<p>What I always find interesting is that at many schools, a student who retakes a language class for an easy A by misrepresenting their level of preparation can be dropped in mid-semester if this is discovered, risking academic probation, while a student who excels while repeating material in an intro STEM class is lauded as an “excellent” and “talented” student. In all fairness to students, sometimes schools indeed make it very difficult for students to skip intro classes.</p>
<p>I do not think this is fair to true beginners, especially in curved classes, and wish more schools would take student baseline into account when assigning students to entry level classes and recitations. While an experienced student can usually manage if instruction is poor or geared to students who have already seen most of the material in an AP, IB, or DE class, an inexperienced student in this situation might need to find a tutor for several hours a week, repeat the class (after a W or poor grade), or conclude that a poor or even failing grade is a result of lack of talent or poor study skills rather than sloppy placement policies or poor teaching or classroom management.</p>
<p>Sometimes a bad experience in a single class can spill over and poison an entire semester as a student neglects other classes, or change the course of a student’s life if they need to change majors (if they fall behind in a sequence and need to graduate in eight semesters) or drop any dreams of medical school.</p>
<p>Some schools do have placement exams or accelerated sequences for students who have already taken part or most of the calc 1 through differential equations sequence in high school, and I can understand how this might be attractive to an engineering or physical science student chomping at the bit to get into smaller
upper-level classes. Larger schools with eclectic student bodies also sometimes run several sections of chemistry, physics, or intro CS classes to accommodate students with various backgrounds and interests.</p>