Please comment on question
I have taken both IB and AP courses in high school. I would not necessarily say the work is harder for many reasons. First off, AP courses are traditionally one year, which IB are normally over the span of two years. In that case, AP is more of a crash course, where IB takes the same or similar learning and goes more in-depth in the work i.e. the application of what you are learning in the course. I thought this was most prominent in comparing psychology courses. IB Psychology covers actual studies and goes deeper into general psychology research practice. IB Psych, unlike AP, makes students remember actual psych studies for their essays. That brings up another aspect of the exams themselves. AP is multiple choice and free response. IB is solely essay writing, with multiple exams per subject (Class took). Only Science classes have one part multiple choice that counts for less than a third of the final score.
The way I compare it in the US is through how liberal art schools and state schools provide credit for the IB programme. There is more credit given to IB courses than AP courses. That of course if you are a full candidate. If you take AP though you can take more classes over your high school career then surpassing the credit you would be receiving from IB. It’s difficult to compare both. AP is done by the college board. IB is an organization that creates an international standard to obtain a diploma. The IB curriculum as a whole, in my opinion, is more difficult because it requires more work in and out of school is one is a full candidate. Many universities recognize that difficulty and if granted certain points toward receiving the Diploma a US school will make that equivalent to the freshman year of college gen-ed classes.