[tHe_aRisTocRatiC_aSSaSSiN]

chriskong37 -

HL physics and SL bio?? That's weird; it's the other way around for most people. lol.
1) You can always expect HL to be harder than SL.
2) If I'm understanding your question correctly, I would say that your overall IB grades for each course (no matter if it's HL or SL) are treated equally. Overall being the key word..this includes Internal Assessments, your teacher's estimation of the grade you will receive, and the External Assessment (which is the exam).
3) The other three marks are awarded if you do well in TOK and Extended Essay (which are sort of like combined entities). I'm pretty sure CAS is simply a requirement.

[iamphuwhatareyou]

yup, IB program = bunch of bsing for two years
but yes u should take it if u want a better chance at going to a better college... cause every college checks whether u are taking the hardest classes provided at ur school, whether it's out of state or not

[Chimon]

Read/take the following at your own discretion (critical thinking should be applied). The following points come from someone who is currently in 1st year uni.

Adv. of IB:
- "May" learn university level material (depends on the uni. that you are applying to since their course syllabus may vary)
- Can earn "transfer credits" for some universities (I can provide an example if you don't understand it)
- Useful if you are planning to attend a university outside of the country you are currently studying in (ie. Studying in Canada -> Wanting to attend Uni. in the States/Europe/Asia)
- If you have good (hard-working) friends that are also taking IB, it could be a real chance for you guys to..."bond" in a way (not really the right word). My IB class was made up of about 30 people and we were really close by the end of our exams. The friends that also took IB with me were supportive and we were able to get to know each other much more through IB (sounds corny but it happens).

Disadv. of IB:
- Time consuming (esp. with CAS)
- (Related to above pt.) While the material may not be extremely difficult (exceptions to some courses), there is ALOT of material to cover.
- The only things that matter in IB are the internal assessments, final exams, and the EE/ToK/CAS ("No pressure"). May be a good thing for some...you can "slack off" during the year, but you had better really get your act into gear come the final exams.

Some general advice:
- DON'T leave your internal assessments/EE/ToK to the last minute (esp. the EE and ToK essays).
- Definitely do some past exams if you can get them.
- If it is offered, buy the IB Study Guides for the courses (Bio. especially is a huge help, Chem. may be for some). (Others may disagree on this?)
- For your CAS hours, do something you enjoy (no, seriously)
- There is an option to do 4 HL courses and 2 SL courses instead of the 3 HL 3 SL, but it's highly not recommended unless you consistently work hard.
- You will see a drop in your marks when you first do IB related assignments, but it's normal (this is the general trend for students entering into IB from regular courses).

Some general/specific course advice (on courses I took):

HL:
Biology - Fairly easy course if you are good at memorization. There is alot of material, but most of it is straightforward. [Difficulty 6-8/10]

Chemistry - First of all, good luck. This is a very difficult course. You can try to get the study guide, but it may/may not be of use (it was to an extent for me personally). You should do really well on Paper 3 of the exam - it's mostly memorization on a topic that you should have covered in class. If you manage to pull of a 6-7 in this course, you should be well prepared for first-year Chem in university. [Difficulty: 8-10/10]

History - Memorization of events is a must, but really specific dates (at least know the year(s) of an event). If you can tell of the specific year + month + day, then that's a definite plus (don't get it wrong of course). Know what is covered on the test...
# Part A is always on Stalin, Mao, or the Cold War (choose one) and consists of a document analysis, a picture interpretation, and short answers (paragraphs). Write on the area you feel most comfortable in.
# Part B & C are essays. Write on the areas that you have been taught in class! Don't try to be smart and write on something you might think is easy but haven't learned in depth (unless it happens to be a topic in your EE or History IA, but it's unlikely).
[Difficulty: 7-8/10]

English - Don't leave your IAs to the last minute. Practice for your oral commentary even if you don't know the exact text that will be given (usu. the teacher assigns several text that you should focus on and selects a random one on the day of the commentary). The final exams require you to analyze an unseen passage of text, as well as write an essay on a set topic about at least two of the literary works studied in class (if you can fit in a third, by all means do so). [Difficulty: 7-8/10]

SL:
Math - First part is pre-calc and mostly derivatives. Do get a firm understanding of derivatives; if you don't understand a concept, ask for clarification or do lots of practice problems. The main difficult part is usually integration, so be sure you know how to do questions regarding them. You will see difficult questions on the exam, but don't fret. There will be Grade 12-level math questions as well (Grade 12 in terms of B.C.) I can't stress this enough: DO LOTS OF QUESTIONS! [Difficulty: 7-9/10]

French - First off, I didn't exactly enjoy this course (partly because I didn't really want to learn it [no offense to people who like it], and partly because of my teacher). Overall, it shouldn't be an extremely difficult course save the final exam. I can't really remember what the exam was like though. It is important that you do practice as much as you can. [Difficulty: 7-9/10]

The difficulty scores are really subjective...it's purely based on what I thought of the course and from the results/opinions of my classmates. Don't strictly adhere to them and by all means choose courses that you would enjoy taking. For any course, if you can find past exams to practice, do so!

Finally, good luck to you IBers, and don't stress yourself out. It's supposed to be a good learning experience. Don't feel bad if your grades drop (there are exceptions)...and if you must know, I got a 33/45 and currently attending UofToronto .

(I apologize that it's realllllly long, but I thought I'd do some good by posting my experiences with IB).

[smileangie3]

ewwww I'm a junior in IB right now and I made the worst mistake by taking 4 HLs. Haha ok, so that's a lie, I really love my classes. It just gets frustrating at times.

I'm taking:

HL Math
HL English
HL Bio
HL History
SL Philosophy
SL Spanish (4)

and then instead of being a smart girl and taking my first period off, I take speech and debate.....wow this is going to be one hell of a year!!

[Sam Sik]

Has anyone here taken IB Business? How is it? Does completing the program give you any extra credits?

[ynxsarang]

i'm in 1st year myp right now.
not too bad, tons of projects though.

semester 1:
grade 9/10 science
french
phys. ed.
grade 10 canadian history

semester 2:
grade 10 math
music
geography
english

[xgoody2shoes15x]

Has anyone here taken IB Business? How is it? Does completing the program give you any extra credits?

im taking ib business right now.
my ib couselor said that for my school, she won't count the business ib test towards our points, but its just extra. we can take it if we want to, but we dont have to cuz its not "important". im just taking the ib test so that i can write it in my college app essay cuz im planning to major in business so yeah.

[Sam Sik]

im taking ib business right now.
my ib couselor said that for my school, she won't count the business ib test towards our points, but its just extra. we can take it if we want to, but we dont have to cuz its not "important". im just taking the ib test so that i can write it in my college app essay cuz im planning to major in business so yeah.

So we don't get any extra credits in a university? IB business is just something for your college app? And may I ask if IB business is a linear (all year course) or a semester course (half year)

[xgoody2shoes15x]

So we don't get any extra credits in a university? IB business is just something for your college app? And may I ask if IB business is a linear (all year course) or a semester course (half year)

ummm im not sure if colleges will give credit for it, sorry. and its a year long course

[chriskong37]

chriskong37 -

HL physics and SL bio?? That's weird; it's the other way around for most people. lol.
1) You can always expect HL to be harder than SL.
2) If I'm understanding your question correctly, I would say that your overall IB grades for each course (no matter if it's HL or SL) are treated equally. Overall being the key word..this includes Internal Assessments, your teacher's estimation of the grade you will receive, and the External Assessment (which is the exam).
3) The other three marks are awarded if you do well in TOK and Extended Essay (which are sort of like combined entities). I'm pretty sure CAS is simply a requirement.

haha... yer, when i was looking over the topic selection a few weeks ago i realized that it would be better off doing hl bio and sl physics - as bio is more leaning towards memorization.

re q2: mhmm! you got the point of my questions. i was afraid that some subjects were given more points over others. as is the case with some senior schooling systems.

3: so the 3 extra make up points are just for TOK and EE then? CAS does not get any points?

[chriskong37]

double post... my bad

[Lilazinprincess]

I definitely agree with IB being BSing for 2 yrs! haha but IBers do BS pretty damn well!

Hmm. . .classes I took.

HL
Social Anthropology (Awesome course. I highly recommend this. The SL and HL both)
English
History (ugh. . .was sick of learning about the events leading to WWI and WWII. Kagan anyone? It was hell)

ToK (awesome. You can relate anything to this class. Youtube was our savior. It was "choose a Youtube vid and relate how it relates to ToK. Pure BS genius". Great class. Except for the paper. . .mine was worth 50% of my class grade. It taught me to think in a very different way. )

SL:
Social Anthropology
Biology (avoided taking the class as long as possible.)
Chemistry (one word : HELL. I took 2 yrs of Chem and 2 yrs of Bio in HS. HELL. I can do titration labs in a flash! )
Math Methods (awesome. It was like the potpourri of mathematics)
Psychology (totally regreted taking this class instead of IB Art SL. The teacher was interesting (only she had psychological problems . . .talk about being "in tuned" with the subject).
---------------------------------------------
IB experience:
One thing I learned. You can procrastinate very very well.
At my school, the last two years in HS. Anyone who was in IB seemed to be isolated from the entire school population. You see the same people every single day and in almost every single class. It was the perfect layout for creating drama. We had so much drama. By senior year, our limits for each other were over!
One time, we even act out the "conflict theory" in Soc-Ant!

IAs and the EE: One advice: choose something you really like. It helps a lot. Do well in it. It is the make/break for some people.

I may sound as if I hated IB. Truthfully, even though I was sleep-deprived most of the time, I made a really close group of friends (haha after all the conflicts of course) and matured a lot. The courses taught me to think outside the box. My teachers were the best in the school. They were amazing. One more thing it taught me. I can argue very well. . .

[xofunkyfresh]

For Certificate IB kids (me), do we have to participate in CAS??
Because in my high school we don't, but I was looking at my friend who takes partial in a different school and has to do CAS hours.

[tHe_aRisTocRatiC_aSSaSSiN]

Just wondering, does anyone have a job?? o_o I'm interested in getting one, but I don't want to kill myself with school AND work....plus, I haven't even finished my CAS hours yet....

[LindaDoll]

Just making my first post here. I'm a fellow IB student as well and did not know this thread existed.
Hi everyone, I'm Linda (sounds like I'm at an AA meeting or something) and I am an IB student from Florida.
I am in my third year of high school and I am taking English, psychology, and history for my HLs and for
my SLs, I'm taking Calc, Bio, and Spanish. Right now, I am taking a break from reviewing for my bio exam (oh the joy!).

I may sound as if I hated IB. Truthfully, even though I was sleep-deprived most of the time, I made a really close group of friends (haha after all the conflicts of course) and matured a lot. The courses taught me to think outside the box. My teachers were the best in the school. They were amazing. One more thing it taught me. I can argue very well. . .

After winter break, we got a flood of IB alumnus coming back and visiting out teachers and one student came during our TOK class. My teacher let him talk to us about his experiences with IB and it's basically everything you said. XD Ahhh, I just can't wait until I graduate! =)

Just wondering, does anyone have a job?? o_o I'm interested in getting one, but I don't want to kill myself with school AND work....plus, I haven't even finished my CAS hours yet....

I know a lot of people who have jobs in IB. I don't because I'm a slacker, but its usually the kids who are always on top of things. I plan on finishing out my CAS stuff this year and then getting a job over the summer.

[ms cowie]

o_e
I'm thinking of doing IB, but idk exactly HOW helpful it is. I mean, if I do IB and do ok, is it gonna be better than taking all AP/honors classes and acing those?
Like are colleges looking for IB over regular classes even if I end up doing badly/ok-ish?

[x_terr]

ah, IB! i'm a sophmore now, and so as you all know, after sophmore year is the critical time to decide whether or not to continue. i'm realy thinking of just going back to AP because
-i think i'll get better grades
-CAS hours?!! D:
-extended essay
-our TOK teacher is supposedly really hard and sucks
-i'm not that into history anyway

but will it look bad when i apply to colleges when they see i dropped out after two years? and because i'm taking AP US History this year, i'll be forced into take Pre-AP World History next year. will that look bad as well?

as for all of you-good luck and keep working hard!

[Sam Sik]

o_e
I'm thinking of doing IB, but idk exactly HOW helpful it is. I mean, if I do IB and do ok, is it gonna be better than taking all AP/honors classes and acing those?
Like are colleges looking for IB over regular classes even if I end up doing badly/ok-ish?

Yes it is more beneficial in the end. But that's only if you take use of it. If you slack in IB then you're defeating its purpose.

Apparently my school councilor said:

There once was a girl who did excellent in Gr 12 Regular courses.
There once was a boy (same age) who did "OKAY" in IB courses.

The girl ended up with 95%+ average.
The boy ended up with 75-80% average. These two both ended up going to the same university. The boy managed to continue on University past year 1 but the girl dropped out of year one.

Basically IB just gives you the mindset that you are learning in University. Everything you learn is independent. My chemistry teacher gives me notes and I take them down. But his tests are those notes but expanded. That means I should have done more questions on my own. History if I read more about the certain topic rather then the textbook given, I would do extremely well. etc etc.

[hyunnitea]

I'm an IB Senior and I totally failed my English orals today.

[LindaDoll]

o_e
I'm thinking of doing IB, but idk exactly HOW helpful it is. I mean, if I do IB and do ok, is it gonna be better than taking all AP/honors classes and acing those?
Like are colleges looking for IB over regular classes even if I end up doing badly/ok-ish?

It's super helpful. IB really prepares you for college. Graduates always come back and say how well they did their freshman year of college because IB really helped. I'm not sure how other TOK classes are taught but with my TOK class, the teacher teaches us so many things at one time and it's the most random information, but apparantly that helps the most for college. Overall, in the end it really does help. You learn all about stress, time management, what your limits are when it comes to caffeine tolerance and sleep deprivations, and you (hopefully) learn good study habits for uni.

I'm an IB Senior and I totally failed my English orals today.

Ahh, I bet you did fine wonderfully and you're just freaking out. (:
Was it scary? My teacher was gone for a week because of English orals and I'm terrified for next year.