To satisfy Graduate College requirements, the ITA Exam is required for all individuals who will be serving in an instructional capacity involving interaction with students AND who meet BOTH of the following criteria:

1. We were required to present proof of English proficiency for graduate admission to OSU.
2. Received a score of 25 or below on the speaking section of the TOEFL iBT (or below 5.0 on the new iBT scoring scale effective 21 January 2026), a score of 8.0 or below on the speaking section of the IELTS, or took the DET or PTE exams, regardless of score.

During the ITA exam, you will teach a five-minute academic lesson in a chosen field of study. The lesson should be a key point from the course (or type of course) you may be teaching in your field of study, typically introductory or survey courses. If you aren’t sure what to present, consider reaching out to your employing department/program about the kinds of things you may be teaching in your role as a TA.

After the presentation, there is a three- to five-minute period for questions from the audience. Questions from the audience are the typical kinds of questions that undergraduate students might ask. Questions may come from language specialist raters, undergraduate raters, other presenters, or a representative from your department or program.

If you are in mid-sentence when the timer ends, you may finish your sentence, but you will not be allowed to continue beyond just a few seconds after the timer rings. There is no penalty for going overtime.

The raters consist of trained language specialists (faculty and graduate students in TESOL and Linguistics) and several undergraduate student raters.

The exam assesses three elements of your language proficiency:

• Linguistic competence – Your ability to be understood on the basis of your pronunciation, grammar, and fluency.
• Interactional competence – Your ability to understand and respond to questions from the audience.
• Strategic competence - Your ability to compensate for any linguistic weaknesses with visual aids, such as PowerPoint or the use of the chalkboard.

Please note that you are NOT rated on content knowledge in this test.

Example blank rating sheets can be found here:

• Rating sheet for language specialist raters
• Rating sheet for undergraduate raters

You (test-takers) will receive your exam results at your OSU email within 24 hours.
There are four possible outcomes of the ITA Exam depending on your score:

Students who are required to take a course must complete that course with a grade of B or higher before being eligible to retake the ITA Exam.

For more details about each of these courses, please visit the ITA courses offerings page.

The ITA Exam is typically administered three times per academic year: once on the Tuesday before the Fall semester (early August), once on the Wednesday before the Spring semester (early January), and once on the Tuesday after Finals in the Spring semester (early May). The ITA Exam is offered only on these days in August, January, and May, and only in person. 

Registration for the ITA Exam is open until the Thursday before the exam.

The cost to take the ITA Exam is $75. This will be billed to your bursar account.

The next ITA exam will be on Tuesday, August 11, 2026.

 ➜  Register here

GRAD 5082: Oral Proficiency and GRAD 5092: Language in the American Classroom (each 2 credit hours) are available for voluntary enrollment to all graduate students and will allow you to develop and improve skills in oral proficiency, the language of academic presentations, and the various linguistic situations you may encounter in the American classroom (e.g. giving instructions, solving communication breakdowns, holding office hours, etc.).

You can follow these general tips when preparing your presentation:

• Begin your presentation by stating your name, department, and the topic of your presentation.
• Speak slowly enough for undergraduate students to take notes during your presentation.
• While a PowerPoint is not necessary, it is highly recommended.
• Use compensatory strategies: Include keywords in your PowerPoint and present the slides before you say the keywords. This helps support your spoken English, especially for more challenging and/or technical words.
• Avoid making your PowerPoint too text-heavy. Include only keywords and key concepts/images.
• Conclude your presentation by summarizing what you covered. For example, “To summarize…” “Today we talked about how environmental factors effect…”
• Include slide numbers on your presentation so that raters can easily refer to specific slides.
• Rehearse your presentation several times and set a timer for 5 minutes. Even though you won’t be penalized for going over the allotted time, a well-timed, well-rehearsed presentation will help you with the pacing of your speech.
• Think about possible questions that undergraduate students might ask about your presentation. For example:
  • “What is a real-life application of this concept?”
  • “Can you explain slide 5 again?”

If you have any questions about the exam, please contact the ITA Program Coordinator, Ho’omana Nathan Horton, at itaexam@okstate.edu.