The only way teachers could justify passing the majority of kids in these AP classes was to base the class grades on mass volumes of homework - rewarding activity over accomplishment. The straight A students were mostly the ones that couldn't pass the AP Exams(!)
OMG. You have just explained something that has had me completely befuddled.
Since my eldest started middle school, I've been at a loss to understand why homework counts equally with tests toward a semester grade. Now I get it. Homework is a way to compensate for slower students (especially because they get help from aides during homework club).
I spent a lot of time in a university system where the most important grade was the one you got on the three-hour essay-style final exam (NO multiple choice). The idea was that you spent the year learning, and the big test at the end measured your knowledge of that particular subject as a whole. What we would call "mid-terms" were for measuring your progress. They didn't count much (if at all) toward a final mark/grade. History/English-type subjects did use graded essays (but only one per term, usually), and the final was still super-important. Ditto for homework assignments, which were intended as learning tools and, as such, had almost no impact on the final mark. Why should they? the thinking goes. The whole point is that you're still learning and are expected to make mistakes.
The same idea applied (still does) the end of secondary school. Everyone takes a big exam (A Levels, Leaving Cert., "Le Bac.", etc.). The points on that exam are the sole determinants of what you study at which university. You get the points, you get in. It's that simple. No essays, extracurriculars, no legacy students, no nothing but
points.
