Departmental language examinations are supervised and graded by faculty in the relevant research area or faculty with particular expertise in the language in question. The format of the examination can be somewhat flexible, but would ordinarily follow these general guidelines:
The exam should last for one hour and will be pass / fail. The student should be given a section of an art historical text of moderate difficulty to translate, ordinarily of a length of between one to two book or journal pages, depending on the apparent number of words per page. The goal is to have a text that can be largely translated within the hour if a student can work at moderate speed. The text should be selected by the professor administering the exam, in consultation with the student's advisor if the advisor is not the examiner. Students may use a computer as a word processor; if they do so, however, they should work with internet connections disabled. Students will be allowed to consult a paper dictionary, but not online translation resources. Students will not have to complete a translation of the entire text to pass the exam, though both accuracy and speed will be taken into consideration in evaluating their work. If students cannot finish translating the entire text in the time available, they should read the remainder of the selected text and write a brief summary of their understanding of its principal contentions.
If a student fails the examination (a failing grade should be reserved principally for serious misunderstandings of the text or an inability to translate effectively), they will be allowed to retake the exam with a different text. Timing of the retake must be negotiated between the student, the examiner, the student’s advisor(s), and the GPC.