Bachelor of Arts degree now equivalent to a high school diploma

[DetlefK]

3. That might be just to ease them in in the first semester.

You have students from various high schools all over the country, different teachers, different curricula... The first semester is used to get them all on the same page, to make sure they all start from the same point in the second semester.

For example: Math-classes when I studied.
1st Semester: Everybody's talking during class, nobody bothers to listen to the professor because it's so easy and you had all of that already in school. I was shocked how loud it was and how brazenly they openly chatted. I passed the exam without even learning.
2nd Semester: New content, only a tiny portion was already known. Way less talking and the volume is considerably lower. The exam was hard but feasible.
3rd Semester: Only 25% of the people around. Absolutely no talking. The exam was horror. Luckily, we only needed 2 out of 3.