This study represents program-level action research. A U.S. university Spanish language program had a goal for students to reach the ACTFL (2012) Intermediate Mid level after 2 years. An empirical question that resulted after regular end-of-year testing was whether the students were doing their best on assessments. To investigate this, 253 end-of-second-year students were divided into two experimental conditions: (a) 95 students received up to 10% of their final grade based on meeting the speaking goal, and (b) 73 students received up to 5% of their grade on the same criterion. Eighty-five students formed a control group with no grading incentive. All took ACTFL tests in speaking (the Oral Proficiency Interview-computerized [OPIc]), listening (Listening Proficiency Test), and reading (Reading Proficiency Test). The group whose OPIc score counted for 10% performed significantly higher than other two groups. Females were more positively affected by the incentivization. Programs with language goals should consider incentivized proficiency-based exit tests to motivate their students (Chalhoub-Deville, 1997).