Courses at Santa Margarita Catholic High School:
4-Year Plan

The Santa Margarita Catholic High School course description book for 2026-27 lists each course’s course number, grade levels, UC A-G category and prerequisites. This page uses the official University of California (UC) A-G course list as its base, adds the grade levels and prerequisites from the school’s course description book for each course, and includes theology, health and other courses outside the A-G list. The overall picture of the UC list comes first.

UC A-G refers to the seven course categories that the University of California and California State University require of high school students: a History and Social Science, b English, c Mathematics, d Laboratory Science, e Language Other than English, f Visual and Performing Arts, and g College-Preparatory Elective. One reason this school’s UC list is long is that its own Eagle Online Academy has registered separate online versions of many courses.

Graduation Requirements (270 Credits)

The school awards 5 credits per semester course, and graduation requires 270 credits in total.

Each semester course earns 5 credits; graduation requires 270 credits, an academic GPA of 2.0 or higher, and no unremediated F on the transcript. Requirements include 3 years of science, 3 years of math, 2 years of world language, and 3 years of social studies. Students must also complete the service project tied to the theology course in each grade.

Graduation requirements and UC admission requirements are two separate standards. The table below places them side by side; the UC column comes from the University of California admissions website.

EDUBUS recommends scheduling courses to the UC recommended standard: 4 years of mathematics and 3 years of a world language. The school’s science requirement is already 3 years, which is stricter than at most schools. With a fixed 7 courses per semester, one theology course every year and requirements in health and physical education, few schedule slots are truly open, and this needs to be built into planning from 9th grade.

Theology and the UC A-G List

Three theology-related courses appear on the UC 2026-27 A-G list: Philosophy IB HL1 and HL2 (category g, UC-approved honors) and Introduction to Philosophical Foundations (category g, unweighted). The last is likely the grade 12 theology option Theology 4: Introduction to Philosophical Foundations of Theology, which also appears under that name in the UC-approved course table of the school's Course Description Book, but the titles do not match exactly; confirm with the school. Theology 1, Theology 101, Theology 2, Theology 3, and the other three Theology 4 options are not on the UC list.

Each grade level’s theology course includes a service project. Service hours are recorded and verified in MobileServe and must be in-person direct service; office work, fundraising, and donations do not count. Students with more than 100 additional hours of direct service may receive the Heart to Heart Award, and seniors with 400 or more cumulative hours may receive the Sacred Heart Service Award.

Course Selection Rules

This section answers three questions: how the schedule works, what moving up to honors requires, and whether courses may be taken outside the school.

The school’s public pages do not state the add/drop deadline or publish summer school courses. Incoming 9th graders set their first-year schedule at the freshman course selection night in March 2027; current students should confirm course selection dates with their school counselor.

Four-Year Pathways by Subject

In the pathways below, “regular” refers to the school’s Academic level (the standard courses that are not honors, AP or IB), and “honors” refers to Honors.

The English honors sequence covers only 9th and 10th grade. In 11th grade, AP English Language and English IB HL1 are taught in the same class, and in 12th grade, AP English Literature and English IB HL2 are taught in the same class, so students can sit both the AP and IB exams. Moving from regular English to AP or IB English requires a B or higher in the first semester and an A in the second semester of regular English, plus a passing writing exam.

Grade 9 science placement: students with an HSPT Reading score of 565 or higher who are concurrently enrolled in Algebra 1 Honors, Algebra 2, or Algebra 2 Honors are placed in Biology The Living Earth H; students with a Reading score of 450 or higher and combined Mathematics and Quantitative scores of 900 or higher are placed in Biology The Living Earth; students below these cutoffs take Concepts of Environmental Science. Chemistry in the Community does not satisfy the prerequisite for AP Biology, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics, or IB Chemistry. The school does not offer AP Chemistry; students seeking advanced chemistry must choose IB Chemistry SL or HL.

The social studies honors sequence is tied to Model United Nations (MUN) courses: Cultural Geography Honors MUN in 9th grade, World History MUN (H) in 10th grade, United States History MUN (H) in 11th grade, and United States Government MUN (H) and Economics Honors MUN in 12th grade. Under the UC calculation, only United States History MUN (H) in 11th grade is a UC-approved honors course among these four years. AP World History and AP European History are available from 10th grade and require 92% or higher in both semesters of English 1, or 88% or higher in both semesters of English 1 Honors.

World Languages

• Spanish 1-4, Honors 1-3, IB Spanish SL, HL1, and HL2, and AP Spanish Language and Culture
• French 1-4, Honors 1-3, French 5 Honors, IB French SL, HL1, and HL2, and AP French Language and Culture
• Mandarin Chinese is offered only at the honors level: Mandarin Chinese 1-3 Honors, IB Mandarin SL, and AP Chinese Language and Culture; Mandarin Chinese 1 Honors requires no prior Chinese
• Latin Honors 1-3 and IB Latin SL, HL1, and HL2
• Ancient Greek Honors 1-3 and IB Classical Greek SL
• American Sign Language 1-4

Incoming freshmen are placed in Mandarin Chinese, French, Latin, and Ancient Greek Honors 1 based on HSPT scores, with no prior language study required. Placement in Spanish 1 Honors, Spanish 2, and Spanish 2 Honors is based on the school's Spanish placement exam; incoming students with prior study in other languages may schedule an assessment for a higher level with the World Languages Department chair. The IB Diploma requires completion of the second level of a world language before grade 11. Under the UC calculation, Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese are recognized as honors courses only at the level 3 honors course; Latin and Ancient Greek are offered only at the honors level, but UC recognizes only their IB courses as honors courses.

Complete Course Map

Organized by department. Each course shows its level, grade levels, prerequisites and UC A-G category; a “—” in the UC A-G column means the course is not on the UC 2026-27 list. The notes column gives the school’s course number, whether UC weights the course, and which courses are not listed in the course description book and need to be confirmed with the school. Courses with Online or OL in the title are Eagle Online Academy versions.

Data verified on 2026-09-24. Course catalogs are updated each spring; prerequisites follow the school's current Course of Study.