It's worth noting around 2009 that the harder Computer Science exam was no [longer being given by AP][wikipedia]. The course I had was AP Computer Science aimed at the AB test back in 2004-2005. It was in Java but every bit as rigorous as the one described by the grandparent's in C++.
Supposedly it was discontinued due to a lack of people taking it, but that was partly due to the fact that it's not a core subject and I assume because it was quite a bit more difficult than the others. I recall taking the Calculus AP BC exam as well and trivially scoring a 5 on it, while the Computer Science AB exam was actually fairly difficult, even though I spent a significant amount of time learning algorithms and data structures, implementing all of them myself, and reading lots of code. One point of anecdata, but in my experience someone who did score a 5 on that exam was likely very well ahead of the curve going into a university. I was able to skip I believe 3 courses at my university based on earning a 5, and I doubt the same is true of the present A exam.
Supposedly it was discontinued due to a lack of people taking it, but that was partly due to the fact that it's not a core subject and I assume because it was quite a bit more difficult than the others. I recall taking the Calculus AP BC exam as well and trivially scoring a 5 on it, while the Computer Science AB exam was actually fairly difficult, even though I spent a significant amount of time learning algorithms and data structures, implementing all of them myself, and reading lots of code. One point of anecdata, but in my experience someone who did score a 5 on that exam was likely very well ahead of the curve going into a university. I was able to skip I believe 3 courses at my university based on earning a 5, and I doubt the same is true of the present A exam.
[wikipedia]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Computer_Science#AP_Compute...