@skieurope I have to agree. DS19 is in grade 11 and will not take any AP courses until next year in grade 12 so we have yet to see how rigorous they really are. His courses this year are still “Pre-AP”. When he was accepted into the program it was stressed that AP courses were equivalent to first year university courses so I was very surprised to read how many students in grades 9 & 10 in the US appear to be taking AP courses. I find it hard to believe that that many are capable of university level work as well leaving me to believe that some of those courses are not in fact university level. DS will most likely be taking predominantly math and science APs and my understanding from his school is that they will be covering the same material as they would if they were enrolled in the equivalent university course. Even so my research of how these courses are being accepted by the various universities here for transfer credit has found that there is great variability both between schools and between programs. The most rigorous STEM programs will only accept credits for courses outside of core requirements. My view is then that while they are more rigorous than our standard grade 12 university stream courses, the majority will most likely not be directly equivalent to university courses. I have come to view them instead as better prep for university. Ever since Ontario eliminated Grade 13 in 2003 the universities here have been complaining that the incoming students are not as well prepared as they used to be. My feeling is that these AP courses will be more like the grade 13 courses that I took when I was in high school. Hopefully that will mean that DS will have an easier transition to university and he will probably only accept 1 or 2 credits for transfer.