Guess I am surprised by the reactions here, as I thought most posts complain about the lack of challenge - now we seem to be stating that the supposed challenging courses are just fluff. I am certain that is the case in some schools. I have read plenty of articles about schools pushing AP courses, then no one scores higher than a 2. Yes, those courses are fluff. But that isn't the case everywhere.
As I said, the problem is that the students are rushed through math courses in a race to get them into college-level courses as soon as possible. This approach necessarily sacrifices depth and foundation in favor of surface area. The schools, the textbook companies, and the testing companies will all tell you that their courses and tests are rigorous when in fact, they are not. I never said the AP courses were fluffy. That was your word (please don't distort
).
Scoring a 3, 4, or 5 on an AP test does NOT require you have a deep understanding of the concepts underlying calculus and pre-calculus. It requires that you have a decent understanding of basic and intermediate procedures (depending on score), but nothing more.
