<p>Caltech doesn’t grant credit for AP courses. Period.</p>
<p>There are two sorts of placement tests: what I like to call the “competency” and “skip” tests. All prefrosh get to take the writing (WAFT), physics, chem, and math competency tests. These determine if you need to be placed in catch-up courses or can handle the standard first-year core courses. The skip tests are offered for CS, chem, math, and physics, and are optional. If you do well on these you can skip core chem, part or all of core math, part or all of core physics, and CS 1 and 2 by substituting more advanced courses for core courses. AP courses are a good way to prepare for the competency tests, but the skip tests are a good deal harder, as they should be, so you’re probably only going to pass them if you’ve been doing the material for a while and it’s second nature to you.</p>