My son is thinking about junior year classes. His school offers both AP and IB, and many students take IB classes “a la carte” choosing between AP and IB (and dual enrollment) based on various criteria – the class, teachers, schedules, where they plan to apply, etc.
For background, he is a math/science kid but still good at writing, reading, memorization, etc. He has already taken AP Physics B and AP Comp Sci. He is in AP Calc BC and AP Chem this year and is doing fine in those.
Any recommendations for the following or advice about the way he is leaning?
For English, he can take either AP Language or IB English SL or a dual-enrollment class that is similar to AP Language. If he took IB, he could take IB English HL as a senior, but that would not be required. The teachers and periods offered are not known, since they change from year to year. More lengthy writing and more choice in what he writes about would appeal to him. I’m not sure that the reading selections in IB will appeal that much. The AP Literature selections are more his style. but I suppose broadening the mind is good. The non-fiction readings in Honors 9th and 10th grade English haven’t really caught his interest either, however. Mostly magazine articles that were selected more for their appeal to “popular culture”. If possible, he would like an English class with somewhat less subjective grading. (Possible?) His grade suffered this past semester, perhaps due to him not making an effort to be liked by his teacher in the first 1/2 of the semester.
For History, he can take either APUSH or IB History of the Americas SL. He would not need to take the 2nd year of HoA, because that is usually 1 semester each of AP US Gov and an AP Economics, and he is looking forward to AP Macro and might also take Micro, even though it is not required. He is leaning toward APUSH because he likes his debate coach, who teaches 1/2 of those sections. He is particularly interested in US History, probably more so than covering portions of history from both North and South America. He took a dual-enrollment World History this year, so has not had the similar note-taking experience of AP Wold History. His 4-5 page essays for that class received high grades.
For Spanish, he is leaning toward IB Spanish SL because his Spanish 3 teacher teaches that, and she is very organized and explains the grammar and conjugations well. (Her accent is not very good, however.) He took Spanish 2 from the teacher who teaches AP Spanish, and he was very disorganized, including losing tests and making kids retake them, not collecting major assignments ever, and changing the requirements of an assignment after collecting them. So, I think he is pretty sure he doesn’t want to deal with that again. He would probably not take IB Spanish HL the following year; he feels that 4 years of Spanish will be enough.