Yep, I too think the class needs a total redesign. It fails to cover a lot of what actual computer science is for some poorly put together subset of Java taught

Yep, I too think the class needs a total redesign. It fails to cover a lot of what actual computer science is for some poorly put together subset of Java taught as what's essentially magic (the same kind of problem with a lot of elementary math education). Sadly, the class has changed very little since it was first designed. Most of the course material hasn't been updated significantly by CollegeBoard since around 2005. I think they really should redesign it with a language more suitable for teaching basic computer science, like Scheme or Python. But even more so, they need to design the course to be more understandable to those without previous programming experience, because AFAICT 90%+ of the people who don't fail the AP exam with a 1 or 2 already know most of the course material coming into the class.