Those individuals arriving at OSU without this score are assessed by the Spoken English Program with the SPEAK test, the institutional version of the TSE. Those students who receive a score of 230 and above on the SPEAK are immediately Certified to teach. In some cases, it may be recommended that students scoring between 200 and 230 take a Mock Teaching Test, satisfactory performance on this test Certifies the international graduate students to teach.

Students who fail to meet the above certification requirements are placed in Spoken English courses. Individuals who score 180 or below on the SPEAK are placed in Ed. T&L 104. (Students with scores of 170 or 180 may request an interview as a second measure to determine whether they may advance their placement to Ed T&L 105.) Students who score between 190 and 230 are placed in English 105.

Students may hold their TAship appointments while enrolled in Spoken English classes but are limited to performing duties, such as grading, that require no student contact. Departments offering TAships before certification are committed to supporting these graduate students for as long as three quarters while the students are enrolled in Spoken English course work.