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If you are going to do the entire IB diploma program, then it requires you to take 3 or 4 higher level classes...and the reason i mention that is because you can ONLY take that many. higher level type IB classes (2 year) are the only ones that are recognized by any colleges, if they recognize it at all. The other sort of classes they want you to take are standard level (1 year) classes, which amounts to 2-3 classes that you have to take during your junior and senior year. It depends on how many hours in your day you have at your school. But, you could feasibly take more higher level classes if you wanted, but they would not count towards your diploma, and that is not such a big deal.
Higher level classes are arduous, and given the tests, some of them looked much harder than the AP tests, since they are two years and cover a lot of material. You have to do a lot of internal/external assignments and projects (same withi SL classes). And, if you are doing the whole diploma program then your time will be occupied as well by doing the other things they want you to do. Which is the 150 hours of categorically prescribed community service (sports and activities can probably be used for some of it), the 4000 word extended essay, taking the IB Theory of Knowledge class.
Standard level classes have exams as well, ib exams, but they are not worth anything at all even if they are hard as well. They are a waste of time, but you have to do them if you want the diploma. By being not worth anything, i mean that no college i have ever heard of has accepted a SL exam for anything.
I originally had 4 HL classes, but i opted to not take Math HL because i wanted to make sure i did not mess up and got the diploma. So i took Math SL, and the other three HLs i had amounted to little in college. I have 6 credits of english to show for my entire ib experience. The other tests, physics and Business & organization were not recognized.
Math might be worth looking into though, HL. At many colleges, IB Math HL gets a lot of credit. More than AP. But, in general the trend tends to be that of AP getting much more college credit in all for less work. I am not degrading AP, or i do not mean to, i am just saying that IB asks for their students to do a lot of extra work and not all their exams are evevn worth anything (SL exams). a one year AP course gets credit at college, but a one year SL course for IB gets none always, that is the way it is. Colleges like Caltech will ask for a 7 (highest score) on tests for credit on some, while they allow a 4 or 5 credit for AP. Also, the full ib diploma will get you nothing either, in florida and europe pretty much. I think the reason for this is because it has not picked up so much insofar. European schools grant much more credit for IB than america does, i think it might change in the future, but not in the next couple years.
One last thing, IB scores are calculated not only by exams...i think that is a common misconception. The score you get, and the score the college looks at is your overall IB grade that you are assigned throughout the courses with projects, etc. The test is only part of that.
All in all, it is a great education and a great experience. But, if you would like any sort of reward for it, i would not count on it. If you want college credit, go for AP. And, if you want a challenge like you said you did...i think it is a great experience. You get better teachers since they have to be IB certified to teach IB classes, and the students tend to be better people and more intelligent than others (at least i would hope they would be). IB is not going to take up all your time, people will say it will but IB is not as much work as it sounds. If your teachers try to convince you that SL exams might get you credit, do not believe them.
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Last edited by PsychoSnowman on 01-12-2004 at 10:59 PM
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01-10-2004 11:01 PM
well, the high school i'm zoned for sounds bad since certain people say it's bad. i'm not sure if it'll have AP classes, but i'm not sure since i haven't moved yet. 
