Nobody is saying "don't test". The only place that I know of that doesn't test in the traditional sense are Waldorf schools, and even they still evaluate their students.

Concerns are being raised about standardized testing in a NCLB-influenced environment, both in how that limits test design, tests for the wrong things, and how this kind of testing creates the wrong incentives.

> the AP tests have a significant multiple-choice component that resists simple trickery.

It isn't just about trickery. I remember encountering a pumping lemma question during the GRE that was simply easier to answer in multiple choice form because I didn't have to prove the correctness of the right answer, but only the incorrectness of the wrong ones (and even there I didn't have to work out the fiddly details, I just needed a modest amount of confidence).