College Discussion - View Single Post - AP vs. IB

datdo · 03-22-2008, 09:01 AM

as a potential engineering student I got to say that engineers or people extremely dominant in a math/science shouldn't do the full IB diploma. My school offers both but I decided to go the AP route cuz I suck at writing. The problem with IB for these groups of people is its inflexibility. The science wiz won't be able to take all the science courses that he wants and will be forced to compromise in order to the diploma. Also the math courses are not truly stimulating.

I'm taking IB math HL now and my teacher hates the course. Theres no depth to the course. We cover each days topic usually in 30 mins or less then talk about how our day has gone or do math puzzles. The one positive thing is that you learn some new techniques to classic SAT problems.

The course that I heard was interesting though was IB Computer Science. AP mostly dealt with actual coding programs while IB talked about the whole business cycle while programming was just a portion.

Basically don't do the full diploma but some individual courses have their merits.

03-22-2008, 09:01 AM	#50
datdo Junior Member Join Date: May 2007 Threads: 3 Posts: 50	For math/science people as a potential engineering student I got to say that engineers or people extremely dominant in a math/science shouldn't do the full IB diploma. My school offers both but I decided to go the AP route cuz I suck at writing. The problem with IB for these groups of people is its inflexibility. The science wiz won't be able to take all the science courses that he wants and will be forced to compromise in order to the diploma. Also the math courses are not truly stimulating. I'm taking IB math HL now and my teacher hates the course. Theres no depth to the course. We cover each days topic usually in 30 mins or less then talk about how our day has gone or do math puzzles. The one positive thing is that you learn some new techniques to classic SAT problems. The course that I heard was interesting though was IB Computer Science. AP mostly dealt with actual coding programs while IB talked about the whole business cycle while programming was just a portion. Basically don't do the full diploma but some individual courses have their merits.