Exam 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.
The University of California grants unit credit for:
- College Board Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations with scores 3 or higher,
- International Baccalaureate Higher Level (IBH) Examinations with scores 5 or higher, and
- Designated GCE or Singapore-Cambridge Advanced Level (A-level) examinations with 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. Not all AP, IBH and A-level exams have been approved by the University of California to grant unit credit. 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.
Students who complete the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma with a score of 30 or above will be awarded six quarter units, in addition to the units earned for scores of 5 or higher on designated individual Higher Level exams (usually 24 quarter credits).
Unit credit awarded for designated examinations may be applied toward UC Santa Cruz graduation requirements, including specific subjects and/or general education/breadth requirements. 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.
Important Considerations for Course Planning
Students will not receive duplicate credit for multiple exams in the same subject area, such as AP Biology and IBH Biology, nor duplicate credit for AP or IBH exams and UC Santa Cruz coursework.
It’s important to be careful about enrollments that may overlap with exam credit. Students who enroll in a UC Santa Cruz course for which they already have exam credit will lose the units, course equivalency, and general education credit from the exam, regardless of final grade, unless they drop the course prior to the add / drop / swap deadline for that quarter.