<p>is AP easier?</p>
<p>I never took IB, but from what the IB coordinator told me, there’s a lot more writing involved. Basically he told me IB covers a wider range of topics but goes less in-depth than most corresponding AP classes.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, AP classes are more equivalent to college classes. IB classes aren’t necessarily more or less difficult, but they are designed with less attention to mimicking a standard curriculum.</p>
<p>It depends on which subjects you’re talking about and which level of IB courses you’re talking about.</p>
<p>SL (Standard Level) and HL (Higher Level) IB courses usually differ dramatically in terms of difficulty. Most SL courses are roughly equivalent to corresponding AP courses.</p>
<p>But it’s an entirely different story with HL.</p>
<p>See, HL courses are 2 years long, so they’re already tons more work than the AP equivalents. Also, usually only the 1st year of an HL course is needed to have enough knowledge to take the AP exam equivalent. Then you take into account the 4000-word-max extended essay, the TOK 10-min presentation AND additional essay, the 150 CAS hours, and that shows how much busier IB kids usually are schoolwork wise than AP kids. All IB diploma kids take at least 3 and at most 4 of these.</p>
<p>SL courses, on the other hand, are MUCH easier. In the US they are usually only 1 year long; generally, the AP exam equivalents cover slightly more material than those classes. Diploma students take at least 2 and at most 3 of these.</p>
<p>Combine those two together, though, and you’ll see that the majority of AP kids in the US have no reason to complain about their courseloads… unless they’re also IB kids taking AP courses to fill the rest of their schedules. :P</p>
<p>However, many of the AP students on CC have equal, if not more demanding, courseloads than the IB Diploma kids. Because CC is… just like that. xD</p>
<p>AP is much better if you’re not very well-rounded and you like to have more freedom in what to take. It helps that you don’t have to be enrolled in those courses to take the exams (unlike IB, heh :P).
IB is much better if you are well-rounded, you can manage your time well, and you have TONS of discipline and patience (or want to gain those qualities along the way). xD</p>
<p>One choice is usually better for most students-however, many US IB students take APs because APs are still more widely accepted than IB courses.</p>
<p>Wow, that was long. xD Sorry about that-I’m going into the Diploma Programme soon so I’ve been asking tons of people about it!</p>
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<p>This doesn’t mean that HL classes are harder than APs; AP classes almost never last longer than a year, so only the first year of an AP course is needed for the same level.</p>
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<p>This is because…</p>
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<p>I don’t mean to demean IBs, because I really don’t know that much about them, but there’s a reason why APs are more widely accepted than IBs, and I don’t think it’s entirely a cultural issue. For APs, you can get a 4 or a 5 and safely get some credit almost anywhere (many institutions give credit for 3s, and I’ve seen a couple that even give it for 2s), but it seems that you have to get a 7, or at least a 6, on an IB test to get a similar amount of credit. AP classes may not really be harder, but it seems likely that they are perceived that way among American higher education.</p>
<p>I’m only a junior but I’m doing the full IB diploma and I took two AP classes last year (Stats and comp. gov and politics) so I guess I’ll just give my two cents here. </p>
<p>For the IB HLs I think that they are the same difficulty or possibly harder than their AP counterparts. Last year I took AP Stats and got a 5 on the exam and I found it incredibly easy (too easily- they should have made the exam harder). For IB HL Math I’ve heard it’s incredibly hard, and so far I find it somewhat challenging. In HL math you learn about statistics for a few weeks (3-4 maybe?) and there was a kid last year who took the AP Stats exam after that and got a 5.</p>
<p>I’m not too sure about my other HLs yet, though.</p>
<p>The SL courses are easier than AP I think. Additionally, for the full IB diploma you only need to take 6 classes and then TOK, whereas someone could take 6 or 7 AP classes. </p>
<p>From what I’ve heard- the most challenging thing about the IB is the immense of work that comes along with - the Extended Essay, the TOK essay and presentation, along with internal assessments. It might also be harder to take an exam on two years of work instead of one (just a thought).</p>
<p>Then again this is mostly just what I’ve heard.</p>
<p>^^Makes sense except for your AP/HLs point.</p>
<p>Usually only the first year of HL is needed before someone takes the equivalent AP exam, so technically they’re about the same level for the first year, and then apparently the IB just goes and ramps it up another notch for the second year. 
From what my friends told me…</p>
<p>Totally understand your point on the acceptance issue! It does seem though that IB tests are accepted somewhat more widely at foreign universities than APs, but that’s probably because AP only recently (I think?) began allowing internationals to take their tests… or at least, a ton more recently than IB.</p>
<p>Great points-thanks! I’m trying to decide whether to do the last two years or not haha :P</p>
<p>^Agreed, all of my IB friends told me basically what you said. :)</p>
<p>AP tests are definitely easier–many/most can be “crammed” with minimal real mastery. I have a current student who took and passed 18 (17 fives, 1 four) and goes to a high school that offers ZERO AP courses.</p>
<p>I dropped IB. Not worth it. Forced to take French. Strongly recommend AP for the versatility.</p>
<p>iShiney- “strongly recommend AP for the versatility”</p>
<p>That doesn’t make much sense. For the IB you are REQUIRED to take one subject from each group (group 1- English, group 2-second language, group 3-humanities, group 4-sciences, group 5-math, group 6-arts but you can replace group 6 with another class in any other group). </p>
<p>As you can see the IB requires students to take a wide variety in subjects along with Theory of Knowledge if they are taking the full IB. For AP, students can for the most part take whatever classes they want. </p>
<p>For the AP diploma I think there are certain groups of classes that you need have an exam in (correct me if I’m wrong) such as English, a history, a math, etc. But, you don’t have to continue the class the next year. You don’t even need to get the diploma :P</p>
<p>Here’s the breakdown between AP and IB science/math courses:</p>
<ol>
<li>The combination of AP BC Calculus and AP Statistics covers more than IB Math HL. IB Further Math covers more than the combination, though.</li>
<li>AP Physics C is a much harder course (and is more focused) than IB Physics HL. The IB course doesn’t go into very much depth and doesn’t use calculus.</li>
<li>IB Biology covers far more than AP Biology.</li>
<li>AP Chemistry covers slightly less than IB Chemistry HL.</li>
</ol>
<p>As many of you have said, in general the IB humanities are vastly superior to the AP ones. A lot of this has to do with the fact that AP courses last one year whereas IB courses last two.</p>
<p>Who cares which curriculum is easier/harder? The two curricula are just…different.</p>
<p>The I.B. system does have more “hoops” through which students have to jump: extended essay (4,000-word research paper), “theory of knowledge” assignments, community service hours, etc.</p>
<p>If a student plans to matriculate at a U.S. university, it makes much more sense for the student to take A.P. classes (rather than the I.B. curriculum) for many of the reasons stated by previous posters – easier to obtain piecemeal credit (class by class), U.S. colleges are more familiar with the A.P. curriculum, etc.</p>
<p>If you look at the way in which A.P. and I.B. classes are structured, you’ll notice that I.B. teachers have far less flexibility, in terms of the structure and grading of writing assignments, than A.P. teachers. For example, an I.B. assignment might stipulate that students employ a CDWDW structure (claim-data-warrant-data-warrant) within each paragraph of a writing assignment. If the student strays from this structure, then I.B. teachers will often deduct points from the student’s grade. That’s not necessarily a bad thing…just different. </p>
<p>Is the I.B. curriculum a “better” curriculum than A.P. classes? Not necessarily. I’ve seen glaring holes in both curricula. I was shocked to learn that I.B. HL Bio students are asked to plan/execute/analyze “scientific” experiments without being taught the proper tools of data analysis (tests of significance, confidence intervals, etc.). That’s something the teacher should have taught on Day 1. In the end, the quality of the education comes down to the quality of the teaching. And we all know that the quality of teaching, even within a department at a given school, can be rather…errr…uneven.</p>
<p>Do top-tier U.S. universities have a preference for high school applicants who have chosen the I.B. curriculum? Nope. However, the admissions committee will note whether the applicant has “maxed out” the resources of his/her high school. If the applicant comes from a well known secondary school, admissions officers will know whether the school offers an I.B. curriculum. If the applicant chose not to take I.B. courses, the officers may interpret the move as the student not “pushing” himself/herself. That’s not a good thing on a college app. Something to consider…</p>
<p>At any rate, I think there’s too much controversy in this thread for either AP or IB being harder to be a “myth.”</p>
<p>^Agreed lol</p>
<p>It never ends…</p>