My son has just gone through the AP saga and I would say this. He was a stellar math student in Grade 9 in a school where he was able to complete advanced Math 10 in Grade 9. He came into high school (on the advice of the counselors there) registered in AP Math 20 and AP Science 10. Understanding that Math 20 is probably the most difficult course in high school, his grades in Math for the first time took a huge tumble and he is struggling now in regular Math 30 owing probably to the difficulties he faced in AP Math 20 and the fact that he didn't acquire the tools he needed to move on to Math 30. I think it's going to be ok, but in speaking with his Math 30 teacher, she is of the view that it was a mistake for him to have taken AP Math because we risked this very scenario (a quicker pace that perhaps was more focused on "supplemental" math topics at the expense of more time dealing with the building blocks for more senior courses), for absolutely no upside. In short, AP Math was a mistake for our son (who used to be an excellent Math student, brimming with confidence, but now is struggling a bit). I'm not sure what it really gets you other than a risk of lower grades (which matters) in return for having "AP" on your transcript (which doesn't matter if that grade is substantially lower than the normal stream). Just my views based on what I've seen with my son and I'm sure every kid is different.
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