<p>Thanks IBAustralia, you seem very knowledgeable with IB stuff. Are you like a IB guidence councler? or something. hahaha…lol. I am planning to get the diploma not for it’s benefits but also challenge myself so I wouldn’t have to think out of external motivation. Thanks btw.</p>
<p>IB is much harder than AP. seriously.</p>
<p>The main difference is workload and the overall diploma that you receive with the IB program. Also, when AdComs see that you are set to complete the diploma program, the following ‘boxes’ are ticked:
-Having appropriate and enough EC’s
-Highly rigorous courses (Though it slightly varies)</p>
<p>These two really help influence the decision on whether to admit a student or not.</p>
<p>Just want to say a few things regarding difficulty of AP Courses vs. IB courses.
Quite honestly, it depends on your school.</p>
<p>My school for 9th grade offered something like 10 AP courses, but the courses were known to be tough, while my current school offers 20+ AP courses, which are taken by just about everyone with a functioning brain and/or a decent grades. My old school didn’t even let freshmen take AP courses, and most sophomores didn’t either.</p>
<p>Comparing AP and IB exams is probably the only valid method of comping them(unless they’re at the same school) because every school has so much variance in quality. I know that at my old school the hardest class is known to be Pre-Calc(because of the teacher), not AP Calc or AP Bio. So, even comparing AP courses is fraught with uncertainties. </p>
<p>In terms of the exams, I’ve found that the two AP exams(5 on both) I’ve taken(the maximum I was allowed to take sophomore year) were much easier than all they hype. Both AP Bio and AP Euro were easy compared to my Pre-Calc class, so I didn’t get all the hype about AP’s. </p>
<p>There’s been a lot of talk at my school about IB vs. AP, and the general consensus of the tachers that do both is that IB>AP in the vast majority of cases(except for, as many have said, specialized courses). For example, my history teacher, who did both AP Euro and is doing IB History, is giving us a much higher workload for the IB class. The AP Chem teacher is basically doing the AP Chem curriculum with certain IB-only things added in(uncertainties…). We’re all going to take the AP Chem test at the end of the year, the IB Bio class is going to take the AP Bio Exam, and the IB Spanish kids are going to take the AP Spanish exam. </p>
<p>In the end, however rambling my post was(is?), I’m trying to say that schools and teachers are the important factor in the challenge and quality of a class.</p>
<p>IB is only harder because the questions are of poor quality, the amount of work, and the scaling of the tests. I learned more in AP than in IB. In fact, I forgot more in IB than I learned.</p>
<p>AP is better for college preparation in the United States because that’s what AP was designed for. The argument that IB is better for college preparation than AP because it’s considered in such high regard in Europe is a flawed one. We’re not in Europe. The schooling in Europe for high school and college are completely different than in the United States. If you’re going to college in America (which I assume most of you are), your time is better spent on taking APs rather than IBs since AP curriculum is much closer to actual college work than IB.</p>
<p>Are 5s and 6s acceptable IB scores for Harvard?</p>
<p>Noskie, while I do not know the specifics of Harvard’s requirements, I would assume they are similar to Cambridge/Oxford. Those schools are generally looking for at least an even split between 6s & 7s.</p>
<p>I have a question for any students in an IB Diploma program in the U.S. My son is attending school in Switzerland where he is in the middle of an IB Diploma program. He gets no grades, only grade estimates until the end of the two year program. My imagination is having a hard time figuring out how U.S. universities will handle this. Is the IB Diploma program in the U.S. administered in the same manner or are you getting grades for each semester, etc.? If you are getting grades what are those based on? Are you taking IB sanctioned and adminstered tests at the end of each semester?</p>
<p>IB scores wouldn’t come out before you apply to US or UK colleges</p>
<p>UK colleges will see your predicted grades and probably make you a conditional offer on the real exam results</p>
<p>US colleges would probably not care about predicted grades at all. (They removed the predicted grades part in the common application, even though you can fit it in somewhere)</p>
<p>So in the US, IB is just an indication of heavy course load.
As long as your GPA is high, predicted and actual exam results have no effect.
If the GPA is based on IB scale of 7, getting 6~7 usually corresponds to A’s</p>
<p>When I get my admission to US colleges I’ll just stop studying for IB and screw up the exams in May…</p>
<p>Thanks unlocked,</p>
<p>My question is then where does the GPA come from? Are you getting a normal U.S. style grade each semester for your IB classes. If so, this is the portion that is missing in the international system, or at least the Swiss system.</p>
<p>Honestly, AP is nothing compared to IB. AP kids will die in an IB HL class, but the same thing can not be said if an IB kid is placed in an AP class.</p>
<p>I am getting a predicted 43, and no, I don’t sleep.</p>
<p>I have 300 CAS hours</p>
<p>70-c</p>
<p>80-a</p>
<p>150-s</p>
<p>Don’t you need 150 of each?</p>
<p>I think that the difficulty of ap and ib classes varies from school to school. At my school because of the block schedule, ib classes are every other day and most of the ib kids take honors electives or classes like team sports as their elective. I on the other hand, i think, am the only kid taking more than 3 aps this year at my school. So while I’m taking 4 ap/ib caliber classes a day ib kids at my school are only taking 3. Also when I talk to the ib kids at my school, they say that I am insane for taking 4 (possibly 5) ap classes this year and that Ib is a lot easier than my schedule.</p>
<p>^^ About CAS, you do not need a specific number of hours anymore. If somebody says that at your school, they are wrong. They work by “objectives” that you have to reach; but to reach those, you must have around 50 hours of each (for the not-existing-anymore total of 150). Doing more will certainly not hurt you, but it won’t be written anywhere that you have done, lets say, 800 CAS hours…</p>
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<p>In terms of admissions qualifications or course placement/credit? I would assume you mean the former, and if so, AP/IB scores do not play a very significant role in the evaluation process. If the latter, AP/IB scores could serve to better clarify certain course recommendations in conjunction with performances on the placement exams (if a corresponding test is given on the subject). However, these composite scores are merely for your own counsel and do not enforce certain course enrollments (the only exception is expository writing, which is exclusively based upon assessment of the essay that comprises the placement test). Course credit is not granted through AP/IB tests unless you have ambitions of graduating early and have sufficiently high scores on a certain quantity of these exams.</p>
<p>IB is great if you’re interested in applying to college in a lot of different countries, since many countries accept it. However, since I am a to-be IB student, it makes me a little worried about what’s coming up when people say IB HL is way harder than an AP class (though I have never taken an AP class, I know that people who do generally well in their classes take it).</p>
<p>^same here.</p>
<p>Just another note on how US colleges consider IB for admission. Students in IB programs in the US typically have regular grades as well, and those are what the colleges look at for admission. My understanding, though, is that US colleges will look at projected IB scores for students who don’t have other grades (as is often the case in other countries). You should confirm this with the specific colleges that interest you. Don’t assume you can slack off and ignore the IB exams after gaining admission.</p>
<p>As a student in both AP and IB classes (10 APs and a full diploma candidate), I’d have to say that the “IB vs. AP” debate really depends on the subject area. IB classes usually just add a whole lot of busywork to make them seem more difficult, when all they really are is time-consuming.</p>
<p>In my experience, combined with that of my friends in a few classes:</p>
<p>Math - AP Calc BC is roughly equal to IB Math HL
Physics - APC > IB HL, APB = IB HL, IB Physics SL is a joke (my school doesn’t offer it because the teacher who would teach it refuses to do so because it’s too basic)
Chem - IB HL is just a bit more in-depth than AP
English - about even, there’s just more busywork
History/Gov - same as English
Spanish - AP Lang > IB SL, AP Lit is a different subject altogether (more writing-based)</p>
<p>I think we have to distinguish between the IB and AP classes and the IB and AP tests. As far as the classes go, it can hugely vary based on who is teaching the class. As for the test, I, personally, think AP is significantly harder. A lot of students, especially the extremely brilliant ones with exceptional deductive reasoning can whip through AP multiple choice like cake. For people like me, who doesn’t do that well on multiple choice, expressing my knowledge in writing is much easier. The AP exams are also so much more crunched for time. For the AP chemistry exam, for example, you have just over a minute to complete each of the 72 or so problems on the test, many of which require calculations. The argument over which is harder is definitely dependent upon the student. However, I think the generalization that I can make from my experience is that doing well on an AP exam requires a significant amount of talent at taking multiple choice exams, while IB is not so much that way. You definitely still have to know and communicate the information in some way or another, but the way you do it is just slightly more flexible</p>