<p>If a student is in the top 2% and gets all A+s in advanced classes ( ie gets A+s in honors classes that are a full grade ahead) and has an outstanding work ethic and is naturally smart, why would that student’s GPA drop? I think that there are many students who are a little above average who go into IB without realizing the work that is involved and the level of commitment. Those students may experience a drop in their GPA. I think this really depends on the student. The same can be said for AP classes.</p>
<p>I think it must really depend on the school. I’m in the IB diploma (Australian school) and there is no way you can do well on 2 hours of homework a night, more like 4.If you want all 7’s atleast 5</p>
<p>in answer to your question twogirls no, I’m not in the US and we don’t get seperate grades from our IB transcript here! Which is probably why everyone’s grades dropped. As I said I have always been at the top of my classes and my grade (we all do the diploma) is very smart and EVERYONE’S grades dropped</p>
<p>I’m an IB diploma candidate. </p>
<p>Prior to this year, my cumulative unweighted GPA was a 3.6, and at the end of this year, I should have a 3.57ish GPA for the full IB classes I’ve taken. (4 A’s, 3 B’s). Averaged together, my overall UW GPA will change very little. </p>
<p>My school weights IB courses 1 full point higher than normal classes, so my weighted GPA and rank will both be positively affected by my IB course load.</p>
<p>BoundforBoston- it does not seem as though your GPA went down much. Can’t the same be said when kids start taking AP classes junior year?</p>
<p>I’m a junior in the IB certificate program. Before this year I was a mainly A with some B’s student. First semester, I earned mainly B’s (in my IB classes, an A in AP chem and hon precalc) and a C in IB History. It was my first C even and my GPA dropped A LOT</p>
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<p>What classes did you take sophomore year?</p>
<p>The top three students in my class (including myself) are all IB diploma candidates. While I’ve found that my senior year classes are a bit harder in that it’s harder to get really high marks, the weighting we get for taking the classes covers it.</p>
<p>iluvbooks- is it true that the same thing can be said for AP? Very often A or A+ students in honors classes end up with a B or B+ in an AP class? I was told by my friend that kids who take all AP classes junior year ( and these are very smart kids) often have their GPA’s drop somewhat. Don’t get me wrong- their weighted GPA is still over a 4.0.</p>
<p>superstarlala I had the same thing with history! I have always had straight A’s in history and then junior year IB it was my worst grade. I don’t think the same can really be said of AP since the courses are either a semester or 1 year tops and some people take like 10 subjects at a time when doing AP which you cannot do when studying the IB diploma. for instance our exams in year 12 (all through no just the finals) are on all the material covered over the two years, which is obviously much harder than remembering a semester or even ayear’s worth</p>
<p>^Yes. I’m obviously in my first year of IB. But as a sophomore I took AP US Gov and got an A and a 5 so I don’t know why I’m struggling so much. I’m not a C student!</p>
<p>Have you discussed this with the teacher?</p>
<p>What is it about the class that makes it difficult? My friend’s daughter was getting C’s in AP physics despite the fact that this kid had a 4.2 GPA and a 33 on the ACT. Turned out that the labs were dragging her down- as soon as she figured out how to write the labs her grade went up. Is there something specific that is difficult? Are you giving yourself the necessary time?</p>
<p>I have to say that my GPA went up because of IB. But the competition became much more intense since everyone is gunning for a higher rank and GPA and all the top students are in IB.</p>
<p>This website has sone interesting information:
<a href="http://www..co.uk/wiki/IB_Grade_Boundaries%5B/url%5D">http://www..co.uk/wiki/IB_Grade_Boundaries</a></p>
<p>It shows the grade boundaries for most (all?) IB classes. Notice how in Physics you only need a 70% to earn the highest grade of a 7 and a 60% to earn a 6. This would be equivalent to a 5 and a 4 in the GPA system. Now I’m not familiar with the AP grade boundaries, but I highly doubt its this low. This might indicate that IB Physics is more challenging than an AP Physics course. </p>
<p>Here is a very useful document that presents data compiled by the IBO:
<a href=“http://www.ibo.org/facts/statbulletin/dpstats/documents/may_2012_statistical_bulletin.pdf[/url]”>500;
<p>I don’t know why I couldn’t write “**************” in the link.</p>
<p>And by the way superstarlala, Bethesda MD REPRESENT! (I lived there for a couple years)</p>
<p>It’s very very strange because in my daughter’s high school the very smart kids seem to take AP. My daughter’s chem teacher told us that kids who are " slightly above average" usually take IB. In previous years a lot of struggling students chose to take IB- some did ok but many dropped out. The school has recently pumped up it’s effort to attract more AP type students. My daughter is probably going to be the top student in IB, as she was recommended for the AP track while the kids who she will be with in IB have always been “average students” ( and there is nothing wrong with that!! My other daughter is an average student and is thriving). It’s very interesting to me to see how the IB program works in different schools. The students who I spoke with at our school told me that their GPA went up in IB because the program played to their strengths- writing, presenting, etc. Most of these kids were in the top 10%.</p>
<p>There is always the big debate about which is harder-AP or IB. In my daughter’s school the Val last year was an AP kid while the Sal was an IB kid. Many of the AP kids with a slightly lower rank but still in the top 10% used to argue that if they were in IB their rank would be higher because IB is easier.</p>
<p>“the student room” one word</p>
<p>I havedcwEFwef</p>