I was a pretty bad student starting my freshman year but slowly I raised my grades and now I’m a straight A student.
Would colleges be willing to look past my bad grades early on because of my great grades now with the full IB program?
Of course, doing well from onset is the best and you know that. But colleges are also aware of students in your scenario.* Indeed, some colleges ignore 9th grade marks completely. * For those, you certainly won’t be penalized. As for the others – who is to say? Certainly getting As in a very stiff classload speaks well of you.
I wouldn’t worry about water under the bridge. See what schools ignore freshman grades and apply to a mix regardless. Good luck
If you are truly a consistent straight-A student now, you should be fine.
In the interest of complete fairness, you should also be aware that in a tie between you and someone else who always had straight-As, I hope you understand who it would go to and why.