Exam Credit
The University of California grants unit credit for College Board Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations on which a student scores 3 or higher, for International Baccalaureate Higher Level (IBH) Examinations on which a student scores 5 or higher, and for designated GCE or Singapore-Cambridge Advanced Level (A-level) grades of A, B, or C. Students must have official test score reports sent directly from the testing service to UC Santa Cruz to receive credit. Note: not all AP, IBH and A-level exams have been approved by the University of California to grant unit credit.
Students who complete the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma with a score of 30 or above will be awarded six quarter units toward their UC undergraduate degree, in addition to the units earned for scores of 5 or higher on designated individual Higher Level exams (usually 24 quarter credits). The university does not award unit credit for IB Standard Level or Advanced Subsidiary (AS) exams. Visit the University of California Admissions website for more information about exam credit.
Unit credit awarded for designated examinations may be applied toward UC Santa Cruz graduation requirements, including specific subjects and/or general education/breadth requirements. Refer to the UC Santa Cruz Exam Equivalency Chart listed below for more information. Some exams also satisfy the American History and Institutions (AH&I) Requirement or the Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR). Students who enter UC Santa Cruz with exam credit do not have to declare a major earlier than other students, nor are they required to graduate earlier. Exam credit does not count toward the maximum of 105 lower-division transferable units toward a degree.
Students will not receive duplicate credit for multiple exams in the same subject area, such as AP Biology and IBH Biology. Students may receive credit for exams and college courses in the same subject area, such as AP Biology and a college-level introductory biology course, but only if the exam is taken before the college-level course. Exams taken after college courses in the same subject area will not be awarded duplicate credit.
The current UC Santa Cruz Exam Equivalency Chart, and an archive of charts from previous years, can be found on the Degree Progress Unit website.