<p>Caltech offers their own placement exams (in math, physics, chemistry, and biology), which are a much better way of assessing knowledge and ability than AP tests. It takes a bit of effort to do these, but really, only the students that can do these with little preparation should skip these classes.</p>
<p>That being said, the humanities and social science department could do a much better job of finding a way to provide credit for those who really don’t need to go through freshman humanities.</p>