Watching my daughter, who is now a college first year, take AP American and AP World History in high school was depressing. As curiousmonolith suggests above, these courses, oriented to the standardized tests, do not teach a person how to think historically. Rather, even with the document-based questions, they crush the life, and most of the interesting stuff, out of historical learning. It's a shame. And a scam. Warning to parents who have not yet experienced the College Board leviathan: give them only minimal information (name, address, etc.); otherwise your child will be reduced to a commodified educational product bought and sold by College Board and the Educational-Industrial complex (OK that sounds a bit too Chomsky-conspiratorial, but there's truth there!).