I can only speak as someone who has gone through (the pain that was) High School, including many AP courses but I have to strongly disagree with this article.<p>&gt; I usually use phrases like &quot;society doesn&#x27;t trust&quot; but let&#x27;s personalize it this time – for parents, think about whether or not you trust your kids teachers? Do you a large private, unaccountable organization more?<p>In my experience College Board is infinitely more accountable than any of the teachers. The AP tests are graded anonymously, with graders blinded to student and school. I&#x27;ve literally had teachers give me different credit for nearly the same work as another student because they &quot;just didn&#x27;t get the feeling I understood the material&quot; or some thinly veiled attempt at saying the didn&#x27;t like me. Looking back I wouldn&#x27;t trust some of my teachers to wash my car let alone determine my future.<p>&gt; You trust your child&#x27;s teacher with your child&#x27;s well being every day but you don&#x27;t trust him to say whether or not your kid knows calculus?<p>If your kid can&#x27;t take care of his own well-being by High School you&#x27;ve failed as a parent. If you think it&#x27;s your job to take care of your student&#x27;s well-being, you&#x27;ve failed as a teacher. You&#x27;re supposed to teach them, not change their diapers.<p>&gt; Then you teach the class and in May, one to two months before the end of the semester the kids take the AP exam - you don&#x27;t see results until the summer.<p>This is the only point I can partially agree with. Having your entire score come down to one test adds a lot of variables, but in the age of testing this isn&#x27;t just limited to APs. Thankfully there&#x27;s enough data you send to college that a single bad data point doesn&#x27;t hurt too much. And if you really understand the material, retaking a course isn&#x27;t that bad.