I think the real problem with AP courses is that they tend to be "at the top of a high school curriculum" but at the mean time "entry level college courses".
E.g. calculus - it's the "hardest" high school math class, but it's the most basic and foundational college mathematics course.
I took Calculus both at one of the top California non-magnet schools (AP Calculus) and a California community college (as well as took vector calculus and differential equations after transferring to a university). AP Calculus AB in high school in a way is "designed to be hard", people dropping the course, plenty of failing grades. It's the course for the "top of the class", the people "good in math". In college it's the course freshmen in any science major takes (at a community college it's the first course to be taken once the students complete remedial/"catch-up" math courses; at a university it's _the_ first math course in a math department other than finite math/statistics for humanities/social science majors).
Comments
I think the real problem with AP courses is that they tend to be "at the top of a high school curriculum" but at the mean time "entry level college courses".
E.g. calculus - it's the "hardest" high school math class, but it's the most basic and foundational college mathematics course.
I took Calculus both at one of the top California non-magnet schools (AP Calculus) and a California community college (as well as took vector calculus and differential equations after transferring to a university). AP Calculus AB in high school in a way is "designed to be hard", people dropping the course, plenty of failing grades. It's the course for the "top of the class", the people "good in math". In college it's the course freshmen in any science major takes (at a community college it's the first course to be taken once the students complete remedial/"catch-up" math courses; at a university it's _the_ first math course in a math department other than finite math/statistics for humanities/social science majors).