I'll second HK's recommendation to look at the syllabus or network with parents who's children have taken the specific AP course *at the same school* your ds will be taking it at to see how the course is taught.
there was a brutal increase in the volume of work expected out of the students in those courses. So sure, they were still doing one page essays-- but four a week, rather than the one in "honors" or the one every two weeks in "regular" English.
This is true for some of the AP courses at my ds' school, but not for math - Calc etc are relatively straightforward, and the workload (here) for the advanced math isn't really any more than it is for any other math class - for a kid who grasps math concepts easily.
Re the AP courses that require a lot of writing... I don't know if this is true everywhere, but the more I hear about our local AP courses of this nature... the more they remind me of the dreaded "teach to the test" rather than "think deep".
The work was definitely still secondary level in my opinion-- there was just twice as much of it.
It's possible to get bogged down in a heavy-workload class that's not AP too - so many times it seems to depend upon the teacher of each specific course.
Best wishes,
polarbear
