<p>the college course may be faster and have less hand-holding, but the student won't be scratching their head, having trouble understanding a topic because they weren't correctly taught the basics. case in point: taking college applied math after AP calculus, i realized how little my classmates (who had taken calculus from college professors) actually understood the basic calculus concepts in the way that i had understood them from my high school course experience. i was able to spend no time reviewing and all my time working at what was covered. but then, fast forward a couple years, a bit removed from calculus. my college differential equations class had been a breeze, with a teacher who didn't think to challenge us on exams and often didn't understand the students. i got a top grade in the class, but then went into partial differential equations somewhat clueless and underprepared. i would have to review ordinary differential equations stuff often.</p>
<p>moral: AP prepared me better for college than college did. hmmmmm....</p>