<p>My daughter has been asked to join the IB program next fall. She will be a HS junior. Many of the students have been part of the middle school IB program but she has not.</p>
<p>She struggled through most of elementary amd middle school -- she did not read until 5th grade. She is a very much improved student, an A student, in fact. She wants to be challenged and she wants to be in classes with other school-focused students. So, in that respect, the IB program is a good fit, I think.</p>
<p>But I worry about her being overwhelmed. She has never taken any advanced or honors classes because she was tracked, coming out of middle school, as an average (C) student. Clearly, teachers have now recognized her intellegence and her perseverance. She has excellent verbal skills, decent writing skills, average study skills and desire to "prove them all wrong."</p>
<p>Is it a big leap from regular classes to IB?</p>
<p>Our D Loves her IB program. She started as pre-IB as a freshman, committed to the diploma program as a Junior. I think you need to go ask some additional questions–is it the IB diploma? Or IB program were you can choose full diploma or certificate? What are her options for each subject area (English, Foreign Language, Science, Math, History, Social Sciences)? Ask the IB co-ordinator to suggest a few IB parents for you to speak with about the program. I think it’s a great fit for our D, but I don’t think it’s for every student. I also don’t think the AP program in every subject is for every student.
Oh, how many years of a Foreign Language has she completed? Where is she in math? Especially if the only option is full diploma, those are important considerations, and questions to ask the co-ordinator (ie Suzy is in Spanish 2, will she cover enough material to do the SL test by senior year? She is in Algebra II, what IB math do you recommend?).</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me, I’d be happy to answer any questions I can…</p>
<p>Hi I am currently doing the IB and I would be glad to demystify the IB. So the IB stands for the International Baccalaureate and is an international curriculum that requires students (only full diploma students) to take 6 subjects from different areas which are Language A1, Second Language, Individuals and Societies, Mathematics and The Arts (which can be swapped for any of the other subject fields). In addition to these a full diploma student must satisfy the Extended Essay (EE), Theory of knowledge and Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) components in order to receive the diploma. There is (at least for me) a big leap from the QCS curriculum (the state curriculum where I live) and the IB, not so much in terms of information but the demands of the curriculum, the IB requires you to learn the topics and know them well. In saying that if you are a dedicated student (by the looks of things, your daughter most certainly is) and prepared to put in effort, the IB should be manageable.</p>