Reading the Placement Record

The First Column

Standardized Tests

ACT

American College Test

AP

Advance Placement
College Board Advanced Placement
Scored out of a maximum of 5

IB

International Baccalaureate
Scored out of a maximum of 7.
A score of 6 or 7 results in credit

SAT I

SAT Verbal, SAT Writing or SAT Math
Scored out of 800

SAT II

SAT Subject Test
These are what used to be known as achievement tests
Scored out of 800

Languages

HSLANG

High School Language Background
This indicates the number of years of study in high school.
This is often used in determining placement into a language
without a local placement test or standardized test score.

INTL

This indicates that a student's native language is something
other than English and means the student is exempt from
the Foreign Language Requirement.

LP

Local Placement Test, taken either online over the summer
(as in the Writing Placement Test) or at Dartmouth during
Orientation.

ALEVEL

British A-Levels

TR

Pre-Matriculation Transfer Credit (from other institutions)
These are never assigned prior to matriculation, and oughtn't
be an issue during the first advising meeting in the Fall.

DEPT

A departmental decision on placement that does not fit into
one of the categories above.

Grade Codes

(last column)

SU

Superseded by
This indicates that another designation elsewhere on the record
indicates correct placement.  You can ignore this.

EX

Exempt from
This indicates that a student is exempt from the class listed.
This is sometimes paired with another PLC designation,
indicating the course(s) into which the student should be placed.
Example: A student who is EX from SPAN 1 will be PLC (placed) into
SPAN 2.
An EX from the Writing Requirement (WRIT 2/3 or 5) means
that a student will be placed into a First-Year Seminar in the Fall.
An exemption does not give a student course credit.

CR

Credit for
This means that a student is exempt from a class and is given
college credit for that class.  This will reduce from 35 the total
number of classes a student needs to graduate.
The credit may be "specified" or "unspecified."
A specified credit gives a student credit for a particular Dartmouth
course and may have placement implications (e.g., a specified credit for
ECON 1 allows a student to take more advanced courses for
which ECON 1 is a prerequisite).  An unspecified credit does not.
A "CR" credit however, cannot apply to Distributive or World
Culture Requirements.
If a student takes a class for which they have received credit (s/he
should not do this, but some students will for GPA protection or
because they do not feel confident enough to pass into the higher level) s/he will lose the CR.
Some departments allow pre-matriculation credits to count towards
the major requirements and others do not. Any question relating to
how a CR or EX plays into fulfilling major requirements
should be addressed to the department in question. The CR designation is sometimes
paired with a PLC. 
For example,  a student with CR for MATH 3 may be PLC'ed into MATH 8.

PLC

Placed into
This is a recommendation for a student if they choose to pursue
study in that area.  A "PLC" does not indicate that a student must
take that course.  A student is PLC'ed into (not out of) a course.
A student will be PLC'ed into WRIT 2/3, WRIT 5, or their First-Year
Seminar.  The criteria for students to place out of WRIT 5 is based on a combination of SAT
Writing and Verbal scores, AP scores and the score on a Local Placement Test administered
by the College.