<p>First of all, many colleges don’t allow you to use AP classes to exempt out of classes in their major. So for example, at some schools even if you got a 5 in AP calculus, you still need to take calculus I if you major in math, physics, engineering or economics. My college was like that in most majors - if you got a 5 in AP psychology it would count as 4 credits but you still had to take intro psychology if you were a psych major.</p>
<p>Second of all, it doesn’t mean you have to speed through anything. It can be a cushion for failure or allow you to take time to do something else. I came in to college with a semester’s worth of AP credits (16), which was the max I could take given my scores. I got out of taking freshman math and English, as well as some distributional requirements. I still spent four years in college. I spent one semester studying abroad and I didn’t earn any credit towards my major, which I was able to do because I started my major earlier because I didn’t have to take a lot of my freshman year requirements. I also got sick one semester and had to withdraw from classes that I needed and I wasn’t thrown too far off track because of my AP credit.</p>