Students have six years from the date of their first course to finish their coursework at NLU.  If you have left the program and wish to re-enter, you may follow the steps outlined in the Procedures for Completing Program Out of Sequence document.  Make sure to contact your advisor as well so that they can help you through the process. If you are not sure who your advisor is (or if that person is no longer with the university), please refer to the Cluster Advisor List.

If you leave the program for over a year after finishing your cluster coursework, you will need to re-enroll at the university by going to Student Services on any campus and filling out a Re-Entry Formor by faxing the Re-Entry Form to the Office of the Registrar, at (847) 465-4746.Please be aware that when you re-enroll, you will be responsible for completing the new program requirements, which may entail taking extra hours of coursework.

You may register online by using your NLU Portal. Please see Current Students FAQ for complete instructions on how to register using your NLU Portal.

• Illinois Basic Skills Test
• • Taken prior to admission to the Secondary Education program
  • Registration and study guides can be found here: http://www.icts.nesinc.com/
  • NLU resources can be found at the Center for Academic Development: http://www.nl.edu/centers/cad/

• Miller Analogies Test
• • Information can be found from your enrollment representative on campus

• Illinois Subject Area Exams
• • Each subject area has its own test.  In Illinois, there are a variety of tests available.  For example, if you are notified by NLU that you are qualified to teach psychology, you must take the psychology test, not the history or geography test, even though all of these areas fall within the same general area, social studies.  If you have questions about which exam you should take, contact the NLU Transcript Evaluators to find out precisely which exam will be right for you.
  • A list of content-area tests can be found at: http://www.icts.nesinc.com/IL13_testselection.asp.
    
  • The Secondary Education Department recommends the study guides from the Advanced Placement test in their subject area.  They are published by Princeton Review, Kaplan, and many other presses.  They are available at most bookstores in the reference or test preparation sections.

• APT Test
• • This is a test of teaching pedagogy skills.  The Secondary Education Department recommends students take the APT after the first methods course of your program.  You are free to take it any time during the program, but the first methods course prepares students well for the exam.  Study guides, practice questions, test dates, registration, and test frameworks are online at: http://www.icts.nesinc.com.
  • Most Secondary Education students will register for the APT: 6-12 test, but those going for certification in Foreign Language should take the APT:K-12 test, because they are earning a Type 10 license.