The Learning Support (LS) Program is a Board of Regents initiated program of courses and advisement to help build the foundational skills needed for success in college-level courses. Students enrolling in Learning Support courses will have a program of study specifically designed to fulfill their unique learning needs.

In short, Learning Support is a generic term for programs designed to prepare students for collegiate work.

Beginning Fall 2012, students who test into all 3 Learning Support areas or who test below the system minimums will no longer be admitted to GPC

The Board of Regents' new guidelines for all USG Insitutions has changed the admissions guidelines, as well as many other changes - find out how these changes will affect you.

What We Do

LS courses are the way to create a strong foundation for a college career and are the time to practice good study habits to carry over for a student in all future classes. To that end the program has been structured to accomplish building a student's skill level so they can find success in their college level classes. For students who want more information about what the Learning Support program is about and the details of how the program works, the rules and the regulations are in the LS Policy Guide.

A summary of the important information from the manual can be found in the LS Brochure.

New students are required to go through an New Student Orientation. The orientation will provide information about the college, registration and will provide a good introduction to Learning Support policies.

What are Learning Support Courses

Learning Support courses are courses designed to either build or refresh a student in critical skill areas that apply to almost all of the courses required by a degree program at GPC. Credit earned in Learning Support courses is institutional and is counted toward the number of credit hours for which a student is enrolled in any semester. However, it does not count in a student's grade point average. Exiting Learning Support requirements will be a prerequisite for many of the courses that a degree program will require for graduation.

Determining a need for Learning Support

Student's skill level is determined by a Placement Test. It is important for both the student and the college to make sure the student is placed appropriately. Student's should give themselves plenty of time to take the placement exam and should schedule their testing time accordingly. Students may wish to refresh their memory with practice COMPASS questions prior to taking the placement exam.

Prospective students can look in the LS Policy Guide (pages 6-8) to determine if they need to take the placement test. Alternatively prospective students can look at a table version of the same information that summarizes these pages. If you are still unsure about your placement testing needs, please check with your campus Enrollment and Registration Office.

How scores determine placement can be found in the LS Policy Guide (pages 9-12)

Once a student is in Learning Support Courses

A student who has placed into Learning Support courses may wish to review the following tips on how to be successful in Learning Support.

Taking non-Learning Support Classes while in the Learning Support Program is possible for students, but some restrictions apply. Students must be in all of their LS classes in order to take non-Learning Support courses and must meet certain pre-requisites to take most classes.

Students in Learning Support only get a limited number of times (3 attempts in Mathematics, 2 in English and 2 in Reading) to exit Learning Support. For details, see "What are attempts?" in the LS Policy Guide (pages 11-12) for more information.

If a student uses all of their attempts

Students who use all of their attempts may have options at non-USG schools while on LS Suspension (LS Policy Guide, pages 24)