My kids both started an AP UCScout course last year. My comments below are based on our experience. I cannot officially say how other UCScout classes operate, however, I asked online and had many parents confirm our experience was typical (although others had more positive experiences).
PROs:
-one of the only ways to take an AP course during the school year outside your HS. The course should be added to the HS transcript (but listed as UCScout/not your home HS). At my kid’s school, they would have received the GPA bump for an AP course.
-very flexible, at your own pace.
-relatively inexpensive and/or your school may pay for it.
-easy to drop if it isn’t working out
CONs
-almost completely on your own. Do not expect any teaching or interaction with an instructor.
-course materials were substandard (and frankly, the UCs should be embarrassed to have their name associated in any way with the coursework). Other parents said the material for their kid’s courses (different disciplines) was more comprehensive than what my kids had but very dry (walls of text).
-no feedback on assignments. My kids received 100% on all assignments when there were obvious errors. The course grade was mostly based on a midterm and final and ultimately my kids dropped the class because they were concerned without feedback, they had no way to assess how they would perform in the class.
-office hours held with the teacher for 1 hour each week (for everyone in the class, not just your kid). In our case, this fell during the normal school day and was often changed the week of to some other inconvenient time.
-no interaction with other students in the class.
Like I said, this was based on our family’s experience with a different AP course. The AP Physics course may be better constructed, however, I think the self-directed, little to zero interaction is the norm for UCScout classes. Before proceeding, I would contact them and ask to speak with the person running the specific class (I wish we had done this). Inquire about how the course operates and ask pointed questions about scheduled teacher/student interaction, grading, turn-around time for emails and assignments, etc. We were led to believe by our school it would be like an online synchronous class. In reality, it was like a mail-order class from the '90s.