External Exam Credit
EXAMS
Advanced Placement (AP)
College Level Exam Program (CLEP)
International Baccalaureate (IB)
A passing score on an AP exam, CLEP exam, or IB exam may allow a student to receive subject credit for various requirements. The college utilizes external exam scores for placing students in appropriate course work in some cases as well as waiving students from specified occupational degree and/or certificate major course work or college graduation requirements. Please see a counselor for more information. Information regarding which subjects can receive local external exam (AP, CLEP, IB) credit can be obtained from A&R and Counseling Offices.
NOTE: Students should not take classes for which they have earned external exam credit unless a specific university requires a higher score and/or their university major requires it. Duplicative credit will not be awarded by the college or transfer university. Students should talk to their counselor if they are uncertain whether or not their university major requires a course that they have already received AP, CLEP, or IB credit to determine if they have earned the appropriate score, or need to take the course. Students must file a petition in the Office of Admissions and Records (A&R) to have external exam credit reflected on the college transcript. It is strongly recommended that students discuss the applicability of external exam credit with a Cypress College Counselor before submitting the Petition form to A&R.
Petition
The petition form may be obtained from the A&R Office or via link to downloadable forms on the college website:
https://www.cypresscollege.edu/admissions-records/admissions-records-forms/
In order for the external exam credit to be applied via petition, the official AP, CLEP, or IB scores must be on file in the A&R Office or submitted at the time of petition. Students must have the College Board send exam results to A&R (or hand carried copies are also accepted as long as they are in a sealed envelope).
Receiving Institution Credit
External exam credit (AP, CLEP, IB) awarded for transfer admission and major requirements is determined by the receiving institution.
University of California (UC)
The UC policy for external exam credit as it applies toward a student’s major is located in the Quick Reference for Counselors guide, available for reference in Counseling Offices and the Transfer Center and is also online at http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/exam-credit/.
California State University (CSU)
Individual CSU campuses’ admissions websites list the external exam credit for major-specific requirements. Click on the link for each campus at www.calstate.edu/search_find/campus.shtml?source=homepage.
NOTE: Students may earn credit for AP, CLEP, or IB exams to satisfy IGETC (for CSU or UC transfer), CSU GE, and native A.A. general education (GE). Information on scores that are accepted for the different exams toward specific categories of these general education patterns and the number of units awarded for each category is listed in the following policy section.
NOTE: Course credit and units granted by Cypress College for general education may differ from course credit and units granted by a transfer institution toward a student’s admission or transfer major program requirements. Students should visit each transfer institution’s catalog for their external exam policy for admission or major.