I’m a sophomore, and I have to decide my classes for next year, and I’m pretty sure I’m doing the IB program. I have to decide what level of Calculus I’m taking for next year, and I’m not sure if I should take AB AP Calculus or IB-SL. I know most colleges don’t give credit for SL classes, but I’m afraid that AP AB might be too hard since I haven’t had the best background in math since my Algebra 2 teacher was awful. What I was thinking of doing was taking IB-SL then buying a prep book and teaching myself any information that I didn’t learn over the summer then taking the AP test senior year if I needed to. Also, would I be able to take IB-SL Calculus junior year then IB-HL Further math senior year, and just take the HL test senior year, or would that be too much of a jump?
I also wanted to add that I took Algebtra 2 freshman year, not sophomore. I didn’t want that to be confusing. Not knowing Algebra 2 made Pre-Calc hard this year which made me drop from Honors/IB to advanced (level between honors and regular). I have an A+ in advanced since I caught up on learning the Algebra 2 stuff from last year, so I feel confident in going back up to IB-SL, but I don’t know if I’d be ready to take AP AB if it’s a lot harder than SL.
I think you might be a little confused about how the IB math classes work. There is no class called IB SL Calculus.
A student who is not strong in math should not consider any form of further maths HL. If you are going for an IB Diploma I would recommend taking SL Math junior year, and if you want AP Calculus credit take AB your senior year. This will be the most gentle path.
^ Seconding this: IB Math SL will review some pre-calculus and introduce calculus, and present statistics+ data analysis. it’ll provide you with a strong background for AP calculus AB senior year.
What other classes will you be preparing?
Note: Math HL is harder than calculus BC… And further math HL is the hardest math course in the world, it’s designed for competitive mathematicians.
My kids school really does equate SL with AB calc. It covers 65% of AB calc test in SL taken as a one year course. Having seen one kid go SL to BC (not well LOL) my advice to my younger kids is to SL then AB in sr yr and at least have a nice solid AB calc yr, however the coordinator and math teacher encourages BC not AB. HL math is only for the very mathy kids who would have done at least AB calc as sophs. BC is taught with HL which also can be challenging for those BC kids. I like the sound of the most gentle path @VickiSoCal .
Sorry if that was confusing! My school calls IB Math SL SL Calculus.
@Sybylla I’m glad to know that! At my school they must just be trying to push us then because they have people go from Pre-Calculus to BC Calculus and take the AP Calculus BC test and the IB Math HL test. I’ll just stick with SL and take the AP test senior year. Thanks for telling me this!
Our SL sequence was precalc in the first year and AB calculus in the second year. The only downside of this is that unless you take the AP exam, you’ll get no college credit/placement for your HS calculus.
My only advice for everyone is to get a solid foundation in math while you’re in HS. Skipping ahead for a higher placement is okay only if you’ve really mastered the material. If there’s a hole, it is hard to plug it later on, and it’s hard to progress without repairing it.
Take IBSL junior year and AP calc senior year
It’s so interesting to see how these courses are handled by different schools! I think my kid’s school is the odd man out. As a Junior she is taking Calc AB this year and next year she is sequenced to take IB Math SL. I’m 99% sure they prefer students to take AB before SL, so if you can’t fit it into your sequence you take Math Studies as your IB math. But from what I’m reading here that may be unnecessary. Perhaps it’s just a perception I have based on very limited sample size of my D and her friends.
There is a class called IB Calculus SL at our school.
We also have IB Pre-Calculus, IB Calculus HL, and IB Math Studies.
I think schools have options for what they can cover in SL, HL, and MS.
You take the same exam, and it is called HL math, SL Math, or math studies. I’m unclear as to why a school would confuse the issue by calling the class something different than the other schools do.
@VickiSoCal I think this fairly common. Our school used the IB Calc HL course title for quite a few years as they transitioned from AP. Honestly, it was a lot less confusing for many parents than trying to distinguish between Math Studies, Math SL, and Math HL. I agree it makes conversations on CC sort of confusing, but at the school level it wasn’t a problem.
I think there are different versions of the exam depending on which option you take.
This webpage hints at it:
http://www.thinkib.net/mathhlsl/page/17610/hl-options
SL Math students all take the same 2 papers.
HL math students all take papers 1 and 2 the same and then take one of 4 paper 3 options.
I think most schools still call the class hl math year 1 and hl math year 2 no matter which paper 3 option the teacher chooses.
Why call SL Math anything other than SL Math? Because US parents are nervous about college bound kids not taking a class with the word calculus in the name?
HL and SL are only 1 year at our school. That probably explains the difference in titles. They are probably only teaching the Calculus part of the course in this one year class with the rest of the IB material covered in IB Pre-Calc which other schools call SL-1.
@nw2this I think that’s how my school does it, too. The class I was in before I dropped down to advanced pre-Calculus was called IB/Honors Pre-Calculus, so what I’m getting from this is that schools that offer IB Pre-Calculus cover some of the material on the IB Math SL test, and then schools that do that have IB Calculus SL to cover the rest of the material for the test. I agree with @VickiSoCal the different names is making it confusing.
These are the IB and AP math classes that my school offers:
“IB”/Honors Pre-Calculus which doesn’t have an IB test, but they still call it IB.
IB Math Studies which people at my school normally take after taking Algebra 2 or Pre-Calculus but it’s really easy and I wouldn’t take this since I’m decent at math
IB-SL Calculus which people normally take after taking Honors/IB Pre-Calculus or advanced Pre-Calculus with a teacher recommendation (I have an A+ so I’m doing fine)
AP AB Calculus which people normally take after Honors/IB Pre-Calculus or advanced Pre-Calculus with a teacher recommendation
AP/IB-HL Calculus BC which people take after taking Honors/IB Pre-Calculus if they’re recommended for it so I cannot take this class next year
IB-HL Further Math which seniors take after taking BC Calculus (I’m not sure if you can take it if you took AB or SL)
Hopefully this clears up some confusion on how my school does IB Math.
The IB system in your school works in a different way than my kids’ school. I am not talking about the courses’ name, imo how you call a course is just a detail. We don’t have one year long IB courses with the exeption of languages B. All other courses are for two years.
As someone else has already written, you should forget about the IB Further Math. You can take it either concurrently with IB Math HL or after completing IB Math HL. In this course you study all four options of the Math HL plus two other options (in fact since it is assumed that you studied one option in IB Math HL, that option is omitted). Only less than 200 kids (in the world) take the exam each year.
Since IB syllabus don’t match exactly with AP syllabus, you have to study on your own to cover all of the AP Cal AB or BC topics. But it can be easily done. If you take Math SL, you should aim AP Calc AB. If you take Math HL and if the option your teacher choose is not calculus, then you’d better forget about taking the BC exam. You cannot cover the additional topics on your own. In that case you can go for the AB exam. In IB Math SL, calculus is nearly 27% of the syllabus (40 hr out of 150 hr). In IB Math HL, if your option is not calculus, calculus part of the syllabus is 20% (48 hr out of 240 hr) and if your option is calculus it is 40% (96 hr out of 240 hr). But of course it is possible that your school give more weight on calculus. The numbers I gave above is what IBO suggests and therefore asks accordingly in IB exams.
@lovedance17 talk to your precalc teacher about this as s/he will know your program best, but going from precalc to calc AB to Calc BC would be a typical path at many schools. That would mean taking the IB HL test as a senior. The structure at your school appears to be a hybrid of traditional math path, AP, and IB so it’s tough for folks who aren’t familiar with it to give advice.