It's low status to say one could benefit from external motivation and structure, but I suspect that for the vast majority of people and general, and also the majority of LWers, external motivation and structure are hugely valuable.
Tests are valuable to give you an idea of how you're doing with learning stuff. IIRC, some education research suggests that spending an hour taking a test is actually substantially better for your understanding and long-term recall than spending an hour studying.
I think if you wanted to make a serious "alternative technical college education" for yourself, one way to do it would be to work on a series of technical projects that interested and motivated you, then learn whatever was necessary to complete the projects well (see this post by Robin Hanson). Probably find some local hackerspace so you don't have to buy equipment, you get some social pressure/networking, and you can pick up some tacit knowledge from other hackers. If your projects were impressive, they could look good on your resume to the right employer (open-minded small business owner/startup founder?)
This strategy could be difficult because most people don't have the balls to say "I am going to complete project X in a field that I know nothing about and learn whatever I need to know in order to complete the project on the fly". You'd run a risk of getting intimidated and giving up, I think. A certain amount of confidence in your ability to understand anything given sufficient time, effort, and pestering of knowledgeable people (online or offline) would probably be necessary to make this work (relevant rationality quote). I still think going to college is a better idea for most people.
Tests are valuable to give you an idea of how you're doing with learning stuff. IIRC, some education research suggests that spending an hour taking a test is actually substantially better for your understanding and long-term recall than spending an hour studying.
That's why you use Anki ;)
Compared to many of the people reading this, I've not participated extensively on LessWrong. In fact, I created my account only about a week ago. That said, I have read many LessWrong articles by contributors such as Eliezer, Jonah, Yvain, Gwern, and many others (if I missed you, my apologies). I wouldn't say it was a huge transformative experience. But I have probably learned a bit more from LessWrong than I learned sitting in on a class by Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker on human capital (without formally registering for the class or doing the coursework). I've learned more of value from LessWrong than all the MIT OpenCourseWare lectures I've consumed. There are a few online experiences, such as reading EconLog, that have been more educational for me than LessWrong, but I can count these on the fingers of one hand.
Some of my friends have claimed that reading LessWrong systematically (and perhaps participating in the comments and attempting to write posts) would generate more value for an undergraduate than a typical core college class (with the possible exception of technical classes specific to the person's major or area of specialization). I'm curious about whether readers agree with this assessment. Do you feel, for instance, that LessWrong provided you with more valuable human capital than your introductory general chemistry sequence? What about comparing LessWrong with an undergraduate "intro to philosophy" class? Or an undergraduate intro class on the history of economic thought? At what percentile would you rank LessWrong relative to your college classes?
A second related question is whether there's a possibility of building a college course -- or college-like course, perhaps a MOOC -- specifically revolving around mastery of the content in LessWrong (perhaps starting with the Sequences). Would such a college course be possible to design in principle? How would such a college course compare with core requirements for undergraduates today?