<p>My school uses the AP system, but a high school almost a few blocks away uses IB.</p>
<p>So I was wondering what's the main difference between the two? If you for some reason had both, which one do you prefer?</p>
<p>IB is 10x harder.</p>
<p>If your school offers IB, you need to take it. If it doesn’t just take lots of AP’s.</p>
<p>IB = hard work, pure work, questions range from easy to hard, but won’t be as tough as AP questions. Again, just a lot of work…2-year course.</p>
<p>AP = flexible, but questions more difficult, less work than IB, 1 year course</p>
<p>I guess a lot depends on the teachers as well.</p>
<p>If you take ≈20 ap’s it will be abt as hard as IB</p>
<p>There are lots of factors. One, of course, is the subject. For example, IB biology HL has more material than AP biology (extensions, etc), but AP physics C is much more rigorous than IB physics HL (because it’s calculus-based). As for IB math HL vs AP calculus BC, you could argue it either way; AP has more rigorous calculus material, while IB has more rigorous pre-calculus material. Also, global languages tend to be more rigorous under AP than IB.</p>
<p>I’m only really discussing the IB HLs, because the SLs aren’t really up to par (almost no colleges give credit for them).</p>
<p>It also depends on who is viewing it. American colleges tend to prefer AP, while international colleges tend to prefer IB.</p>
<p>Here’s the general rule: If you want to go to university outside the United States, do IB; if you plan on going to college domestically, do AP. Also, if you plan on majoring in math, science, engineering, do AP, and if you plan on majoring in humanities, do IB.</p>
<p>Also, another factor to consider is which program has a bigger presence/has been situated longer at your school, as your school will probably be the most experienced running that particular program.</p>
<p>Yeah Binder has it good, science people should go for AP definitely, (then there is Further Math Sl…)</p>