Well I can kinda answer both of those. At my school the foreign languages if you take AP Spanish 4 it equals IB Spanish 3 or any other languages. Plus you work more on fluency and conversational Spanish in the last year or at least at my school. Also AP English is counted equal to IB English 4 but thats it. All the other subjects are above AP at my school since you learn way more in depth and is considered MUCH harder. You get so much work and all of it is doable, but with everything else it just makes it difficult. @omgfuture, TIME MANAGEMENT IS KEY!!! I can not over emphasize it more. I'm am a huge procrastinator and would estimate how long my hw would take so if it took 1 hour I would start at 8 or something. I'm in IB so I can tell you I had to force myself to get organized. I have against whiteboard with every assignment due in a week, any projects, and things to study like the SAT and PSAT. I barely watch tv or go on the Internet until AFTER I finish everything. Start all things almost right after you get home. Have a planner that you bring to school to write everything down(It really REALLY HELPS!). Plus balance helps. You are already involved with IB, but you usually get even more involved with EC. I know I have. Talk to your counselers and CAS advisor during IB if you have ANY questions regarding what is needed. Do homework during the weekend and make Coffee and Sleep your bestfriends when you can. Since some colleges won't accept SL Test grades for placement in college I'm planning to take the SAT Subject tests over them. Also writing is key in IB so you will be proficient in essay writing and pretty fast too. IB makes me think more so then my previous classes(Took 2 AP my sophomore year, way different). But if you get in IB make sure you want to stay in it, many of what people would consider the really smart kids are even getting out. It requires hardwork, intelligence, time-management, involvement, and either late nights or early mornings.
I do know from past graduates that still keep in contact that their first year was pretty easy. I hope I answered some questions.
