I have been in the education space for over 20 years and there's a lot of garbage with this field it made me not pursue higher degrees. Management wants grades to have a bell curve, doesn't matter how, doesn't matter if students all happen to deserve A's. Some instructors put questions that require a long explanation, not because they want to test the students. But because they can put whatever grade they want and bullshit the student into believing it. The vast majority of engineering topics gloss over the main concepts then jump straight to formulas and equations, why? Because that's what they can test and grade students on. It's hard to test and grade general understanding.
If you can't skip college, just realize the system is rigged and if you want actual learning, get into independent, not formal education