I can't speak for AP classes, whose quality depends greatly on the teachers, and I believe the many of these classes offer very high quality education. However

I can't speak for AP classes, whose quality depends greatly on the teachers, and I believe the many of these classes offer very high quality education. However, I think AP exams are a "scam" in a sense. The scam isn't financial, but educational. You can undeniably save a lot of college tuition by passing AP exams, but that alone is not sufficient for truly understanding the material. Because my school didn't have AP classes, I self-studied for 5 AP exams in my last year of high school (Calculus BC, Biology, Chemistry C, and both Physics C exams). I got a 5 for all exams, except Electromagnetism in which I got a 4. However, now, I can barely recall any of the content I crammed for, except for calculus for which I took more advanced courses in university, and I feel poorer educationally as a result. The biggest problem with AP exams is that they're so easy to pass without truly internalizing all the concepts. The exams are graded on a bell curve, and if you look at the average scores, they are disturbingly low. Anyone who truly understand the course material should be able to pass these exams without difficulty, but the only conclusion I can make is that AP classes are pushing extremely unprepared students to take these exams, probably with the lofty goal of giving them a step up in university.