<p>The bottom line on IB vs. AP is, as always: (1) what matters most is how the programs are carried out in the specific high school, and (2) if both programs are excellent in your school, which you should choose depends on how much you prefer an integrated curriculum vs. more specialized courses.</p>
<p>A point is never “mute.” Well, I suppose if someone makes an argument using sign language then it might be. Usually though a point is “moot” meaning it is debatable. Too bad they didn’t offer IB or AP when you were in school…</p>
<p>For me, I’m a sophomore and I’m taking one IB course this year, yes that’s possible.For my other classes, I am taking “pre-IB” courses. I’m taking Math SL 1 taken typically in Junior year. ( My school requires the students to take IB courses in both junior and senior year) I feel like my other friends who are taking their equivalent to pre-calc differ. But, there are too many variables to REALLY compare these. </p>
<p>But from my siblings experience of completing the IB programme, IB is a bit more challenging. IB is more focused globally than AP. Or little things like taking Internal Assessments in IB.
But what makes me a little mad is that I believe colleges don’t take IB as seriously as AP in some cases. Maybe because IB is relatively new?</p>
<p>Anyways, I’m going to take some AP tests at the end of the year just to see the differences and to get AP credit.</p>
<p>IB is relatively new to mainstream education in America.</p>
<p>Its been in existence since the late '60s, but it was mostly in European Schools and Private schools in the US.</p>
<p>As far as acceptances into colleges go, neither one is better than the other. All high school send in their “school profile” along with the guidance counselor info/letter of rec. Students are not compared equally straight across the board. Some hs offer very high level math courses and others do not. Students are not penalized for their school not offering certain classes.</p>
<p>This post is REALLY old but i just wanted to clarify a few things some of you were talking about. </p>
<p>I am in the IB Diploma Program. </p>
<p>Here are my Classes:
IB History HL
IB English HL
IB Spanish HL
IB Psychology HL
IB Math Studies SL
IB Environmental Systems SL </p>
<p>and i have to say, IB/AP is really made for specific kids. Those kids who just study a day before a test and dont pay attention to class are usually AP kids (friends from other schools who told me about AP) IB requires understanding the class and class work. Like for the IB English HL Exam, you are required to do a 15 minute oral commentary (25% of your final grade). so IB isn’t really dependant on one exam. DONT FORGET ABOUT INTERNAL ASSESSMENTS. OMG! Psychology was probably the most annoying. YOu have to conduct a research project with an imitation of another experiment using the scientific method and all that crap. Dont forget about learning the different perspectives and approaches of psychology(they KILL ME.) </p>
<p>Actually, a student in my class who was in the top 1% for all students for 9th, 10th and 11th grade recieved a 85 as one of his trimester grades. That was the first class he ever got under a 95! (He’s in IB Mathematics HL and the only kid to get over an 85, which he got a 96) My Psychology teacher requires us to write our own opinion to questions using “Psychology words”. My sister, who was a Psychology Minor in NYU, barely understood any of the questions i showed her on one of those past IB Psychology HL exams. </p>
<p>Now enough about Psychology, lets look at English and History. For English, we were forced to read 4 books a trimester. THAT IS EFFIN INSANE! Best of all, after reading each chapter, our teacher makes us write Cornell Notes for every 5 pages we read. After that, she makes us put all those cornell notes together and write a 4 page analysis of the symbolism and blah blah blah like literary terms and etc, used in the book. ANNOYING AS HELL! And we have to do that everyweek. Actually, only 4/40 kids in my class(including me), actually got 90’s+. Ever read “The Handmaids Tale”? some of the questions my teacher gave us was:</p>
<p>Why did the commander force Offred to kiss her? Does he want to express his love or is it something else? (NO WHERE IN THE BOOK ACTUALLY SHOWS THIS!)</p>
<p>Is Gilead a Utopia or a Dystopia? Is There symbolism towards loving God or just brain-washing and the work of Iluminati in a hidden form? (NO JOKE LOL) </p>
<p>Now, History. My History Teacher gives us one essay a week and is always due on fridays. Practically everything we talk about is through a Global view of the US (Hint its actually called IB History of the Americas, not IB US History) This was actually in 11th grade, i am a Senior now. But anyways he asked questions like:</p>
<p>Why was Andrew Jackson Considered a King? State real documents and citations which prove a possibility of his term resembling an Monarchy Rule. </p>
<p>We needed to analyze and prove (unlike just learning and taking information like AP does.)</p>
<p>I actually took the AP US History exam and got a 5, but i am having huge doubts on the IB exam. </p>
<p>All my tests for History were Essay questions and like 4-5 REALLY HARD MC questions. </p>
<p>Now i am currently taking IB 20th century European History. </p>
<p>Now for IB Environmental Systems SL and Math Studies SL they arent bad at all. Environmental Systems is actually really FUN! It gives a view towards the environment through both science and society. We are actually reading text from Al Gore’s An Inconvienient Truth and Earth in the Balance by Albert Gore. I’ve taken it as a 2-year course. I was going to take IB Chem HL but i was told by some seniors that it is REALLY hard and that the teacher was a Ph.D know-it-all. He vowed he would never give students a grade over a 90. </p>
<p>Now IB Math Studies is pretty good too. I actually had a Internal Assessment towards explaining how Logarithms work and the theory towards it. It wasnt that bad and i actually LEARNED ALOT from it. The class is moderately hard and is really focused on Pre-Cal and Vectors/Logs/Sin-Cos-Tan and all that crap. </p>
<p>Therefore, IB is really a more in-depth view on things. Its not just based on facts but rather why things happen and the theories. Extended Essay is MURDER and the bad thing about it is that it gets sent to another country to be read by a EE Mentor. We are supposed to write about things through a Global perspective rather than a US Perspective(writing that the US was stronger than Russia will murder your grade! Rather write about how the tension effected both countries and how it caused mayhem throughout other countries int he world.) Theory of Knowledge is the whole basis of IB. It explains how everything works and how the human nature works. Kind of like Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy combined together. </p>
<p>I JUST REALIZED HOW MUCH I WROTE ■■■■■! This is how IB Screwed i am! Basically, IB isnt focused on just facts and one Exam. Language A1(English) and Language A2(Spanish) require 15 minute oral presentations which are part of 25% of your final grade on the IB Credit Exam. Also, English requires 2 1000-1500 work essays which are 35% of your grade. The rest is based on the Exam. Psychology requires a research project which is 20% of your final grade. Environmental Systems requires a project towards the environment and Math requires writing about the theory towards a math equation, which are like in-between 15-25% of your final grade for the IB Exam. IB Requires work in class and self-study towards how things happen/work. AP looks towards facts and knowledge and doing good on an exam.</p>
<p>BTW, I HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH CHRONIC INSOMNIA ALL BECAUSE OF IB. I am not even joking. Thats how bad my sleep pattern is. It sucks so much.</p>
<p>Dude, sure you’ve got it bad, but I attend an AP school and our curriculum isn’t greatly different from yours. In fact, our honors lit class sounds sounds a lot like your IB English (without the 4 books per trimester of course, that’s too much…) Please don’t underestimate our AP classes… in fact, sometimes our teachers teach additional information because they feel the AP curriculum is flawed (it is!). Each school differs. ;)</p>
<p>I’m AP, therefore I am a better person than all IB people.</p>
<p>Different programs for different people. I prefer IB. I love my classes</p>
<p>English HL
History HL
Physics HL
Math HL
Spanish SL
Geography SL
Psychology SL (alt)</p>
<p>Im not saying AP is more easier but its just based on studying while IB goes through classwork and essays. AP just involves taking an exam and scoring in between a 1-5. </p>
<p>IB involves class work(some involve oral presentations, essays, etc) and IB exams don’t have multiple choice questions, just essays and short answers. Like english, the exam is 50% of your final IB credit Grade, 20% is two essays, 15% oral presentation commentary, and 15% something else that i forgot.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to inform you… but AP classes also go through classwork and essaies. In fact, our AP Government course requires our students to read and outline in detail a few chapters of their textbook a week. Our AP Biology course flies through 2 chapters a week. Our AP Chemistry class utilizes the Zumdahl & Zumdahl textbook, the one used by the best colleges for their intro to chem classes.</p>
<p>Woo IB Diploma YEAH (the bane of my life).</p>
<p>I’m taking:</p>
<p>Math HL
Physics HL
Economics HL
Chemistry SL
French B SL
English A1 SL</p>
<p>lol Sci-Fry me too buddy, me too. </p>
<p>AP kids just dont understand this program. I’ve had kids tell me on facebook that AP is the same as IB and that its annoying when i write “ohhhhh i wanna kill myself because of IB ;)”
if they only knew about the work they force on us.</p>
<p>I am in IB as well, but unfortunately can’t make a comparison, having never taken an AP class. </p>
<p>My school is also lovely in that all classes are taught at the HL level (with the exception of Math, although I am taking that HL as well). So, for example, I had to write the World Lit 2 even though I am taking English SL. </p>
<p>Anyway, I would like to know for certain if the IB is actually harder than the AP because a lot of my friends who take AP say that it is insanely hard… </p>
<p>So, could all you IB/AP people make a judgement? (kingsta, I totally second your post :P)</p>
<p>Okay IB people, show us what you’ve got: post your weekly homework and let’s compare.</p>
<p>PS. Your real IB homework load. ;)</p>
<p>I can’t remember my typical homework load… I do between 5-6 hours of homework/studying a night, generally? </p>
<p>And you can’t compare IB and AP without factoring in all of the assessments that are required and don’t fit into any class (aka Group 4 and Extended Essay).</p>
<p>i will be happy to post my assignments haha lol. seriously</p>
<p>Based on my username, i feel like i’m qualified to respond.</p>
<p>Don’t kid yourselves, AP kids. AP is a joke. I’ve taken 9 AP courses by the end of junior year, and i’m taking 3 more this year as a senior. they’re my easiest classes. trust me, they do not compare at all to IB. The internal and external assessments and extended essays are ridiculous, and the workload is insane.</p>
<p>Ughh i don’t feel like writing a huge post about this, but i believe that all the other IB students at my school will completely agree with me. All of us have had the pleasure of taking both AP and IB classes. Senior year, the IB students are the ones who are still busting their butts while the AP students are taking it easy.</p>
<p>A lot of you guys are building perceptions of IB based on the standard level courses. Those are comparable to AP courses, probably even easier. But it’s the higher level courses that make you crawl in a hole and cry</p>
<p>There’s also the fact that schools are different. A top notch AP school can easily make its AP workload much harder than a mediocore IB school and vice versa. But I think they cover pretty similar stuff.</p>
<p>HL Math and Calc BC kids both laugh and mock their SL/AB counterparts (and god forbid those math studies kids)
If you look at the syllabi, HL math covers some AP stats which isn’t covered in Calc BC, where as Calc BC starts to introduce taylor/mclaurin/diff equations which isn’t covered in as much depth in IB HL unless the option is series and diff equations</p>
<p>for sciences, HL covers a bit more than AP through the options, but nothing huge, and SL is, as everyone knows, a joke</p>
<p>Social studies and literature aren’t really comparable; hell you cant even compare one IB HL class against another at another school cuz they subset the reading lists into like 6 groups and each subset has dozens of viable titles</p>
<p>HOWEVER, the AP mark distributions are complete ********.
<a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board;
[url=<a href=“http://www.ibo.org/facts/statbulletin/dpstats/index.cfm]Diploma”>http://www.ibo.org/facts/statbulletin/dpstats/index.cfm]Diploma</a> Programme statistical bulletin<a href=“pg%2033”>/url</a></p>
<p>Why the hell is collegeboard awarding 43.2% of test takers a 5?! At least IB has the decency to model the distribution of marks normally so that regardless the difficulty of the test, the top single digit% of test takers will get the 7, as opposed to no one getting the 7, or some ridiculous number like 43.2%.</p>
<p>In every subject, 5’s in AP are given out “more leniently” than 7’s are in IB. So I think while the syllabi for the two are quite similar, getting 8 5’s is less of an accomplishment than getting something like 42+/45 on IB.</p>
<p>sorry but don’t mock kids who are in Math Studies. It isn’t Calculus but its still a complicated course. I am in Math Studies and the only reason why im in it is because i transfered from a horrible high school full of ■■■■■■■ and that had a horribly easy curriculum into a prestigous IB school on my sophomore year. I was forced to be put in a math class that was a bit behind. (Freshman year:Algebra, Sophomore year: Geometry, Junior Year: Trig and Algebra II or IB Math Studies, and then Pre Cal in my senior year. ) </p>
<p>It wasnt my fault. I actually got scores in the 700+'s in my SAT II MAth Level tests. Also highest grade in the regents out of the whole class(97 Algebra, and 3rd best in Geometry, 92) Math Studies answers the question to why things happen in math. I had to write a theory paper on how Logarithms work and how is it effective for my Internal Assessment. </p>
<p>And Standard levels are sadly not that easy. Actually, students in my schoolare often taking AP Chem Seminars with IB Chem SL since my school only provides Bio and Physics as Higher Levels. </p>
<p>SL’s arent as difficult as HLs but i can tell you that they are still considered hard. Think of them as Honors Courses with Internal Assessments and taking the IB Exam for them for no reason. </p>
<p>I will admit IB Environ. Systems SL is pretty easy(just ALOT of reading)</p>
<p>Anyways not being an a-hole or anything but i just dont want any kids thinking SL’s are easy. </p>
<p>and yeah, the grades are much more strict for IB because the exams are not only in essay format, but they are graded by people in other countries. Don’t forget about IB History, which i have been told from my teacher that if you write things like “America was more stronger than Russia in the cold war” or “America is the most strongest country and is dominent from all the rest” lmao but anyways, you are basically screwed because of, well you know. Isnt AP graded by the high school you attend’s department heads for the subject of the test you took? </p>
<p>I know i really cant talk for AP, but i did take 2 AP Exams, both AP US History(forced by my IB American History teacher) and AP Music Theory in my sophomore year. i got a 4 in Music Theory and a 5 in AP US History(lol and i got a overall average of 88 in my IB History of the Americas class. weird right?) And History is my weakest subject.</p>