International baccalaureate

[Guest Kiechi]

Does anyone study this course?

[ecoli]

My dad teaches it. He teaches IB bio...what do you want to know, I'll ask him for you.

[EwenM]

I teach IB Diploma Chemistry. Best course I've taught, I wish I'd had the chance to take it when I was that age.

[urza]

I'll be taking it next year

[mezarashi]

I didn't take the IB program back in highschool. I opted for the easier AP (advanced placement) stuff instead, but I know plenty of friends who did including my class valedictorian who currently is a full scholarship holder at Stanford (if that's any persuasion to its 'greatness'). I would recommend it. It is a broader and more comprehensive education program.

 

The International Baccalaureate is relatively intense. It's a complete 2 year high school course that covers all fields. Instead of doing your high school classes, you will instead be doing IB Classes for about all your subjects. You need to fulfill the requirements for SL (standard level) subjects which are in themselves harder than the average high school course syllabus and a couple of HL (higher level) subjects for your specialty. The HL courses are very difficult. More than AP I can testify. They will be demanding on you in workload and demand high proficiency in the final exam. AP teaches college level material true, but IB HL will test your understanding of fundamentals to the limit. (If you want to understand what this means, take for example doing decimal division in your head. We all know how to do division, but it can get hard if the question makes it so.) Nonetheless you will learn a very broad range of topics, and most importantly, it is high school material, meaning that if you are liable to taking any entrance examinations etc, this material will be relevant !! Knowing how to do differential kinematics from AP Physics C will get you no advantage. Knowing the broad fundamentals of everything from Thermodynamics to Introductory Particle Physics that you will learn in the IB program will ! When I was studying for an academic examination, I remember referring often to the IB HL and GCE 'A' Levels syllabus.

 

Secondly, while you will not get college credit (CORRECTION: You can in fact earn college credits as well !) as AP can (given you score a 4 or 5 on your final exam), the IB diploma is more widely accepted and usually given priority in college admission. If you score yourself a couple of 6 and 7's in your HL's, this will definitely be a point to boast. Given you can handle the workload, this is a very advantageous program. If anything else, you should see your college counselor... this is an important time in your life for the to be college student. Make your decisions wisely and I hope I've been of some help

[rakuenso]

I just recently finished my IB exams (3 weeks ago actually)

 

Mezarashi, I believe you are misinformed on many levels.

 

The IB program may be "intense" but its intense for a reason. For one, it has far more prestigious than your typical AP classes. Secondly, with IB, you'll most likely be with the same group of people for 2 years or so, this can be good or bad depending on your choice of quantity or quality. And no, IB is anything but like decimal division, it focus much more on a broader scale than AP and focuses on the theory of why as well as the how part of every question.

 

As for your college credit statement, that is simply not true. You will get college credit, as one college offered me to get my BSc in 3 years as opposed to 4 simply because of the large amount of IB credits i've recieved.

[mezarashi]

Ah, I see how I may have caused some ambiguity with my post. I'll edit it for more clarity. I was a bit confused for a moment there, because purportedly I supported the same views. Sorry

[JWerner]

You need to see what the colleges you want to go to think of it and how much credit you'll get for it. I'd go for what is going to get you most credit at the school. I wouldn't care too much about prestige. It's prestegious, but it's not going to make or break your career.