O.K so IB will be new to us next year, now I’m really confused on how it works and I need a few questions answered just so I won’t regret taking the wrong course.
1: With language courses are you supposed to take either an introductory course, the SL course, or do you have the ability to take the HL language course without any prior experience in that language?
2: Can you take AP Calculus BC rather than Mathematics HL and still get the IB diploma? (Rice University considers BC equal to Single Variable Calculus 1 and 2, while Math HL seems lower level and is equal to Single Variable Calculus 1 only.
3: I know this may seem like a dumb question, but the IB presentation at our school confused me. Is each course 2 years long? Like if you choose Physics HL you’ll be stuck with it for 2 years, or is each course just 1 year like AP?
Now I know this next question is going out of topic but I’m having trouble getting an answer for it, help is appreciated.
1: If one doesn’t have room for a particular course to fit into one’s high school schedule on account of the schedule being completely full, is a high school student allowed to take a language course after school? I really want to learn Vietnamese and Japanese, but I only have room for one language course and I don’t know where I can learn Japanese at? Can I take the course at a nearby community college (dual credit) after school, or can I take it online?
You must take an IB math course and exam. SL, HL or Math Studies
At our high school foreign language year 4 is the SL class. This can be taken junior or senior year depending on if you started the language in 8th or 9th grade. A student who started in 8th grade can take HL language by taking the fifth year.
We have a lot of students.who plan to take HL language and then switch! It is very hard.
1: Group 2 (language acquisition) can get a bit confusing because it is split into 3 levels over all: A is basically if you are a native speaker or very very fluent (can be SL and HL), B is for second/foreign language speakers who have learned the language before (can be SL and HL) and ab initio is for complete beginners (can only be taken as a SL).
If you have no prior experience in the language you will have to the introductory (ab initio) which only comes as an SL. Though if you have studied it before I would recommend taking language B SL unless you are really confident in your language skills.
2: No to get the ib diploma you can only use courses offered within the ib curriculum, as nw2this said above you can take it in addition to math but considering the diploma’s workload it would probably be very challenging to do so
3: Yep for the full diploma you have to stick with all 6 subjects that you have chosen for 2 years (throughout the 2 years you complete coursework which you submit to the exam board and at the end of the 2 years you do your final exams).
The IB maintains a good website. It may help you too. You have to follow their rules as well as whatever your school requires.
O.K so if I take Chemistry HL for my sophomore year I’ll still need to continue taking it in Senior year? If that’s the case than IB seems like a slower paced AP. The reason being that I was planning on taking IB Physics HL sophomore year, then moving on to AP Physics C on senior year. I had always thought that you take an HL course for a year and then it’s over. Seems like a deal breaker, are you certain this is the case for every IB HL course?
At our school you can take courses for one year. Check with your school. My child has taken courses for 1 year and will get her diploma.
But, it would be convoluted to take AP Physics C and HL Physics. At our school HLs have to be taken senior year, so you would have to take AP Physics first or concurrently with HL. Both courses require honors physics as a pre-requisite. AP is more advanced since it is calculus-based but covers less material than HL, so taking AP first would be strange.
I checked with the school, HL is one year. They say HL is equal to AP and that before IB came in students in all pre-ap would go straight to AP Physics 1. I’m assuming they would place me in HL when considering how they told us how you have a choice between SL and HL. The thing is IB is super NEW, I’m saying that we will be the first Juniors next year to do IB and it supposedly looks “awesome” on your resume since we’re the founding year, but is it? The thing I’m worried about though is will the teachers know how to prepare us for the IB exam? The AP teachers will be the new IB teachers and I’m worried we’ll be the test subjects since they’ve never trained students for the IB exam before.
HL is possibly considered the second yr, but not one year. I think you have some misinformation. Go to the IB website. IB is very structured, tit isn’t really open to reinterpretation. HL>AP. HL is NOT a slower paced AP LOL. In my kids’ school, kids have often done the AP in the IB subject before going on to HL. (chem, physics, bio, math etc).
I got my IB Diploma last year and know many kids that took AP tests and your school is wrong. A HL test is not equal to AP. For AP Classes you only need to take it for 1 year to test in it and then you’re done. While with HL you have to take the class for two years in order to test. So if you wanted to test in HL Chemistry, as you said above, you’d have to take Chemistry SL junior year and Chemistry HL senior year. This by no means shows that Chemistry HL is a “slower paced AP”. As I said before the SL test would be more similar to the AP test, while the HL will go into a lot more detail and in depth concepts. Just as a warning IB science HL tests are extremely difficult (and are increasing in difficulty now that they’ve changed the syllabus last year), but luckily they curve it pretty well so you can at least get the 4 you need if you study enough. For example I took Bio HL last year and my friend who basically always got 100% on in class tests (teacher used old IB test questions) only got a 5.
Also keep in mind that you can only take up to 2 SL tests your junior year, no HL tests. I would also agree with the posts above about HL Languages. At my school only kids who were fluent in the language (spoke it at home, went to immersion elementary and middle schools) took HL (some didn’t even get 7s) because it’s crazy hard. I took my language for 6 years and just got a 4 on the SL test (given I did not do very well on the spoken part lol).
As for your question about taking a language outside of IB, that is something you’ll have to talk to your school’s IB Coordinator about. I would recommend either taking classes outside of school completely because doing a full IB course load plus another language class will be a lot, but if you really want to do it then your IB Coordinator should be able to either set you up with a class at a local college or an online IB class so that you can test in it.
Overall my advice to you, as someone who got the IB Diploma, is if your school still offers AP classes DO THOSE, NOT IB. As you showed with your question about college credits from AP/IB tests, you’ll get a lot more with AP tests, since a majority of US University’s only give credit for HL tests (which means right off the bat you can only get credit for 3 out of the 6 tests you take, which is just a waste of time and money, when you could get credit for all AP tests after only one year of the class). Plus on top of the IB Tests in order to get the diploma you have to write an extended essay (which honestly I didn’t find this very hard, but I know others do), have CAS hours, do IAs (Internal Assessments) for every class, and most HL tests require another aspect, like a class presentation. All of these things plus the actual test, which are 2-3 days long depending on the subject, go into your IB score, while your AP score just depends on the test you take at the end. A lot of people will tell you that IB prepares you for college better then AP because IB (Colleges look at the IB Diploma Program and AP classes as the same) requires A LOT more writing and commitment then just a single day test, but you’ll be prepared either way and AP will give you more college credit and time in the end.
Oh and I forgot to mention the Theory of Knowledge requirement for the IB Diploma which is a whole other class you have to take and it’s basically just a philosophy class, but the curriculum sucks and the the assessments (which you have to get a certain score on to get the Diploma) are jokes.
My kid is in Chem HL. It is way harder than Chem AP. Tons of the HL Chem kids get 5’s on the AP exam. Very few get 7’s on the Chem exam.
Here’s an example schedule of a jr/sr year IB student (my kid’s) schools will vary, but this will give you an idea:
Jr year:
SL Spanish (Took AP Spanish Lang exam after this course)
SL Math
HL History of the America’s Yr 1 (took APUSH exam after this)
HL English Yr 1 (Took AP English Lang exam after this course)
TOK
AP Art History (needed a fine art for UC)
Sr. Year:
HL History of the America’s Yr 2
HL English Yr 2 ( AP English Lit exam after this course)
HL Chemistry (double period, 2 years course credit)
SL Econ (will take both AP exams)
At our school you can take some HLs like math, for example, in just one year. But these kids have usually taken at least honors pre-calc and more commonly AP Calc, so they get the pre-requisites from non-IB courses.
But that final year needs to be taken in the last year and usually what the school’s doing is not calling the prerequisite class IB for example we have math HL only one year but in your junior year you take calc BC. That way both IB and non IB kids can take the first year
They’re complicating things too much, I just want the most advanced class there is, nothing more. Is there an IB diploma equivalent to the AP curriculum, or getting enough college credit to do so? My dream university is Rice and I’m afraid I won’t be able to look as impressive if I choose ap over ib.
There’s the option for me to self study multiple ap tests while still doing ib, but that’s suicide since I know no human can manage their time to keep their grades in excellent condition and still practicing their own hobbies.
I know IB SL courses are slower paced than AP, while HL is seen as a longer path towards the same end goal as AP according to many universities who see HL and AP as equals. Now is IB worth it when compared to a student who will take all ap courses? Will that AP student seem more impressive than an ib student?
If you take all (or even mostly) AP classes, colleges will see that as equal to doing the IB diploma program. Plus, if you do well on the AP tests you’ll go into college with more credits.
If you want the most advanced class in every subject IB is not for you. In IB you must choose 3 HL’s and 3 SL’s. In that choice you are choosing to study 3 subjects in depth more than the other three. IF you are the kind of kid who wants to take AP Chem and AP Physics and AP Bio and Calc BC, then IB may not be right for you.