<p>Is it doable for grade 11, I am really concerned:</p>
<p>English
Math HL
Physics,
Chemistry
Bio(Non-IB course)
Geo
French
TOK</p>
<p>Thanks a lot ,</p>
<p>Larry</p>
<p>That sounds like a lot, Larry. Post the list again, noting which courses are IB (HL/SL) or AP. </p>
<p>Also three sciences sounds challenging, especially if they all include labs.</p>
<p>HL math is known to be fairly deadly unless you are super math kid (which you may be). D has HL Physics and SL Chem this year and it is very time consuming with lab write ups as the IB labs are so long winded and must be done to “send away for scoring” standards.</p>
<p>If you are a full diploma candidate, in my opinion it’s too much.</p>
<p>Remember that you will also have to devote substantial chunks of time to the Extended Essay and the CAS requirements on top of your courses.</p>
<p>A bitter truth of IB, for those who are science minded, is that it limits the number of sciences you can study during the IB years – usually, to two (the one you take to fulfill the IB science requirement and one you take either as a sixth subject or a non-IB elective). If you truly want to take as many sciences as you currently have in your program, you might be better off not being an IB diploma candidate. If you truly want to be IB, you may have to sacrifice some of your sciences until college.</p>
<p>Sounds like a lot to me. You dont say what the previous math experience was- Was calc aready taken? Three sciences seems like a lot. </p>
<p>I agree with Marian re the sciences issues with IB></p>
<p>Here is my D’s 11th grade IB schedule which has been pertty manageable so far. </p>
<p>English HL
Math SL
Bio HL,
Econ SL
APUSH
Spanish SL
TOK</p>
<p>Thanks a lot ,</p>
<p>Larry</p>
<p>Larry, my D graduated with an IB diploma and I think it’s too much science. As was posted above, the labs are intense and time consuming.</p>
<p>I asked this for my S.</p>
<p>He is in the Pre-IB program now and will be in IB program next year and grade 12.</p>
<p>He did his Pre-IB math & science etc. His Math teacher recomended that she take HL math.
Their school has both IB and non-IB program, so one of his science courses could be taken as “normal” non-IB course. He asked his current grade 10 science teacher about this 2 IB science + 1 non-IB science sellection. His teacher said OK. But his school counselor said it is too heavy…</p>
<p>S is kindaof interted in Physics, and their school does well in Che HL. But he can not decide what he will do later on. He doesn’t want to rule out a “health science” program option for University etc… Although it seems that not many programs ask specificly for Bio in their admission requirments…</p>
<p>Compare Bio and Phy which one is more intensive?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, again</p>
<p>Larry</p>
<p>I’m sure non-IB bio will be a cake walk if your kid is IB Diploma caliber. Physics is more intensive than Bio if both are IB, and definitely if Physics is IB and Bio is regular.</p>
<p>Honestly, the IB program is very challenging. This about how it compares to AP classes. You are taking 6 classes over 2 years plus TOK, which is the workload of 13 AP classes. That said, I don’t think that schedule is out of line if your kid is strong in the sciences. I took 7 tests (only 6 counted for diploma) and poured hours each week into band on top of the school work.</p>
<p>HL Math is really tough. But if your son has the teacher recommendation, it should be fine.</p>
<p>I see no reason to take 3 sciences junior year. Are the Physics and Chem courses HL (Higher Level - 2 years) or SL (Standard Level - 1 year)? Probably one is SL because typically IB has total of 3 HL, one being English. My point is that Bio can be saved for senior year. </p>
<p>Questions -
What is Geo?<br>
Is the TOK (Theory of Knowledge) all year? Our hs splits it 2nd semester junior year and 1st semester senior year. That’s a real schedule challenge.</p>
<p>What sciences did he take in 9th and 10th grade?</p>
<p>Chances are, he has already taken two of the basic three high school sciences – biology, chemistry, and physics.</p>
<p>If he is interested in health sciences – or any other type of science in college – he should make sure that he takes the third science in some form (either as part of the IB program or outside of it) in the next two years. He also needs to take some kind of science to meet his IB science requirement. </p>
<p>This should not involve taking three sciences in one year, though.</p>
<p>My daughter has an IB diploma, but I’m not sure how much you can learn from her experience because she detests science and wanted to take as little of it as possible. She took IB SL Environmental Science (the science course for people who hate science) to meet her IB science requirement. She had already taken biology and chemistry before starting IB, and she took a non-IB physics course as an elective so that she would have the three basic sciences that colleges look for. Her sixth subject was not a science. </p>
<p>Despite this science avoidance, if she had changed her mind in college and decided to fulfill the pre-med requirements, she could have done so.</p>
<p>
It’s doable if he’s good at science and if he stays on top of things. Whether or not it’s a good idea is another question!</p>
<p>I did Biology & Chemistry HL (junior/senior years) and AP Physics (senior year), and it was tough but doable. (Only two people at my school took all three sciences at HL.) The labs and Group 4 projects are demanding, as others have pointed out. I must admit that I’m not personally familiar with the difficulty of Math HL, as I did AP Calc, but I’ve heard it’s a bit rough and would not underestimate it. </p>
<p>IB Physics is the one IB course I don’t particularly like. It’s not calculus-based, which a supposedly college level class really should be.</p>
<p>Does the school have eight periods, or are some of these one-semester courses? And where is history? If Geo is geography, I don’t think that’s a very good replacement for history.</p>
<p>It might help if you told us what subjects your son plans to take in each of the six IB course groups and whether he will be taking them HL or SL.</p>
<p>Also, if his school requires that any specific subjects be taken as part of the IB program, you might want to tell us that. (For example, my daughter’s IB school – which is the same one that Hunt’s and Counting Down’s kids attended – required both English and History and both of them had to be taken HL. This was done so that the students’ programs would fulfill both IB requirements and state graduation requirements.) And if there are any subjects where your son is still uncertain of his choices, you might want to tell us what options are available. (For example, his school probably does not offer all of the possible sciences at both HL and SL. They might, for example, have HL Biology but not SL, or SL Chemistry but not HL.)</p>
<p>There are quite a few experienced IB parents on this board who could discuss his course selections with you in more detail if we had a bit more information.</p>
<p>We are at a full IB school with lots of AP options. My son mixed AP and IB while my D is a full diploma candidate. When my son did SL Physics it was a double class period, one year course. Incredibly intense and he loved it. Almost got a C but he loved it. Word is that AP Physics is much more intense and more memorization than the IB class but not such good labs. Because of the intensity, the administration made AP,HL and SL sciences all two year courses making them much more doable. HL IB and AP Bio are considered the easiest science classes…Chemistry medium and only SL physics is offered and is considered the best but toughest science course at the school. </p>
<p>So my daughter has:
English A HL
Spanish A HL (native speaker so bilingual diploma)
Social Anthro (SL–may add a second year and turn to HL)
Math SL–by FAR her toughest course and will also take BC calc exam next year so not sure why it is SL other than they aren’t allowed to take so many HL classes. </p>
<p>History of the Americas (SL) easy but poor teacher
Physics SL
Camera III (takes AP Photography next year)</p>
<p>I think she does TOK and topics next year. She is supposed to start the extended essay this spring…when? how? are they nuts? Oh and CAS hours along with her girl scout gold award…why not? there are 24 hours in a day. Why would she need to sleep? I think IB was way way too much for a kid who is smart but has to work hard for the grades. Also, I am absolutely dreading next year with varsity sport/team captain and applying to college in the fall. I forsee the need for a gap year just for her to get some perspective before starting 4 more years of academics.</p>
<p>Apart from academics, I have some reservations about the whole IB diploma thing at our hs.
My son had a lot happier junior and senior year taking a mixture of courses including at least one non-honors/non-AP/IB class in order to see some of his friends from MS. Frankly, at our school, IB diploma and full AP programs are effectively the same as streaming aka segregation like when I was in a southern HS. My son and one or two other minority friends often thought of themselves as “token” minorities in the AP/IB classes, particularly in the sciences. I would have liked my daughter to have had a more integrated HS experience and regret letting her do the full IB. At least she has the Spanish with other hispanic kids but there is no real socio-economic mixing.</p>
<p>They try to make every student at our public HS take at least one college level class. I think they should make each student, each year take one class that is NOT college level. You would see a lot more social/ethnic/economic mixes this way and have kids who can relate to their peers on a number of levels.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think that’s a terrible idea. If you are smart and want to hang out with low achievers, there are plenty of places to do that without sacrificing your own academics.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>this can happen… I was “over” school and really in the “who gives a sh**” stage after my first semester of senior year. Carried through college somewhat and is still there in grad school. Not that I haven’t accomplished what I wanted to, but I found no reason to push myself to try to get A’s in undergrad when B’s were much easier to get.</p>
<p>The International Baccalaureat “ibo” website has a lot of good info. This link goes to the diploma requirements - [IB</a> Diploma Programme curriculum](<a href=“http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/]IB”>http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/)</p>
<hr>
<p>Over the course of the two-year programme, students:
- study six subjects chosen from the six subject groups
- complete an extended essay
- follow a theory of knowledge course (TOK)
-participate in creativity, action, service (CAS).</p>
<p>Normally:
- three of the six subjects are studied at higher level (courses representing 240 teaching hours)</p>
<h2>- the remaining three subjects are studied at standard level (courses representing 150 teaching hours).</h2>
<p>wikipedia has a good info, including the six course “groups”
[IB</a> Diploma Programme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IB_Diploma_Programme]IB”>IB Diploma Programme - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>My IB graduate’s program looked like this:</p>
<p>Junior Year:
SL/AP Spanish
HL English (year 1)
HL Euro (year 1)
AP AB Calc
TOK
AP/SL Micro/Macroeconomics
Honors Physics (a concession to sanity, and I don’t think it made a difference to colleges since he is not a STEM guy)</p>
<p>Senior year:
TOK 1st semester
HL/AP Bio (taught as a double period senior year)
SL Philosophy
HL English (year 2)
HL Euro (year 2)
AP Stat (took SL Math Studies exam)</p>
<p>Yes, he took seven IB courses. Also took 11 APs to make sure he got credit for all that work wherever he wound up attending. This does not include time spent on the EE, TOK paper, college apps or his ECs (fall helmet sport and captain of debate, among others). His HS’s program was VERY intense and designed to be a pressure cooker in ways that were not always in the students’ best interests.</p>
<p>The pre-IB Chem and Bio classes at his school was very good. He took the SL/AP Enviro class as an AP sophomore year because a) he was interested in the topic b) he knew IB wouldn’t allow HL Bio and SL Enviro and c) he knew there wouldn’t be room in his schedule later. The school also taught AP Gov’t and USH a la IB in 9th and 10th grades so the kids would get used to the IB expectations. </p>
<p>He got a fabulous education. He was also rather burned out and stressed out by the end.</p>
<p>Nice to see what a humanizing and character building experience W&M apparently provided soccer guy …since when did kids in the regular classes=underachievers?</p>
<p>At the same school as Counting Down’s son, my IB graduate’s program looked like this:</p>
<p>Junior Year:
SL/AP Spanish (took SL Spanish exam)
HL English (year 1)
HL European History (year 1)
AP AB Calc/SL Math (took SL Math exam)
TOK
Symphonic Band (something she insisted on taking all four years to maintain her eligibility for All-State Honors Band, which she qualified for twice)
Honors Physics (for the same reasons as Counting Down’s son)</p>
<p>Senior year:
TOK 1st semester/Law elective second semester
SL/AP Environmental Science
HL Music (this required a prerequisite taken in grade 10, as well as the ability to play an instrument at a fairly high level)
HL English (year 2)
HL European History (year 2)
Symphonic Band
AP Macro/Microeconomics (taken as an elective; this is an AP/IB course, but she did not take the IB exam because she already had a sixth subject)</p>
<p>She was something of a slacker (by this school’s standards) in terms of AP tests. She only took 8 of them. She got zero credits in college from her IB exams and 30 credits from her AP exams, by the way.</p>
<p>Her schedule was deliberately chosen to not be overwhelming, and some would question the absence of foreign language and math in grade 12, but these were still the hardest two years of her life. College (at a top-20 school) was considerably easier (and she ended up with a staggeringly high college GPA, which says something about the quality of her preparation for college). And now that she has graduated from college and is working, she says that work is easier than college! I wonder whether she will ever again face a challenge as difficult as IB.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, everyone. There are so many help hands here, I should come earlier.</p>
<p>Here is the course selection:</p>
<p>Grade 11: </p>
<p>English (will choose HL in Grade 12)
French (SL)
Math (HL)
Chemistry (will choose HL in grade 12)
Physics (will choose SL in grade 12)
Geography (will choose SL in grade 12)
TOK</p>
<p>He is still thinking between BIO (Non-IB) and Spanish(IB).</p>
<p>He has to take 8 courses in grade 11, and in senior year 6 courses minimal.</p>
<p>The science subject is mixed with every component during pre-IB, their school offers just Science in grade 9 and 10. Only until Grade 11, there will be Bio/Che/Phy.</p>
<p>There is no AP course offered in his school.</p>
<p>He is a hard working student but I really dont want him burn himself out or get bad mark with such effort. </p>
<p>He has been in a few school sports team as well. Hes being playing club soccer from 6 year old. I dont know if he could still do those with this course load.</p>
<p>The thing is on one side, he wants to learn what looks interesting to him, the other side is, with this course load the GPA result might be harder to predict for now.</p>
<p>I still want leave a little more flexibility for him regarding the course selection in case say, HL math doesnt work out… etc…</p>