<p>o and one more thing:"all i've learnt is to bull***** and do what is expected to score high in the exam"....so ur basically saying that one needs to ******** in order to do well on the exams.. this is completly false.. the ib exams ask u for a lot of info...HL exams are very detailed and thorough at times we have 3 papers..orals..and other externally graded material.. HOW IS THAT Bsing...???maybe ap and ib are equal...but i think its odd that many ppl can selfstudy out of a book and get a 5 on an ap exam.. this is awful as it promotes simply memorizing and then afterwards they will have learnt nothing... whilst in ib, after two years of taking a class and studying its still really hard to get a 7 and most ppl end up with 5s and 6s...ib is different because i think one learns how to think and we only memorize things in bio or other sciences...but other wise we have to think for ourselves and come up with our own reasoning and conclusions based on facts obviosly...</p>
<p>IB can get tricky.</p>
<p>elodie- well, yeah. maybe my teachers just plain suck. i mean, i should've never taken IB Business in the first place....it's the most horrible course ever and i regret taking it.
IB English, if you're talented at this writing and literature stuff, which i totally was until i got into this HORRIBLE class which robbed me of all my skills and forced me to focus on ONLY my critiquing abilities. GAWD!! commentaries after commentaries and boring formulaic essays to write if u want that SCORE... i mean, compared to students taking AP Lit ater my school, whoa...they're WAAAAAAAY ahead of us. They learn and put their creative writing skills to the best use possible and they actually read classics like the Iliad, Odyssey, etc. and produce artistic works...poetry, etc... unlike us. Us, IB ppl basically sit on our asses and discuss about WHY, OH WHY, the author decided to employ this or that literary device into her novel. It's kinda ridiculous you know..</p>
<p>ABout IB Chem, well, our teacher is one of the best chem teachers out there and although the course is rigorous, he has handled it well...really well. and altho i think ib chem has WAAAAAAAAAY too many labs, i cannot complain much about it.</p>
<p>about BSing in exams, i hope u didn't think i literally meant BS all the way...but really, isn't it painful to sit there and come up with our own ideas and theories without completely knowing if it makes sense....that in a way is BSing because hey, i've BSd in a lot of IB tests and surprised whenever i get the answer right! after all, i was only trying to BS some sense. heh, whatever.... i really have an aversion towards IB. It is hard to score a 7 on IB because of their grading scale, because they sit and plot the craziest questions which they KNOW HS students cannot answer!!! well, some talented ones can, and they want to reserve this score of 7 only to those extraordinary students. AP plays in fair and square, if you know the answer to the tough question, which by no means is EASY, like doh, then you deserve your point. </p>
<p>yeah, IB is simply TRICKY and evil.</p>
<p>and have u seen the amount of money they rob out of you??? $580 if you're taking the full diploma. i had to pay $285 for 3 IB HLs. -_-;;;;;</p>
<p>I BSed my way through a Chem test... Didn't revise for it (hate chemistry like I hate... Marmite spread.)
Anyway got 66% for it. Which is bad, but good since I didn't do jack.
I'm not proud of that but not ashamed either since my school forced me to take Chemistry (which, did I mention, I hate).</p>
<p>Oh yeah and IB gradings go a bit like this:</p>
<p>7=.A*
6=.A
5=.B
4=.C
3=.D
2=.E
1=.F
0=.F or U for Ungraded</p>
<p>The IB has a hell of a lot of stuff to it. CAS, Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge. </p>
<p>I agree IB teachers leave you to your own devices, mostly. However I feel this is an advantage more than anything, as it prepares you for University and real life (in real life people aren't going to be running after you asking you for your overdue essay back).</p>
<p>Plus the AP varies from state to state (which causes complications), and to distinguish yourself you have to have over 30 ECs, plus millions upon millions of other people do it.</p>
<p>Then again it's up to you which program you prefer and which is right for you. I can't tell you what to prefer. However I can tell you that universities consider the IB more, and that's a fact. A Harvard person, (friend of my mum's), part of the Harvard Admissions Council/Committee or whatever, told me so, and so have numerous other people.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong though the AP sounds great too.</p>
<p>well i have to say that taking the IB Diploma is not easy. but so many ppl at my school take it and absolutely loathe it. But of course they go about their work as normal, but at the same time HAAAAATE IT! personally, compared to IB dip kids, i had more work last year. and about CAS....what's the difference? other than the fact that CAS makes the ECs factor easier. All u AP kids have to do is get ur self into ECs. same as IB dippers except that what IB dippers do goes into their CAS log. whoa. CAS LOG!! wow, talk about a way to make things sound more 'professional'.</p>
<p>balonce_noles: I agree with you about the English aspects. I think that the way IB English classes are taught are only meant to help you do well on the test as opposed to honing your creative writing abilities... however, even an IB class depends on the teacher. It seems that the IB English test can take a lot of crap for a good score in my opinion. </p>
<p>My teacher showed us some examples: One was well written but she was like "Look, he spelled the name of his school wrong and didn't follow the guidelines" even though it was very good. Then we were shown some Cuban Missile Crisis paper that was riddled with grammatical errors but did much better score-wise because it followed the guidelines. It appears that IB is too focused on insignificant details and wants students to engage in a well-rounded education that has an aura of "internationalism" fused into it, but even this concept isn't very well-enforced. As long as you abide by the "guidelines" and criteria, you will do well on the IB tests. </p>
<p>The way I imagine in, an IB grader just sits there with a checklist making sure all the parts are there, and uses that checklist to tally your score without really checking the quality of the content. That's just my experience though. There have been times when I have truly not understood something yet I had to write an entire essay about it. All the pieces were there and I did well even though I had many unanswered questions about the stuff I was trying to critique and prove ("prove" in the TOK sense, whatever).</p>
<p>At my school people just want to get into college and don't care too much about how they will do on the IB Tests because they're taken after college deadlines, so many feel it's a large waste of money. Not only that but you can only take a maximum of 2 tests (and you're limited to Standard Level) during your junior year, and even then, they're still expensive. And you don't get "real" IB classes until junior year (you have "Pre-IB" freshman and sophomore year). </p>
<p>I just feel like the IB Program holds me back. I couldn't take IB Calculus freshman year even though I was ready for it because I wasn't a junior/senior. This problem, coupled with a potentially unorganized scheduling system, can lead to a lot of problems with the pacing of your IB education. I don't need to churn out myriads of multi-paged Internal Assessments in order to understand something. You're better off self-studying for the SAT2s. </p>
<p>balonce_noles (edit): Ah yes I almost forgot about that. CAS logs are a pain. Not only do you have do log an additional 150 hours of work but you have to explain what you did, how it helped others, how you could improve, etc, and you must obtain signatures as well... it's just tedious busywork. </p>
<p>Then again, it's really what you make of it.</p>
<p>IB English is a literary analysis class, not a creative writing class. That's why after taking IB English you can score a 5 on both AP English exams...</p>
<p>The only college credit I got was from the AP Gov/Politics test. I took gov soph year (not AP). I took the test senior year. Yea, must be a really hard test.</p>
<p>Come back to me when the APUSH test covers everything from the colonization of LATIN America to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Oh, those would be completely different AP courses? Man, it's all the same course in IB.</p>
<p>It's hard to score a 7 because the tests are curved world wide. AP tests aren't curved at all, which is which a ridiculously high percentage of people score 5s. Really, the percentages are available on collegeboard, check for yourself. And keep in mind that about 4% of people score a 7 on an IB test.</p>
<p>IB is the best and most integrated pre college program if you do the full Diploma. You may well end up doing more work in high school than college, which is the case for many IB people I have talked to, and the case for NO AP students. If you want to compare AP to IB, you'll have to have taken at least 10+ AP tests because the IB courses take 2 years, and APs take 1, so you will need to take about twice as many.</p>
<p>true that, soccerguy. The IB is definitely not a joke as a lot of you seem to think.</p>
<p>At my school we are required most of all to actually understand what we're talking about, and guidelines etc aren't over-inforced. I didn't follow many of the guidelines on an English exam and I got A*.</p>
<p>And I see how many people on this site seem to have ridiculously high grades in a ridiculous amount of subjects and a ridiculous amount of ECs, but in the IB that would be impossible. It would be impossible to take more than 6 courses for the IB diploma.. you'd die.
And I know of no one, not even the brightest, most hard-working students (not even the geniuses!), who get 7's regularly, or even 6.5's regularly.
This is why if you're very good in the IB and, say, play a sport, you stand out and could get into Yale.
However you have to be amazingly amazing, have to get sky-high grades and SATs, participate in 30 ECs, take ALL the higher level classes available, AND have to practically invent a cure for Cancer, to stand out among a crowd of AP students.</p>
<p>I believe IB should be considered slightly more prestigious because it is not as common as AP.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, would you seriously have to do 30 ECs to impress the admissions people?</p>
<p>ah, exaggerations.... you don't have to invent a cure for cancer to stand out amongst AP students!!!!!! take 6 APs and score 5s on all of them and you'll land yourself in a great uni...</p>
<p>I am committed to a couple of clubs and also a varsity sport, and i believe i do more work than the IB dip kids.... the only extra they probably have is their EE, and filling out their annoying CAS logs. muahahaha :D</p>
<p>Fine. I'm in a crappy program. Happy now? <em>cries</em>
If only I hadn't moved from London to Switzerland ,and I had just continued my British education (A-Levels).. Now my chances for Cornell are screwed :(
<em>rolls on the floor crying hysterically</em></p>
<p>ok i agree about the ib english part.. its the worst class i have ever taken no doubt about that... when i write in my voice.. its not to the point and not critical enough... im forced to follow this awful formula and i actually count how many quates i have in each essay.. im not allowed to have less then 15 and when i follow the god forsaken IB formula of quote- analysis of devises- theme bla bla i aperently sound to academic as if its plagerized!! i hate it and even after i do the whole ib eng essay/commentary procedure that i was told, i still manage to barely get a six, is there anyone out there who has ever seen what a 7 essay looks like...if u all have I WANT TO SEE!!!! i can no longer write like i used to yet simply go on and on about how this period in this sentence has such a huge effect.. Now that I admit is BS in all forms and shapes.. I bet u ib students look at things that the author never even thoguht about while writing in the first place. O There is a dash here OMG this is the most imp. thing in the world, i better include an extra paragraph praising the usage of the dash... o almighty dash u have been bestowed upon us from heaven... and dont you all feel stupid doing oral commentaries about the lamest things like y there is a colon instead of a semi colon and then relating every single word tht comes out of ur mouth to THEME....for 10 god forsaken min!!!UGH what happened to creativity and originality being the key thing in eng classes...SIIGGHHH</p>
<p>:DLOL
Whatever english teacher you have, I feel sorry for you... And him/her (for being a crap teacher).
I'm doing the IB and I got a few 7's in essays. Our teachers do not require to be over-analytical, in fact they condemn this. And we don't have to follow specific guidelines, just Think.
I agree about the over-analysis though, that was funny and true- but remember it is true for any analysis of any work which is not one's own. I do find it ridiculous how people place so much importance on insignificant things in poems, for example.</p>
<p>lucky u... u have a good teacher.. my teacher is just like so by the book. i swear if shakes. came to my class she'd fail him cuz he didnt follow the guidlines....and that is why a 7 in my eng class is so unheard of.... i know what u mean about the poems...today i had an in class commentary and i actually wrote that the shape and structure of a poem was meant to look like this as it represented the process of resurection haha...tht was funny i couldnt beleive i was saying %$%$ like tht .. im sure sylvia plath was never like ou ill shape my poem to look like resurection.. has it occured to ibo that maybe she just wrote it ...period...</p>
<p>A 7 in any good IB english class is unheard of, our teacher never gives 7s but the other class get 7s.</p>
<p>However in the officials its the other way around we get 6s while they get 4s. Nick, I doubt that you'll have more than 2 7s in your official IB English A1 SL/HL.</p>
<p>And 6 APs and 5s in all of them isnt the equivalent of IB.</p>
<p>First of all theyre very different. AP covers LOADS of material but doesnt go into detail, so thats why its really difficult. IB HL covers alot of material (not as much as AP) but it goes into extreme detail sometimes going up to 3rd year university. (only on one topic) HL includes 1st Year material. A lot of it too.</p>
<p>Also in IB, you take theory of knowledge for which you have to give presentations and essays. World lit, Language orals, math portfolios, group 4 projects, extended essay..........</p>
<p>So yeah, IB is a more well rounded program, as the student is under constant pressure to keep up with deadlines etc.</p>
<p>Wow so if you can cope with the IB you can cope with university, eh? Cool. Although not cool because it means more work.
And I find most of the IB teachers impersonal. Last year in my GCSEs I knew all the teachers very well and we got along, they were always ready to help, knew us very well, etc.
No matter how much I praise the IB, I can't help but feel a longing for the A-Levels...</p>
<p>Actually Im very close with most of my teachers, teachers are not related to the program, because in most schools the teachers teach 9-12 grade, hence teaching GCSE and IB.</p>
<p>In University if you get a 6/7 in a HL subject you can skip several required courses and you are given the credits youve earned. Also University usually seems like a breeze after IB. My sister graduated with an IB full diploma, with relatively easy subjects, and she says University is a breeze compared to IB. She goes to Duke.</p>