<p>I can understand why you might want to know how much these requirements will affect you before committing to enroll.</p>
<p>As far as I understand it, there’s no rule against taking the competency exam in your first language, as long as it’s a language in which a competency exam is offered. (“Neither courses nor competency tests are offered in the following languages:
Cantonese, Dutch, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.”) If there was high level IB test in your language, and you took it and got a high score, that would work, too. You could call the Dean of the College’s office to ask about the specifics of this.</p>
<p>Phys ed: It’s not just swimming. You also have to take a five-minute assessment test, and depending on what it shows you may have to take a quarter or two of phys ed classes. That is in addition to your other courses. As an athlete, you may have no trouble testing out of phys ed, but I think even some athletes have flexibility issues. (I assume you will have no trouble passing the swim test, which requires you to swim a pretty short distance without having to be rescued.) In any event, this is NOT a reason to worry. I have never heard anything from anybody about the phys ed classes other than “it’s fun” and “I should do more of these”, and I’m pretty sure it’s graded pass/fail.</p>