USH in this country does not go deep by design, because the purpose isn't to educate, it's to mold compliant citizens. The problem goes all the way up to college, and so it's evident in AP classes, too. This explains why so many highly-educated public figures can expound on the Founding Fathers, get it consistently wrong, and nobody calls them out on it.
I took it in high school. Homework was full of the same kind of rote nonsense mentioned here, which is why nobody did the homework. Tests had it, too. I used to get about 70% of the questions right... and set the curve. So, needless to say, I was worried about the AP test.
I got a 5.
The instructor made all the difference. He made up for awful textbooks and test questions. Of course, ultimately it was still a really bad course, but that's not his fault.
