different. However, Professor Al Atraqchi can help many students by giving

them some tips. All they have to do is just to knock his office door.

Lina Sakr, A-U-C Radio.