Hello, we are a military family and are moving. My daughter has 4 AP classes under her belt, but the school we will be zoned for is IB not AP. Does anyone have any information on transferring to this type of program? The school has indicated that even though they are IB, they can order her AP tests. Will the IB curriculum prepare her enough for AP testing? IB programs themselves are 2 year programs and she doesn’t have two years. Thank you.
This answer will really depend on the set of classes she takes. At my kid’s school, the math was often combined, with the teacher doing some work to help both groups prepare.
I would caution you to learn more about the IAs and make sure your daughter isn’t expected to do something she isn’t prepared for.
It’s not that IB programs exist in some different universe than AP programs. Depending on the course, much/most of the content is the same. At my kids’ school, which was experimenting with an IB program, there were a number of classes that were joint AP/IB. (To be successful in either, however, the kids had to do some focused work outside of class.) In general, at least a while ago when I was much more familiar with them, the IB program tends to be much more conceptual, critical-thinking and writing oriented, and AP leans towards knowing a lot of facts. To my mind, the IB curriculum was much higher quality, but that doesn’t mean it was the best way to get a high score on AP tests.
On the other hand, getting a high score on AP tests is not a very interesting life goal. Why exactly does your daughter want to take more AP tests? At this point, the tests themselves are unlikely to help her with college admissions. What will help her is taking an intellectually challenging array of courses at her new school, however they are labeled (and having whoever writes the school report for her underline that). Is she trying to get more college credit to graduate early, or to get advanced standing? Make sure to check the rules at the colleges to which she is applying. Not every AP class will qualify for credit, and some have limits on how much AP credit can be used.
My daughter did the full IB diploma and simultaneously took a targeted selection of AP tests. As JHS said, there needed to be some work outside the classroom, but it wasn’t particularly onerous. I think if the school is willing to work with you and possibly identify which classes can be taken for AP credit, that would be helpful.
Also, it is possible to do IB classes as individual classes and not do the full diploma, so if the selection of IB classes includes some that are useful/interesting to her, she can take them and do the IB class-specific exams without the other components of the full diploma program. In my daughter’s program, that was very common and the college-application results were excellent for the kids in the full program, as well as those taking a la carte IB and AP classes.
IB programs are implemented in different ways in different schools, so I strongly suggest calling the specific school and asking about it.
At my son’s school, where IB was a magnet program within a larger school, pretty much all of the IB courses were designed to prepare students for the AP exam, too. Students were expected to take both exams, so as you can imagine, this led to a LOT of exams every spring.
On the other hand, the students in the magnet program were all aiming for the full diploma and they were the only ones allowed to take the IB courses. I’m pretty sure that a student transferring in senior year wouldn’t have been allowed in the program unless they were coming from another IB school.
If she doesn’t feel confident enough in the IB courses preparing her for AP exams, Barnes and Noble has AP study books by both Princeton Review and Barrons. The books include sample tests. One of mine didn’t take the AP English class at school but used the books at home and got a good score.
A student joining in 12th grade would not be allowed to join a 2 year HL IB course at our school. They would be allowed to take one year SL courses.
If you are moving to a different state, also check on what you need to do to ensure that she will have in-state residency for college tuition purposes in the new state. There are some relatively generous provisions for active duty service members and their dependents, but you may want to check what documentation you may need in the new state to ensure in-state residency for college tuition purposes.
The military member has to be stationed in, or live in, the state. That is the only requirement for in-state tuition. And the student is grandfathered if the parent is transferred. Documentation is easy - LES and/or orders and something showing your address.
She won’t be able to do any useful IB classes as just a senior, let alone moving IN senior year. Are you sure she would even be accepted? Not to IBD. SLs are <APs. Only tolerable as part of diploma. As with many schools, my kids’ school has overlap but this is so kids sit both APs and IB. You would have to confirm with the school that they do cover the AP curriculum. You should consider alternatives IMO.
@driggers4ship What courses would she have taken if she stayed in your current location? I think it really depends on what she still needs to graduate. If she already has most of her credits and she needs English and mostly electives, it could work. English is tricky because I’m not sure what IB reads vs. AP Lit.
OP - I think you need to make an appointment and talk to the school. We don’t want your daughter to end up getting cheated from her education (which would happen if she has no acces to HL classes). Nor do we want her to end up in Part-II of classes after missing Part I. It doesn’t seem obvious to me that she can get an IB diploma. Maybe the best deal is an admin transfer to a local high school that is NOT IB?