Would the diploma program be good for me?

Pre-College Issues International Baccalaureate (IB)
1

<p>I'm a sophomore, and it's almost the time of year to select our classes for the following year. My school has IB, honors, and regular classes only (no AP except for APUSH and Calc AB, and no pre-IB thanks to our ex-principal).</p>

<p>I would have taken honors, but there were so many situations which led me to not be able to. In my freshman year, I was in an online school with no honors or AP for your first year (lame) so I was in all mainstream classes. For the first two months of this year, I was in another online school that had no honors, AP, or IB classes at all (which was really stupid). So I was in mainstream again.</p>

<p>Online school was a terrible choice. I was in it for medical reasons, but being in online classes was definitely not a good fit for me. I was getting mediocre grades and not trying my hardest.</p>

<p>So in November, my mom put me back in a public school (the one I mentioned in the first paragraph). At this point, I couldn't go into any honors classes since I joined late. However, now that I'm in school, I'm getting amazing grades. My GPA for last semester alone was 3.6 (A's in all classes except Spanish & an NC for one but I won't go into that).</p>

<p>This is my schedule & grades from last semester:
Algebra 2 - NC (I'm really good at math, but there was a circumstance)
Health - A
Spanish - C (I'm terrible at Spanish)
Advanced Choir - A
Biology 1 - A (almost 100%)
English 10 - A</p>

<p>My English teacher absolutely loves me. He really wants me in IB next year. He also teaches English 12 and gives me work from that class instead of work for my grade level.</p>

<p>I've been considering doing the diploma program for a month or so now. My mom told me that my counselor would like to see me in at least some IB classes next year.</p>

<p>I also have two other related questions:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Spanish is a difficult subject for me. While I have some basic understanding down, as well as some grammar and vocab, I usually don't do well in the class. What should I do? How much knowledge is suggested for SL?</p></li>
<li><p>As for science, I have only taken Physical Science and Biology. Would I have to go into IB Bio, or would I be able to do an SL in another science (i.e. Chem or Physics)? If it helps any, I'm hoping to study Computer Science in college.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sorry for the long post, but any help is appreciated! :)</p>

2

<p>Umm well your Spanish is going to have to improve. Get help, work on it during the summer, learn vocab and the grammatical structure. That will your hardest subject probably since you do have to speak, and write for IB. And you can take any IB science, so if you want you can take Physics or Chem. But without the background it might be more difficult for you. And remember in IB that you will be really really involved in IB itself. There are TONS of papers you must write, I’ve gotten to the point where I can write about 2 pages in 15-20 mins. IB requires a lot of work, but if you’re willing to keep up, have excellent time management, and a planner. And if you’re a terrible essay writer then IB is going to be soooooo hard for you. There are other things but I won’t go into it.</p>

3

<p>I currently stay after school one day per week to get extra help on Spanish with my teacher. I’m working on it.</p>

<p>Yeah, I know there’s tons of papers and such. There are times that I think my essays are mediocre; but whenever I turn in an essay for English (lately we’ve had 1-2 page essays almost every day for state test prep) my teacher will comment on them saying that I write better than a majority of his seniors. Any other class I still get comments on how I write good essays.</p>

<p>A lot of work would probably be good for me, since at this point I am completely bored with the amount of work I’m getting. I have too many nights where I have no homework and I sit at home for hours doing nothing productive. CAS would also help me here.</p>

4

<p>Yes you have rare moments when you don’t have work, I can affirm that. often times it’s not that it’s really hard, it will still be difficult but except for certain classes you have a consistent amount of difficulty. You do, however, have lots of work that is time consuming and CAS does force you to take the initiative to go out and help if you didn’t want to before hand. And continue to work on spanish, good job! And I knew how you feel about being bored in school, makes the days go quite long. :D</p>