<p>I did Bio HL, Chem HL, English A1 HL last year in May. Got 5's for all, after 1 year and 2 months of doing them. (I moved around a lot; got extenuating circumstances for doing HL lastyear.)</p>
<p>History HL (Europe), Math Methods and Spanish Ab Initio SL this May (after 2 full years). My GPA is around 3.3 UW. :p A, B and C student here.</p>
<p>Anyhoo, got into Cornell **College<a href="not%20the%20Ivy">/b</a>, Knox, Beloit and waitlisted at Carleton and MHC, as well as accepted at UK and Canadian universities.</p>
<p>sonbac: English A1/A2 is literary based. English B is a mix of literature/novels and grammar, if French B is anything to base it on. (Sat in a few classes.)</p>
<p>I applied to only schools in the Ontairo province through OUAC. Got into Brock (Biotech Honours), Carleton (Bio/Biotech Co-op Honours, and York (Biotech Honours). Applied to Toronto but my file isn't complete because my IGCSE results weren't authenticated by the exam board. No biggie.</p>
<p>Why these schools? Toronto - based on reputation, and strength in science. :o And the city. Heard of it from an ex's friend.
York - because it's respectively smaller and I was attracted by the fact that while still in Toronto, it was on the outskirts, not straight down-town, wasn't as huge and seemed a little more campus-based. Heard from another friend of ex's.
Brock - as a safety, mainly, and its cost.
Carleton Uni - it's based in Ottawa, cleaner (seems like), and while not as bustling as Toronto, parents are happier with it because the embassies are located there so if I run into trouble, I can contact that embassy. (My father works in the embassy.) There was also the option of CO-OP which really made it hard to turn down, as well as their scholarship. While not impressive as finaid in the US, it was already considerably cheaper than American colleges, and, to my knowledge, pretty good at offering intels any aid.</p>
<p>What scared me off them was that they were huge, compared to US LAC's, though a large number of international students would be nice. Having a class of 400 in a first-year bio lab was...daunting. From my past high schools (4 of them), I know I'm better suited in a place where relationships between the teacher (not TA) and students can really foster. Also, I like liberal arts concept - I'm not great at second languages, but would like to learn something besides Biotech for the next four years.</p>
<p>Sorry I can't go into much detail on Canadian choices. <em>wince</em> I didn't research them as hard as I did for the US LAC's. :(</p>
<p>hey hmkb can i ask you something about chemistry. for a question that gives u a list of many compounds and tell u to list them in order of the most acidic to the least, how do you know which one is more acidic than which (except for the obvious options like HCl)</p>
<p>I dont usually like to post my scores or whatever, but I value IB a lot so </p>
<p>Im a physics major at Caltech.</p>
<p>HL Chemistry 7 (options: advanced organic, fuels)
HL Mathematics 7 (options: group theory, statistics)
HL History 7 (options: Americas, Cold War)
HL English 6
SL Physics 7 (options: advanced mechanics, thermodynamics I think)
SL French 6
Extended Essay C (I really should have followed the guidelines more )
ToK C (not too sure why, but whatever )
Total: 40 + 1 = 41</p>
<p>I got absolutely no college credit, which kind of irked me a bit, since I thought I deserved something at least for HL History. </p>
<p>I knew going in, though, that doing IB was more about a) getting into a good college, and b) being prepared for the academics there. Also, I think IB science/math generally is more difficult and goes into greater depth than the AP equivalents (not true for physics C, but otherwise yes).</p>
<p>
[quote]
for a question that gives u a list of many compounds and tell u to list them in order of the most acidic to the least, how do you know which one is more acidic than which (except for the obvious options like HCl)
[/quote]
Several molecular characteristics that are involved in acid strength (Ka): polarity of bond, charge on the central atom, size of molecule, and the oxidation state of the central atom.</p>
<p>polarity of bond - more polar = more acidic (H2S vs. HCl)
charge on central atom - larger = less acidic (H2SO3- vs. H2SO4)
size of molecule - larger = more acidic (HF vs. HCl)
oxidation state of central atom - more positive = more acidic (HClO3 vs. HClO4)</p>
<p>Remember, that acid strength only means how much dissociates, so anything that makes a bond weaker makes it a stronger acid, and conversely anything that makes a bond stronger makes it a weaker acid.</p>
<p>Oh yes one question. I understand the 2nd and 3rd one, but not the 1st and 4th. Doesnt a more polar molecule have stronger bonds, and when the central atom is more positive result in stronger bonds too? And stonger bonds = less acidic rite?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure polar bonds are weaker than non-polar bonds. Take the limit of increasing polarity so you get an ionic bond - i.e. something like salt. Now compare that with the limit of decreasing polarity - say the bonds in diamonds. Clearly the bond in diamonds is stronger. That's a very crude way to thinking about it, but taking something to its extreme can be really helpful on exams when you don't have any extra resources and you forget which way a property goes. </p>
<p>Basically, you can think of bond energy as the amount of work you need to do pull the two atoms apart. The more lopsided the charge distribution is (i.e. electronegativity difference or polarity) the more it's already separated and thus the less distance you need to move the charges. In actuality, the nature of a bond is reasonably complicated (takes quantum mechanics), and that's why it's often hard to intuitively understand what's going on using electrostatic hand-waving as Im doing here. Thats why you hear things like electrons like to pair up or why 8 valence electrons are so stable these are rules based on quantum mechanics that, while not being able to understand their origins completely, high school students can still solve a variety of problems using them.</p>
<p>For the oxidation state of the central atom, I should have been specific that this is for oxyacids - when you have an OH group attached to a central atom. The stronger the positive charge on the central atom, the more it pulls the electrons on the O to it. Since the electrons on the O shift towards the central atom, O more strongly attracts the electrons in the OH bond, and so the bond becomes more electronegative and consequently weaker. This might be true for all acids, but I actually dont know if the issue even comes up for non oxyacids.</p>
<p>Hey anonamous...sorry I didn't reply (time zone difference). But yea, everything cghen said was correct (a lot more than what I would have said anyways lol). Good luck everybody! :D One more day...</p>
<p>PS: this thread is turning into an IB exam thread more than a college one lol</p>
<p>SL Physics - 6
SL Math Methods - 7 (won't count though, because i'm replacing it with HL Math Methods)
SL French -
SL Chemistry -
HL Math Methods -
HL English -
HL History of the Americas -</p>
<p>I got admission into Caltech, Duke, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, and Rice, and have decided to attend Rice with a probable major in Electrical Engineering and possible double major with Computer Science. </p>
<p>I did the discrete mathematics option and found it to be not easy, not hard, but exactly how I expected it to be. Which made it easy I guess. I don't know. There was some base-6 math that had to be done, and our teacher had never taught it to us, but it's a rather logical process. I'm confident on a 7 this year. </p>
<p>My friend did the calculus option and bombed it. But our teacher hadn't taught us calculus. We both had taken Calc BC and the HL Math class (listed as Discrete Math on our transcripts). And he's just as good at math as I am. If only he'd done the Discrete option.......</p>
<p>Yea I wish I did some other option other than differential equations and series...something like statistics...because I'm pretty confident that I did really well p1 and p2..but p3 is going to cost me! Too bad...</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptances treekid :)</p>
<p>I did the Statistics option and found it pretty easy. The option as a whole can be done almost entirely on the calculator. So even if you don't understand the questions at all you can still find the answer. P3 was easy with the exception of one part from one question, unfortunately worth 10 points.</p>
<p>Do any of you know if the grade boundaries will be different for each option or will paper 3 as a whole have the same grade boundary...the options are clearly different in terms of difficulty and I don't think it'll be fair if there was one grade boundary for the whole paper...</p>
<p>I actually don't know, but I'd assume the grade boundaries are based on the grades for each individual option. It would seem unfair if grades for easier options were mixed in with harder options. I'll ask my IB co-ordinator tomorrow.</p>