<p>There are official advanced standing exams for the most common freshman classes (calc I/II, diff eq, linear algebra, bio, chem, physics I/II). If you want to take an ASE in a class that doesn’t generally offer it, you have to email the professor and ask permission.</p>
<p>The Academic Guide says
So sometimes it’s not as easy as showing up and taking the test – professors can require you to complete an entire homework set before taking it (as they do in the cases of diff eq and linear algebra), or to do some other kind of work as they see appropriate.</p>
<p>And to answer Donmu’s question on the previous page, if you take and fail an ASE during freshman year, it won’t be recorded on your transcript, just like it wouldn’t be recorded if you failed any other class. If you take and do poorly on an ASE after freshman year (or if you pass during freshman IAP/spring), the grade will be recorded.</p>