I would come at this differently … colleges want to know that you took tough courses and did well in them … and both IB and AP programs can do this. My kids HS has both programs … they approach learning in very different ways and most students favor one over the other. If I were you I would not focus on which program colleges may favor but which I would probably prefer (and likely then perform better). Some kids love the integration across subjects while others hate one subject being split up and taking years to cover. Do what will work best for you!</p>
<p>One small correction: In the UK IB scores need to be high to get into top universities. There are other countries/universities though where an IB Diploma is all that it takes to be accepted (grades are irrelevant). However, retention rates at these universities can be pretty low as students are being tested (especially) during their first year to ensure that they do indeed have the level that is required by the university. When I went to university (a long time ago) the retention rate was about 50% and I do not get the feeling that it has changed much since then.</p>
<p>The IB Organization never communicates directly with students/parents, they always want you to contact the IB coordinator at school. It makes sense because what is acceptable/possible/legal in one school is not necessarily acceptable/possible/legal in another school elsewhere in the world. </p>
<p>What I do not like is the fact that the present organization makes students/parents entirely dependent on a local IB coordinator’s professionalism and on his willingness to address certain issues. He may know what the (im)possiblities are, but that does not guarantee correct information. Checks and balances? Where? How? I have even heard of one who boldly stated that IBO is not willing to accommodate special needs. IBO is!</p>
<p>Tai-tai, I noticed the same thing. You’d think you could get some course content information from the IB website, but there isn’t (or wasn’t 2 years ago) so much as a syllabus. Kind of odd.</p>
<p>That could be because schools are largely able to make up their own curricula, at least in the humanities, which is what I teach (Language B). There is no syllabus that the IBO requires, or even suggests. The way we get to the end is up to us. I don’t know about the maths and sciences.</p>
<p>Karen Colleges: There is not anything! The school’s IB coordinator has access to most if not all of the information and it is up to him/her what he/she is willing to share with you. My guess is that different countries have (slightly) different curricula (because of historic, legal, whatever reasons) and that IBO does not want them to be distributed to avoid ‘curriculum comparison’ as a topic in (international) forums. Comparisons will likely lead to a kind of ranking (IB Diploma received in A is superior to IB Diploma received in B) which would undermine what IBO stands for. Having said all that, I still think that IBO needs to come up with a system that is making the students/parents less dependent on local IB coordinators. </p>
<p>franglish: I’ve once been able to find an IB syllabus for chemistry on the web! Cannot guarantee that it was genuine though. Usually schools have separate classes for AP and IB in the math and sciences and there must be a reason for so.</p>
<p>Spanish is easier to learn because it is spelled phonetically.</p>
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<p>For some subjects, there is a lot of flexibility in the curriculum. Schools may be able to choose to place a greater emphasis on topic A versus topic B, even though the course has the same name. I think this is done to help make IB compatible with the curriculum requirements of different countries. The goal seems to be to create a rigorous curriculum without placing students in the position of having to take two separate courses in the same subject – one to fulfill IB requirements and one to fulfill their own country’s curriculum requirements.</p>
<p>For example, my daughter took IB HL History (Europe). In each section of this exam, the students could choose among a variety of essay questions on different topics. The students in her class were well prepared to answer the questions on some topics but not others. Students at other IB schools might have been better prepared on other topics. I don’t think any school could cover all of the topics on the exam in depth in two years. Certainly, the IB organization must have provided the schools with considerable guidance on curriculum (students had to be prepared to answer a certain number of questions), but there was obviously flexibility, too.</p>
<p>There seems to be a tendency in IB to focus on skills (e.g., the ability to write a well-structured essay) rather than highly specific content. That HL History exam was sophisticated and difficult (and very hard on the hand – it required about six hours of writing spread over two days). The fact that different students were writing on different topics doesn’t mean that the exam and the course are not rigorous.</p>
<p>Is Spanish also the main “second language” in UK or Canada? And what is the second-second language after English in Germany and Netherlands and Denmark?</p>
<p>Germany - every speaks English. Many speak French and/or Italian. There’s a large population of people of Turkish background who speak Turkish. In the Netherlands there are a couple of local languages Frisian and Limburgish - and many people learn French as well as English as a second language. Chinese is the third most common language spoken in Candada and it is way, way less common than French or English. In the UK - you have Cornish, Irish, Scots and Welsh and various languages from the English subcontinent. I don’t know what foreign languages actually get taught the most in England or the Netherlands though.</p>
<p>Does the school you are looking at have Ab Initio for several languages, or do you have 3 years of each of the languages you are asking about? Some schools offer just one Ab Initio, so if you don’t already have 3 years of a language by the time you start your IB work in junior year, you have to take whatever they offer.</p>
<p>Some schools have no Ab Initio. At my daughter’s IB school, you had to have completed Level 1 of foreign language before 9th grade so that you could complete level 5 by the time of graduation, at which point you were ready to take the SL test. And you had to have studied (or be bilingual in) one of the three languages taught at the school. This likely prevented some people from applying for the program.</p>
<p>PRUNEFACE, If this helps you at all. My son started his high school being in IB. Later he discovered that he would be better of with AP. He ended up just doing AP. Last year he was awarded national AP scolar. He applied to top colleges and got in most of them. He is now a freshman at an IVY league college. Non of the kids that were doing IB got accepted at colleges my son applied to. His college application essay was how he switched from IB to AP and the reasoning behind it and he had a call from the college of his top choice saying they loved his essay. There are many parents who love their children do IB - nothing wrong with it. Top colleges love motivated students who make up their own minds and they do not care if you are doing AP ir IB. Most top colleges like Stanford, Duke, Rice, Yale, Columbia, Brown do not differentiate or favor one or the other. Believe me and if you want to know more, send me a PM.</p>
<p>I would like IBO to do more to convince students and parents that an individual schoolprogram is indeed fit for purpose. By keeping students and their parents in the dark about the IB requirements/curricula/possibilities a sound evaluation of IB related HS courses is impossible. How to choose a course if you do not know this information?</p>
<p>An example:</p>
<p>AP and IB are sometimes combined in one course. This may result in:</p>
<p>. a course that is extremely wide and fascinating (given the very different nature of AP and IB);
. lower HS grades if the teacher is measuring students along the lines of both AP and IB (i.e. the maximum grade will only be given if the student’s answers are meeting the requirements of both AP5 and IB7). This will have an impact on the GPA.
. lower grades for both the AP and the IB exams (which may cost a student college credit).
. a course level that could be underestimated by colleges (higher than an ‘all AP’ honors course or an ‘all IB’ course);</p>
<p>For some students a combined course may be great, for others it may be just be just a little too much and too risky. Without proper information it is impossible to judge what will be the best for your kid. </p>
<p>Yes, I do wish IBO gave out more information. I have a chart that shows college acceptances and stats of the school’s IB program. Could several people help me go over this? I’d rather not post the link here for privacy’s sake.</p>
<p>About different curricula in different countires - I don’t think so as the exams are uniformed across the globe. Am I correct?
Also, your papers are generally graded by IB teachers from another school/country. I remember our IB counsellor telling us that last year math papers went to India, German papers to another IB school in the US and History papers to France.</p>
<p>You can PM me about the above. Our school has been doing IB for 20 or so years now and is offering 32 out of 37 subjects offered by IBO</p>