Funny... when I was in AP classes, outside of math, there wasn't all that much homework. Mostly by skipping the math, I probably averaged less than an hour per school night. Sure, there was the odd project where I needed to put in a good 3-4 hours in a night, but that was offset by enough nights where I had little or nothing that I needed to do (except math, and that wasn't going to happen).
It was the kids in the classes labeled "college prep" that had all the homework, because they needed practice, practice, practice.
Well, AP
is the new "college prep." Nobody who seriously wants to attend college skips taking AP credits.
While I get the WHY of the correlation between students who do well on AP exams being college-ready, versus those who simply take the AP course...
that does sort of produce weird black hole for highly capable 2e students and those who lack the means to pay for or get to an AP testing location.
The main reason that my DD doesn't take AP exams isn't that she wouldn't do well on them-- but that getting a seat with accommodations is nightmarish beyond belief, and may well force us to travel even overnight to find a willing test site. Does that mean that her A's in those classes are meaningless? Probably not. Her answer to "why didn't you take the AP test?" is that
she didn't take an AP class to get college credits in the first place-- she took it because it was the most rigorous coursework offered, and therefore best met her educational needs.
Personally, I think that is a jolly good answer for a 14yo high school academic standout.
