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By year’s end, UHCL’s Testing Center expects to offer about 500 various placement
tests and professional certification exams, says Center Director Diana Bidulescu,
shown administering tests to students. Professionals throughout the Greater Houston
area are welcome to use the center.
Whether your goal is a GED diploma, college or graduate school, law school, a nursing job or advancement in your career, University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Testing Center is your one-stop shop on your path to obtaining the certifications you need to succeed.
“The mission of the Testing Center is to supply all the placement tests and professional certifications that are needed for all of the students of all levels — undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and professional, as well as by our community” said Diana Bidulescu, the center’s director.
In an initiative that began in October 2018, the center began reaching out to all of the major testing authorities so as to become accredited to host their certification exams. Since then, the center has steadily added new tests — most recently, the Texas Educator Certification Examination Program or TExES for students pursuing teaching careers, the Graduate Record Exam or GRE for those pursuing a graduate degree; TOEFL, or Test of English as a Foreign Language for international students; and TEAS, or Test of Essential Academic Skills, an aptitude test for nurses.
By year’s end Bidulescu expects to offer approximately 500 certification exams in the testing library.
“We have quite a few tests that have been super successful so far,” Bidulescu said, noting additions of Adobe, Microsoft and Google certifications, cybersecurity and ethical hacking. “All of these are great for our management information systems and computer science departments, and they are fully taking advantage of it.”
All testing occurs at the testing center. Most tests are digital, but the center offers proctoring for students from other universities for paper or digital tests as well. All tests are proctored and the center is fully equipped with the latest in test security to ensure compliance with all certification authorities. “We recommend that the testers prepare first. We don’t want anyone to have to take the test more than once,” she said.
“The other thing that we are doing — and I think this sets us apart from other test centers — is UH-Clear Lake students don’t have pay for test prep resources,” she added. “I’ve used my contacts at Microsoft, Google, Certiport, ETS, Pearson and elsewhere to get access to free materials. We’re trying to bring to our students everything they would possibly need. And that is attracting a lot of attention from the community.”
In addition to the GRE, GED and TOEFL for students, the center offers the Advanced Math Placement Test (AMPT), the Texas Success Initiative (TSI) exam, College-Level Entrance Program (CLEP) test and the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), among many others. Besides TEAS for nurses and cybersecurity and networking for IT, or information technology, professionals, the center offers certification exams for all MIS professions, accountants, health coaches, personal trainers, pharmacy technicians, medical technicians, pulmonologists, commercial contract managers, Salesforce marketing consultants, risk-assessment professionals and many more.
UHCL’s testing center is accredited by the National College Testing Association and
offers many current certification exams. For more information, email uhcltesting@uhcl.edu or call 281-283-3080.