Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Examinations

The University awards credit for successful completion of the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) and the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examinations (IB). Students must have official test score reports sent directly from the testing service to UC Merced to receive credit. Students will meet with advising staff during New Student Orientation to discuss which courses or requirements they may have satisfied based on transfer credit for scores in these examinations.

Potential Duplication of Credit for AP and IB Exams

Credit will be granted for either the AP or IB examinations in any one subject area. College courses taken prior to or after enrolling at the university may duplicate the content of AP or IB examinations. The following chart provides guidelines used for awarding units (elective credit) and exemptions for degree requirements. Students who choose to take a course at UC Merced from which they are otherwise exempt will receive credit for the UCM course but not the units for the exam.

Credit for AP Exams

UC Merced grants elective credit for all College Board AP examinations on which a student scores 3 or higher, unless otherwise noted. Some examinations passed with scores of 3 or higher may award exemptions for degree requirements. The number of elective units awarded for each examination can be viewed on the chart in this section.

Placement into level 2 language courses at UC Merced will be granted for Advanced Placement (AP) exams with score 2: Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish Language. Unit credit will not be awarded.

AP SUBJECT CREDIT	UNITS	COURSE EXEMPTIONS	General Education Credit (Score of 3 or higher unless otherwise noted)
AP Studio Art: Drawing*	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts one (1) course in GASP to count towards one Visual Arts Course for the GASP Major or one lower division GASP course for the GASP Minor.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.
AP Studio Art: 2-D Design*	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts one (1) course in GASP to count towards one Visual Arts Course for the GASP Major or one lower division GASP course for the GASP Minor.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.
AP Studio Art: 3-D Design*	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts one (1) course in GASP to count towards one Visual Arts Course for the GASP Major or one lower division GASP course for the GASP Minor.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.
		*Unit credit limit for all AP Studio Art exams: 5.3.
AP Art History	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts one (1) course in GASP to count toward one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.
AP Biology	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts BIO 005 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area A: Life Science requirement.
AP Chemistry	5.3	Score 3 or 4 exempts CHEM 001 . Score 5 exempts CHEM 002 and CHEM 010 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area A: Physical Science requirement.
AP Computer Science: Comp Science A	5.3	Score 3 or 4 exempts CSE 005 . Score of 5 exempts CSE 022 .	Score of 5 fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Computer Science: Comp Science Principles	5.3	No course exemption.	No course exemption.
AP Economics: Macroeconomics	2.7	Score 4 or 5 on both Macroeconomics and Microeconomics exempts ECON 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
AP Economics: Microeconomics	2.7	Score 4 or 5 on both Macroeconomics and Microeconomics exempts ECON 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
AP English: Language/Composition^€	5.3	Score 4 or 5 Lang/Comp exempts WRI 010 . Score 3 or higher exempts WRI 001 and the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement.	Score 4 or 5 satisfies the General Education Lower Division: Written Communication requirement.
AP English: Literature/Composition^€	5.3	Score 4 or 5 Lit/Comp exempts one ENG course (10-49) for the ENG major or ENG minor. Score 3 or higher exempts WRI 001 and Entry Level Writing Requirement.	No course exemption.
		^€Unit credit limit for both AP English exams: 5.3.
AP Environmental Sciences	2.7	Score of 4 or 5 exempts ESS 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area A: Life Science requirement.
AP Government and Politics: United States	2.7	Score 4 or 5 exempts POLI 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
AP Government and Politics: Comparative	2.7	Score 4 or 5 exempts POLI 003 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
AP History: European History	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts HIST 030B .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Societies and Cultures of the Past requirement.
AP History: US History	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts HIST 016 and HIST 017 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Societies and Cultures of the Past requirement.
AP History: World History: Modern	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts HIST 010 and HIST 011 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Societies and Cultures of the Past requirement.
AP Human Geography	2.7	No course exemption.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
AP Language Other Than English: Chinese Language and Culture	5.3	Score 5 exempts CHN 004 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Language Other Than English: French Language and Culture	5.3	Score 5 exempts FRE 004 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Language Other Than English: German Language and Culture	5.3	No course exemption.	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Language Other Than English: Italian Language and Culture	5.3	No course exemption.	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Language Other Than English: Japanese Language and Culture	5.3	Score 5 exempts JPN 004 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Language Other Than English: Spanish Language and Culture	5.3	Score 5 exempts SPAN 004 or SPAN 011 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Language Other Than English: Spanish Literature and Culture	5.3	Score 4 or 5 exempts SPAN 004 or SPAN 011 . Also exempts SPAN 050 and SPAN 051 .	No course exemption.
AP Latin	5.3	No course exemption.	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
AP Mathematics: Calculus AB^#	2.7	Score 3 exempts MATH 005 . Score 4 or 5 exempts MATH 011 or MATH 021 .	Fulfills the General Education Quantitative Reasoning Requirement.
AP Mathematics: Calculus BC^#	5.3	Score 3 exempts Math Placement Exam and MATH 011 or MATH 021 . Score 4 or 5 exempts MATH 011 and MATH 012 OR MATH 021 and MATH 022 .	Fulfills the General Education Quantitative Reasoning Requirement.
AP Mathematics: Calculus BC Subscore AB^#	2.7	Score 3 exempts Math Placement Exam and MATH 011 or MATH 021 .	Fulfills the General Education Quantitative Reasoning Requirement.
		^#Unit credit limit for all AP Mathematics exams: 5.3.
AP Music Theory	5.3	No course exemption. (Students who earn only a subscore will not receive exam credit.)	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.
AP Physics: Physics 1⁺	5.3	No course exemption.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area A: Physical Science requirement.
AP Physics: Physics 2⁺	5.3	No course exemption.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area A: Physical Science requirement.
AP Physics: Physics C: Mechanics⁺	2.7	Score 5 exempts PHYS 008 and PHYS 008L OR PHYS 018 and PHYS 018L .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area A: Physical Science requirement.
AP Physics: Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism⁺	2.7	No course exemption.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area A: Physical Science requirement.
		⁺Unit credit limit for all three AP Physics exams: 5.3
AP Psychology	2.7	Score 4 or 5 exempts PSY 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
AP Seminar	0.0	No exam credit awarded.
AP Statistics	2.7	Score 4 exempts BIO 018 , MATH 018 or PSY 010 . Score 5 exempts ECON 010 or POLI 010 or SOC 010 .	Fulfills the General Education Quantitative Reasoning Requirement.

Credit for IB Exams

UC Merced grants 5.3 semester units of elective credit for International Baccalaureate Individual Certificate subject Higher-Level exams with grades of 5, 6, or 7. All exams must be at the Higher Level (HL) for unit credit. Unit credit is also granted for Higher Level category B exams in languages other than English. The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) awards either a diploma or a certificate for individual IB exams. Students completing the IB diploma with a score of 30 or above will receive a total of 20 semester units of credit toward their UC Merced undergraduate degree.

Course exemptions already designated for UC Merced can be viewed on the chart in this section. Additional exams for which UC Merced will award elective units include: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Biology, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Business and Management, Catalan, Chemistry, Computer Science, Croatian, Czech, Dance, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Filipino, Film, Finnish, Further Mathematics, Geography, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, History of Africa, History of the Americas, History of Southeast Asia & Oceania, History of Europe & The Islamic World, History of Europe & The Middle East, World History, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Language B: Language and Literature, Language B: Literature, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Philosophy, Physics, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sesotho, Sinhalese, Siswati, Slovak, Slovene, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh.

IBH SUBJECT CREDIT	UNITS	COURSE EXEMPTIONS	General Education Credit (Score of 5 or higher on the HL Exam unless otherwise noted)
IBH Anthropology, Social, and Cultural	5.3	Score 6 or 7 exempts ANTH 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement and the Intellectual Experience Badge: Global Awareness requirement. Score of 6 or higher also fulfills the Intellectual Experience: Diversity and Identity and Intellectual Experience: Ethics requirements.
IBH Computer Science	5.3	Score 5 exempts CSE 005 . Score 6 or 7 exempts CSE 022 .	Score of 6 or higher fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
IBH Economics	5.3	Score 6 or 7 exempts ECON 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
IBH Global Politics	5.3	No course exemption.	No course exemption.
IBH History	5.3	Score 6 or 7 exempts one (1) lower division history sequence.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Societies and Cultures of the Past requirement and the Intellectual Experience Badge: Global Awareness requirement.
IBH Language A: Literature (English) or IBH Language A: Language and Literature (English)	5.3	Score 5 or above satisfies WRI 001 and Entry Level Writing Requirement. Score 6 or 7 exempts WRI 010 .	Score 6 or 7 satisfies the General Education Lower Division: Written Communication requirement
IBH Language: Chinese	5.3	Score 6 or 7 exempts CHN 004 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement. Score of 6 or higher fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science or Area B: Literary and Textual Analysis requirement. Also fulfills the Intellectual Experience: Diversity and Identity and Intellectual Experience: Global Awareness requirements.
IBH Language: French	5.3	Score 6 or 7 on IBH French exempts FRE 004 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement. Score of 6 or higher fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B:Social Science or Area B: Literary and Textual Analysis requirement. Also fulfills the Intellectual Experience: Diversity and Identity and Intellectual Experience: Global Awareness requirements.
IBH Language: German	5.3	No course exemption.	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
IBH Language: Japanese	5.3	Score 6 or 7 on IBH Japanese exempts JPN 004 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement. Score of 6 or higher fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B:Social Science or Area B: Literary and Textual Analysis requirement. Also fulfills the Intellectual Experience: Diversity and Identity and Intellectual Experience: Global Awareness requirements.
IBH Language: Spanish	5.3	Score 6 or 7 on IBH Spanish exempts SPAN 004 .	Fulfills the General Education Language requirement. Score of 6 or higher fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B:Social Science or Area B: Literary and Textual Analysis requirement. Also fulfills the Intellectual Experience: Diversity and Identity and Intellectual Experience: Global Awareness requirements.
IBH Mathematics	5.3	Score 5 exempts MATH 011 . Score 6 or higher exempts MATH 021 .	Fulfills the General Education Quantitative Reasoning requirement.
IBH Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches	5.3	Score 5 or 6 exempts MATH 021 . Score 7 exempts MATH 021 and MATH 022 .	Fulfills the General Education Quantitative Reasoning requirement.
IBH Mathematics: Applications and Interpretations	0.0	No exam credit awarded.
IBH Music	5.3	Score 6 or 7 exempts one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.
IBH Psychology	5.3	Score 6 or 7 exempts PSY 001 .	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Social Science requirement.
IBH Theater Arts	5.3	Score 5 or above exempts one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.
IBH Visual Arts	5.3	Score 5 or above exempts one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.	Fulfills (1) Approaches to Knowledge course for the Area B: Media and Visual Analysis requirement.

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University of California, Merced

Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Examinations

Potential Duplication of Credit for AP and IB Exams

Credit for AP Exams

AP SUBJECT CREDIT

UNITS

COURSE EXEMPTIONS

General Education Credit

Credit for IB Exams

IBH SUBJECT CREDIT

UNITS

COURSE EXEMPTIONS

General Education Credit