Student Handbook 2023-2024

Competency Tests

Competency tests are administered by appointment for persons wishing to establish credit for courses they have taken, for which they received a grade of “C” or better, but have exceeded the course validity limit. Course validity limits for Health Technologies and Nursing and Allied Health Technologies programs can be found in our catalog. These courses may be transfer courses or courses taken at GNTC. The competency test establishes that they still retain aptitude in that subject.

The following rules apply to the student wishing to take a Competency Test:

A student must have the course(s) in question first verified that a competency test is necessary by one of the following people:

Floyd County Campus, Allison Patnode, apatnode@gntc.edu, or telephone 706-295-6881

Floyd County Campus, Jill Baker, jtbaker@gntc.edu, or telephone 706-295-6882

Walker County Campus, Brooke Askew, baskew@gntc.edu, or telephone 706-764-3830 

Walker County Campus, Fran Shugars, fshugars@gntc.edu, or telephone 706-764-3520

Once a course is confirmed as having exceeded its validity, a student must register to take the test with Adi Baxter, abaxter@gntc.edu or 706-764-3519.

A student must be accepted or currently enrolled at GNTC in order to register for a competency test;

A student may not change any existing grade on his/her transcript by taking a competency test;

A student has only one opportunity to pass a competency test per available course. If he/she fails to pass the competency test on the first try, he/she may not challenge the test later for a second try;

The cost of each test is 25% of tuition per credit hour of the course, payable at the GNTC Office of Administrative Services, at the time of testing. Payment may be by cash, check, or debit/credit card.


Competency Tests are available for the following subjects:

BIOL 2113 – Anatomy and Physiology I

BIOL 2114 – Anatomy and Physiology II

BIOL 2117 – Introduction to Microbiology

CHEM 1211 – Chemistry I

MATH 1111 – College Algebra (bring a calculator)

PHYS 1110 – Conceptual Physics or ALHS 1126 Health Science Physics