All well and good if your kids are from a school known to the admissions department at the colleges they are applying to, otherwise the AP courses, with all their flaws, are a reasonable compromise that gets them college credit.<p>My kids took a different route when faced with a truly incompetent high school calculus teacher.  My wife convinced the high school to allow them to take courses at the local community college for both high school and college credit.  The courses were approved by the University of California so there was no issue about transfer of credits.