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Assessment and placement is the process Monterey Peninsula College uses to determine the appropriate English, Math, and English as Second Language (ENSL) level for a student to start in their first year of college.  This process, one of the critical steps to help students start on a successful pathway, has been established to enable all students to be successful by taking the right level of courses. In addition, the process allows the faculty to provide instruction at an appropriate level with the knowledge that students will be reasonably prepared. 

All students planning to earn a degree, take English, Math, or ESL classes, or waive class prerequisites need to complete the placement process.

MPC uses the following approaches to place students into our English, ESL, and Math sequences:

For English and Math, students will be placed into the highest possible courses utilizing any of the following criteria:

• Equivalent course work completed at a regionally accredited college or university,
• High school GPA and completed coursework for anyone who has attended a U.S. high school within the last 10 years,
• Early Assessment Program (EAP) / Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC),
• Advanced Placement (AP) or IB exam score
• Guided Placement questionnaire on your comfort level with concepts and skills necessary for success in transfer level coursework.

For English as Second Language (ENSL), students are placed into Reading/Writing and Listening/Speaking courses through a Guided Placement questionnaire on your comfort level with concepts and skills necessary for each course.