Most students at Hunter College must take the equivalent of 4 semesters of a single language in order to graduate.  For more on Hunter College's language requirement, see this page of the Hunter College Website.

Students who have not fulfilled the language requirement before arrival at Hunter and would like to do so with Arabic can fulfill the requirement by successfully completing either Intermediate Arabic 2 (ARB 202) or Intermediate Arabic for Native Speakers/Heritage Learners (ARB 248).

Students with no background in Arabic at all should register for Beginning Arabic 1 (ARB 101), which is offered every fall. The successful completion of ARB 101 fulfills the CUNY Common Core World Cultures & Global Issues (WCGI) requirement.

Please note that the first 4 classes in the Arabic language sequence (ARB 101, 102, 201, and 202) are not open to native speakers/heritage learners of Arabic.  By native speakers/heritage learners we mean students who grew up in an Arabic speaking households.  Native speakers/heritage learners are eligible to take our two-course sequence designed specifically for them:  ARB 148 and ARB 248.  The successful completion of ARB 148 fulfills the CUNY Common Core World Cultures & Global Issues (WCGI) requirement and successful completion of ARB 248 fulfill's the Hunter College Language requirement. Native speakers/heritage learners who successfully complete ARB 248 are eligible to take ARB 301. 

Students who have studied Arabic previously or who are native speakers/heritage learners should contact Professor Hager Abouelkhair (habouelk@hunter.cuny.edu) to take the placement/exemption exam, which is offered several times a year.  This exam is used both for placement and exemption from the language requirement.  Please note that students who are deemed exempt from the language requirement by examination do not receive any academic credits but rather merely exemption from the language requirement.

In the 2024-25 academic year, the placement/exemption will be given on

1.   August 21, 2024 11am-12:15pm
2.    October 30, 2024 2:30-3:45pm
3.    January 22, 2025 11am-12:15pm
4.    April 23, 2025 2:30-3:45pm
5.   June 4, 2025 11am-12:15pm

Please note that you must contact Professor Hager Abouelkhair at least 1 week before each exam date to inform her of your intention to take the exam.