Take the Upper-Division Composition Exam, or UDCE, to challenge the upper-division composition requirement. The UDCE asks you to read a short passage on a topic of general interest and write a responding expository essay in 90 minutes. One year, for example, examinees responded to readings about food culture, the need for speed in modern life, and the potential benefits of suffering.
If you decide to take this challenge exam, you should do so as soon as you have accumulated 70 units. Do not wait until your final year or final quarters when you won’t have time to take an upper-division class if necessary. A student may make only two attempts to pass the exam. If you do not pass on your first attempt, you may make an appointment with an exam counselor for guided feedback. You will then have the opportunity to take the exam once more.
Do not take this exam if you are currently enrolled in a course that satisfies the upper-division composition requirement for your college, as exam results will not be available until after the final add/drop deadline. Therefore, you should attempt the exam in quarters before you enroll in qualifying upper-division courses.
For more information about your college's composition requirement, please consult the advising office of your college:
- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences advising
- Biological Sciences advising
- Engineering advising
- Letters and Science advising
2025-26 exam times
The exam will be administered in person in 2025-26. Continue to check this web page for any changes due to exam modifications, health requirements or other campus regulations.
Registration is required. Please note that registration closes one week before the exam. Students who miss the registration window are not allowed to take that exam administration. Students needing disability or religious accommodations must indicate so on their registration. Accommodation exam times will be arranged based on student and proctor availability. Religious accommodation exams will usually be administered the Monday through Thursday after the posted exam date.
Fall 2025 exam
Saturday, Oct. 18
Register between 8.a.m. Monday, Sept. 29 and noon Friday, Oct. 10.
Winter 2026 exam
Saturday, Jan. 24
Register between 8 a.m. Monday, Jan 5 and noon Friday, Jan. 16
Spring 2026 exam
Saturday, April 11
Register between 8 a.m. Monday, March 23 and noon Friday, April 3
Exam times
8:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time (PT)
Exam locations
Social Sciences Lecture Hall at 1100 Social Sciences
Sign up
Register online via this web page during the registration windows above.
Cancellation
You may cancel your exam on the UDCE website at the link provided. However, if you decide not to take the exam (even late in the week or on Saturday) do not show up and attempt the exam. Any attempt at the exam, even for a few minutes, counts as a try.
What to bring to the exam
- Your student ID
- Pencils or pens
- White UDCE booklet (not a bluebook), available at the bookstore
- Remember: no sources, dictionaries, other internet sites or collaboration allowed
Preparation
Since passing the examination fulfills the upper-division composition requirement, you must demonstrate advanced writing skills beyond technical correctness — the effective development and support of an analytic argument that responds directly to the question and the reading passage.
Students will not be able to see counselors to prepare for this exam and we do not hold pre-exam workshops. Only students who are already confident in their writing ability should attempt the exam. This is a challenge exam and is therefore challenging. You are trying to show that you already possess the advanced writing skills of an upper-division class.
There is no quick way to develop such mastery of writing skills. To prepare for the exam, you might review principles of essay organization, paragraph development, and sentence construction as well as practice writing essays in response to brief articles of general interest.
Accommodations
Students with Student Disability Center accommodations must indicate their existing eligibility on their registration form. The Student Disability Center will then work directly with the exam coordinator to facilitate your accommodations. You will receive a confirmation email the week before the exam.
Scoring
Experienced writing instructors who commonly teach upper-division writing will score the exams. They score students’ focus on the topic question, thesis, organization, development of ideas, logic, use of specific and appropriate evidence, grammar, usage, and sentence structure. Each exam is scored by at least two instructors who do not see each other's scores.
Non-passing essays tend to have one or more of the following problems: grammar errors; reliance on overly formulaic essay structures, i.e., the three-point thesis, five-paragraph essay; lack of development with specific evidence beyond analysis of the text; failure to respond to the prompt.
Results
You — and your college dean and the Office of the University Registrar — will be notified of the results by email approximately three weeks after the exam date.
You will not know your results by the drop/add deadline. Do not take the exam in a quarter you are signed up for a qualifying upper-division writing class.