<p>My school actually had this ‘problem’ when they first implemented the IB program a few years ago. People were only taking the courses in order to pad their transcripts and their resume’s. Simply put, the first batch of IB students only did it to “make themselves look good”. Today, should anyone at my school decide to enroll in an IB course, they must pass with an 85 or above in order to recieve the weighted grade as well as the credit needed to graduate. It certainly deterred a lot of people from taking the IB classes, but it has made for a close-knit atmosphere, in my opinon. But, OP, if there are going to be a few more extra faces in your class, you should probably get over it (unless the actual class is slowing down because of their very existence, of course). </p>
<p>aigiqinf: I do find it quite offensive that you believe that a person’s IQ determines how well they will do in an IB class. It certainly doesn’t. Somebody with an IQ of 100 is generally considered “normal”; a person that isn’t of genius intelligence. The IB cirricula promotes the student to apply a more ‘worldy’ perspective to any task that they are given, and anyone who can understand this should be given the chance to take an IB. Should they not succeed, they simply transfer to a class suited towards their pace. It really does not a take a person of genius intelligence to understand the fundamental concepts employed by an IB class. Heck, I never took an IQ test, but I firmly believe that my IQ lays somewhere between the 100 to 110 range, and I have not suffered in an IB class at all. It’s presumptuous to assume that I do not have the capability to “reason [my] way outside of a paper bag” simply because of my supposed IQ. My ability to reason has not been jaded, I actually DO contribute a lot in order to forward a discussion in class, I generally do well on teacher given exams, and my overall academic experience has been quite exciting. </p>
<p>Plus, I can write quite well thank you very much.</p>
<p>EDIT: I noticed that this thread hasn’t been posted on since March 6th. Fail…</p>
<p>Um… yeah I change my view. Diversity is needed in the world. IB is supposed to bring that. If you feel that it’s not going to be suited to your tastes, there are alternative options.</p>
<p>OP: I don’t think you are conceited! I am so excited to finally be in classes (AP classes, only start in 11th grade) where there are students that KNOW what they are talking about, and that the Civil War was between the North and South halves of the UNITED STATES…a girl seriously asked me this this year ^_^</p>
<p>OP: Are students allowed to drop out of your IB classes? I’ve only taken AP courses, so I wouldn’t know. But if they are, then it doesn’t really matter if they open up the IB courses to everyone. If they suck and fail, then they’ll drop and if some do succeed, they’ll keep the course. This has nothing to do with you - I don’t know why you should care.</p>
<p>If someone is skilled in one area but not another, should they not be allowed to take the highest level courses in the area of their proficiency? Or should they only be allowed to take classes that are at the level of their weakest subject area? And yeah, the bit about a small group of intelligent people did sound stuck up. Personally, I know a number of IB students, none of whom are close to the smartest students I know, but that’s likely not a representative sample. But it’s also not accurate to just think a bunch of idiots are going to flood the classes. Everyone deserves a chance at the best education they can have, so give them their chance (I mean, technically, you have no input, but you could at least be nice to them).</p>
<p>In my school everyone takes IB. The difference is that students are allowed to decide whether they want to pursue a full IB diploma or a certificate(no TOK, EE or 3 HL requirement). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this method since everyone bases their courses on interests. For example the HL Math class has 7-8 people and Math studies has 50+ divided in a couple of classes. </p>
<p>Sometimes you get a random person who signs up for a class and slows it down but such is life. There is no reason to say “hey you are not good enough to take IB”.</p>
<p>All of our AP and IB classes are combined (except chemistry, we only have IB Chem). I took IB Chem even though I’m not in the IB program. And if they only allowed IB kids in it, it would have been a class of like 13 and would have been cut.</p>
<p>Haha wow! I didn’t expect this thread to come back up again! </p>
<p>Okay, so clearly my first post didn’t go over well with some people and I don’t blame them; i worded it very badly. Although I don’t really care now (my school is currently messing up more things that I’m more upset about) the main thing was that we didn’t like the imbalance of work. For anyone who has done IB, you know how much work there is - not only work for the class but IAs, EEs, CAS hours, historical investigations, TOK etc and honestly I think we were just a little peeved that there were going to be people that didn’t have to do all of that as well (certificate candidates don’t do anything other than the class itself). While the full diploma kids go insane trying to balance everything and still try maintain good grades, you have these other kids with only one IB class and kind of have the easy life. I think we were just so frustrated and stressed at the time that we immediately rejected the idea.</p>
<p>But now it’s just whatever. We’re just trying to survive our last year along with stressing over college and how our school is screwing us over (in other ways - not this IB thing) so we’ll just take things as they come :)</p>
<p>And also, haha! It’s like you guys think we’ll shun them or something if other kids are allowed in We’re not elitist jerks if that’s what you think,lol, just overworked high school students :)</p>
<p>Okay, I felt like I needed to respond to this but actually it does matter a lot whether students in you class can keep up. I understand that everyone has trouble with some things and of course sometimes we may have to slow down. And idk if you’ve ever experienced this but have you ever had a class where there are people who consistently slow the class down, and not because they legitimately don’t understand but because they don’t even try! They don’t do their homework and won’t study and then whine in class that they don’t understand anything. Then the teacher has to once again slow down and basically reteach everything. I dealt with that a lot even in my honors classes so I’m sorry but I really don’t want to go through it again If they were making an effort then I would have no problem with it, but it’s the lazy kids that annoy me.</p>
<p>It’s usually a bad idea for students who are not ready to take AP/IB courses, and do. That is how my school is and you know how many people failed? Over half the class. That was because they didn’t care and thought, “Oh I’m in an AP class! My GPA will go higher because a C is like an A”. Nope, they failed and had to retake that class AGAIN. People should either be invited/tested in/demonstrate their abilities before being in an AP or IB course.</p>
We’re not elitist jerks if that’s what you think,lol, just overworked high school students :)</p>
If they were making an effort then I would have no problem with it, but it’s the lazy kids that annoy me.</p>