On academic knowledge

When I went to the University of Chicago in the mid-1950s, during the Robert Hutchins era, students were tested at admission time to see how much knowledge they had about college subject courses.

If we did well enough in the examination we did not have to take the particular year long course in that subject area.

What was the criteria for having enough knowledge to skip taking a year-long course?

The criteria was that the entering student had same level of knowledge as a C student would have on the same subject three years after taking the course.

That strikes me as the most intelligent design for student teaching requirements. If you already know what a C student would know three years after taking the course, why in the world should you take the course?

Such intelligence never migrated to the rest of the academic world to my knowledge. Academics are such arrogant misanthropes. And politically biased to boot.