<p>Theoretically, AP courses and tests should be a way to keep the most advanced students interested in high school. It should not be surprising that the most advanced students in high school are capable and willing to do university level work (just as the most advanced junior high school students take high school level courses and the most advanced university undergraduate students take graduate level courses).</p>
<p>However, the proliferation of low value AP tests (look for the threads about which ones are easiest to self study) clouds that purpose. That many are not accepted by universities for any meaningful advanced placement in the subject indicates that those ones are not truly university level. At best, they may be a better than typical high school course in the subject (which may be the main actual effect of AP syllabi – to convince high schools to offer courses meeting some minimum level of quality that would otherwise be absent).</p>
<p>Additionally, high schools trying to increase the numbers of students taking AP courses and tests do things like force students two years advanced in math to take calculus over two years instead of one. This does a disservice to the students who may be in for a shock when they get to university and see how quickly a real university course covers the course material.</p>