Credit by Examination

Students may file a request for credit by examination during any regular quarter for courses in which they are especially qualified through previous training or experience, and for which prior AP or college credit has not been awarded. 

Students may obtain the appropriate forms from their counselor.

The decision to offer credit by examination rests solely on the discretion of the faculty for that discipline. Additional requirements include:

• A separate examination shall be conducted for each course for which credit is to be granted.
• Credit may be granted only to a student who is registered and in good standing at the college.
• Credit will be granted only for a course listed in the college catalog.
• The student’s academic record will be clearly annotated to reflect that credit was earned by assessment of prior learning.
• Grades will be assigned according to the college’s regular grading system, except that students will be offered a Pass/No Pass option if that is ordinarily available for the course.
• Students will be charged a fee of $31 per unit when seeking credit by examination.
• Credit by examination units shall not be counted in determining the 12 quarter hours of credit in residence required by state regulations for an associate degree.
• Students may not request credit by examination for courses for which they have already earned a grade.
• Credit by examination units may not be used to meet the 24 residency units required to earn a degree at De Anza.
• No more than 45 credit by examination units may be earned.
• Students who successfully challenge a course through credit by examination may not subsequently challenge a course normally preceding it (for example, challenging Chemistry 1B and then challenging Chemistry 1A).
• Transfer colleges and universities have the discretion to decide if they will accept credit by examination for requirements or units.

Challenge is limited to those courses recommended by the divisions and approved by the vice president of Instruction. Special limitations exist for challenging courses in sequence. The examination may include oral, written, or skill tests, or a combination and will be sufficiently comprehensive to assess the student’s knowledge and skills commensurate with a student successfully completing the course.

The credit by examination grade will be noted on the student’s transcript at the end of the quarter. Students who do not successfully challenge may not remain enrolled in the course.

The following courses are challengeable.

• Applied Technologies
  • • AUTO 50A and 50B, AUTO 51A and 51B – must pass A and B classes to receive credit
    • DMT 80
• Biological, Health and Environmental Sciences
  
  • • HTEC 50, 60A, 73
    • NURS 50
• Business and Computer Science
  
  • • ACCT 1A, 1AH
    • CIS 2, 31, 50, 66, 67A, 67B, 74, 75A – CIS classes that have lab hours are not challengeable
• Creative Arts
  
  • • ARTS 53
    • F/TV 20
• Intercultural and International Studies
  
  • • The World Languages Department does not give credit by examination for any foreign language class. Students can place at the appropriate level in the foreign language curriculum, depending on their language proficiency level.
• Language Arts
  
  • • JOUR 61A
• Physical Science/Math/Engineering
  
  • • None
• Social Sciences and Humanities
  
  • • ADMJ 1, 95
    • PARA 94, 95
    • POLI 10, 95
    • A special no-credit challenge exam is available to meet the California State/Local Government portion of the CSU United States History, Constitution and American Ideals requirement.