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Placement exams serve as assessment tools used to measure your preparation and assist in facilitating the academic advising process. They ensure correct placement at appropriate levels for certain courses prior to enrollment. Not all UC Santa Cruz courses require placement exams.

If you are planning to major in any of the physical and biological sciences, mathematics, engineering, psychology, environmental studies, or any type of economics, a placement exam may be required. The Math Placement Exam is offered at Summer Orientation, in September during Welcome Week, and by the Mathematics Department throughout the school year.

Confirm with your academic department prior to taking a placement exam.

Mathematics Placement Exam
All entry-level mathematics courses have prerequisites: Math 2 (College Algebra), Math 3 (Precalculus), and the Calculus classes Math 11A, Math 19A, and Math 20A.

These prerequisites may be met by a UC Santa Cruz Math Placement Exam score, a calculus AP exam score or an IBHL Mathematics exam score (see below), a course at UC Santa Cruz, or a transferable course at another college or university. (Math 11A does not meet the requirements for some majors. Do not enroll in Math 11A until you have consulted your major adviser.)

UC Santa Cruz administers the Math Placement Exam during Summer Orientation and in the month of May for new students. Math Placement Exams are offered by the Math Department prior to the beginning of each academic quarter and on Fridays throughout the school year. Scores are valid for one year. For locations and schedules during the academic year, please visit www.math.ucsc.edu.

If you score below a 12 on the Math Placement Exam, you cannot enroll in a mathematics course at UC Santa Cruz until you have raised your score. You may be able to raise your score by studying on your own or with a tutor, or you may need to take a College Algebra class at Cabrillo Community College or another community college. Usually, first-year students are not allowed to take a class at another institution during the regular school year, and must wait until summer.

If you pass Math 3, or an equivalent course at another college or university, you may enroll in either Math 11A or 19A or, with permission of the instructor, in Math 20A. For a list of equivalent courses, see www.assist.org. If you have trouble enrolling in UC Santa Cruz math courses, verify your course prerequisites with the Mathematics Department Undergraduate Advisor, even if you had your transcripts sent to the UC Santa Cruz Admissions Office.

If you have trouble enrolling in math courses using Advanced Placement Exam scores or International Baccalaureate exam scores, call or visit the Mathematics Department or your department undergraduate adviser. Pre-requisites are satisfied by exam scores only; enrollment in an AP or IB course alone does not meet requirements.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: Some medical schools and other health professional schools require a full year of college calculus. Do not depend on AP or IB scores to meet requirements for those schools until you have consulted the Health Sciences undergraduate adviser.

**Math 11A/B and Math 22 do not meet the requirements for some majors. Do not enroll in Math 11A, 11B, or 22 until you have consulted your major adviser.

For more in-depth information on placement exams, transfer credit, and AP or IB credit, please refer to the Mathematics Department web site: www.math.ucsc.edu.

Remember: You will not be able to enroll in a course that requires a placement exam unless you have passed the exam at an appropriate level, completed an acceptable transfer course, or scored an appropriate level in a College Board Advanced Placement Exam, and provided verifying documentation to the department offering the course.

Language Placement Exam
Language placement exams are necessary if you have not passed the prerequisite UCSC course (we do not accept AP exam results in lieu of taking a placement exam).

You do not need to take a placement exam when enrolling at level 1 in a language that you have never studied, EXCEPT FOR SPANISH. You must take the placement exam to gain entry into Spanish level 1. If you have had prior work in a language, and want to continue in that language, you must take the placement exam.

There will be no language placement exams offered during Summer Orientation. If you are interested in taking a language course in the fall you can take a placement exam before classes start. Please refer to the Fall 2008 Schedule of Classes to find the location/date of each placement exam. The only exception to this is Spanish.

The Spanish placement exam is available online and can be taken at any time, at any location. The exam site is ic.ucsc.edu/test/. You will receive your placement as soon as you submit your test, but you will not be able to enroll immediately as it generally takes a few days to input the results into the campus student information system. If you have any questions regarding the Spanish placement online exam, please contact the Spanish placement administrator at spanish_placement@ucsc.edu. Spanish for Spanish Speakers: If you were raised in a Spanish-speaking environment, have lived in a Spanish-speaking country for an extended period of time (more than three years), and speak the language with some members of your family and friends, please take a few minutes to read the information about our special track of courses titled SPSS (Spanish for Spanish speakers).

Please note: for the majority of languages offered at UC Santa Cruz, the beginning series starts in the fall. For example, if you wanted to learn Chinese, level 1 is only offered in fall quarter. If you miss that entry-level course, you will have to wait until the next academic year to begin your language studies. Only French and Spanish offer entry-level courses every quarter.