I have never understood why AP classes are considered college level or even college preparation. An AP course takes twice as long as an actual college course. How does that equal to or prepare a student for the pace of college? And the number of assignments/tests given in an AP course? When you have a multitide of assignments it doesn't matter quite as much if you fail a few. But in college you have maybe five or six. Bomb one of those and your grade will certainly reflect it.
To answer that you really need to understand the history of the AP exams. (See the AP exam web site.) Originally, AP tests were exams that the college board created to test if a student mastered college level material. And a list of what information the students would be tested on. Individual schools were left to implement this as they see fit. As the years have gone on the college board has included material in how to design an AP course. And these tests have included more and more information. There originally wasn't any rule as to how a high school implemented the class, although that has changed.
AP tests have a flaw that they don't really equal specific college classes, partly because not all colleges implement these subjects in the same way. They are in the middle of re-writing the curriculum to many of the popular test for various reasons. Supposedly they have had the help of U.S. colleges & universities in working on these changes. This is the first year for the new AP Biology Test, and next year the first year for the AP U.S. History test for example. The reasons for this are that many of them were a mile wide and an inch deep. Take US History for example that is supposed to cover the entire 400+ years of US History.
In addition not all universities accept all AP's as credit, some expect that you will have taken them just to get accepted. It is not a perfect system. I am anxious to see how the new changes affect the AP tests.
Edited to add: In order to get college credit one has to take the AP EXAM and get a 3,4, or 5 on it. This is ONE exam, not multiple exams all year. College classes usually have at least 2 if not 3 exams. One year of AP is supposed to be equivalent to one semester at college, but that varies depending on subject and university.
