Difficulty of Full IB

Can anyone share their personal experiences with the Full IB Diploma and if they were able to balance multiple extracurriculars that take a good chunk of time, earn all A’s, and still have a decent social life while pursuing Full IB? I know it does vary a bit from school to school and person to person, I am a fairly fast reader & writer so that might make it a bit easier? I’ve crunched some numbers based on my activities schedule; I could for sure manage about 3-4 hours of homework on weeknights and 5 hours on weekends - is this around how much is given out?

Are there certain IB classes that you would avoid? Any that you would highly reccomend?

My D is full IB and I would say it is more time consuming than a heavy AP course load. The IAs and EE especially. CAS is relatively easy to check off. She does have all As. Most ECs are minimal right now due to COVID. She could not have sustained a varsity level sport and kept up her grades, but less time consuming and more flexible ECs are possible. She spends a lot of time on Physics SL, but also loves it. Very teacher dependent which courses are hard or time consuming.

Thank you for your response! Unfortunately my school offers only one AP course, so in order to maintain a rigorous/most rigorous course load I pretty much have to do Full IB. I definitely feel like AP would be a better fit for me, but oh well. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end…

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It depends on the classes you choose. And you automatically get the “most rigorous designation”.

What were you thinking of?
What major could you be interested in?

In addition, you can take AP exams for the IB SL’s you’re enrolled in, since many colleges don’t give you credit for SL exams.
On the other hand, some do: SUNY Binghamton, most public universities in Florida, U Nebraska… are quite generous.

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I’ve been talking with my IB Coordinator & this is what my schedule would (most likely) be for junior year:
IB English HL
IB History of the Americas HL
IB Business HL
IB Chem SL (year 2)
IB Analysis & Approaches SL (year 2)
IB Spanish SL (taken online outside of school day so I can continue taking leadership to participate in ASB).

And then for senior year:

IB English HL 2
IB History HL
IB Business HL 2
IB Spanish SL 2
AP Calc BC
Leadership

I’m planning on majoring in business, although that could change between now and senior year! That is also a great point about taking AP exams for the SL classes, and was something I hadn’t considered, thank you!

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When you write “Year 2”, does it mean you’re in Y1 right now?
If so, that looks like a GREAT schedule for business, and not toooo difficult (rigorous, but not insane).

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Yes, at my school you can start IB Math & IB Chem as a sophomore, which is super nice because it gives a bit more scheduling flexibility… Perfect, thank you for your input! So many people talk about how crazy the IB Diploma so I’m a little nervous, but that makes me feel better!

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That looks like a not so overwhelming IB program. Some schools, and it looks like your school may be one, offer IB classes that allow a wider range of students to pursue a diploma. Others have more limited options, which both force students to take classes they may not like and which may include only the more “hard core” IB classes.

With the thought you have given this, I think you’ll be fine.

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