<p>Mom2Mom, at our house, AP Bio is one of the exams S2 was VERY happy he took – he got a 4 on the IB (noone does very well on the IB Bio exam from his school), but a 5 on the AP. For him, taking AP Euro was one exam where taking it made no difference – IB score was very strong. </p>
<p>Junior and senior years we sat down together and figured out which AP exams were more likely to hedge his bets when compared with his IB scores. He took SL Math Studies because he had already taken AB Calc and AP Stat. It maximized his IB points for math and he got AP credit/placement for the calc/stat. He is not a huge math guy, and this approach was one way he tried to manage stress. (Ditto the honors physics vs. AP or IB.) The IB folks at his school recommended the kids take AP Lit vs. AP Lang/Comp. A 4 on the AP Lit got the same amount of college credit as a 6 or 7 on HL English. S had a 5 on HL English and a 4 on AP Lit, which was the same amount of credit as a 5 on AP Lang/Comp, so he didn’t take Lang/Comp. Colleges don’t give credit for SL Econ, so he took the APs. He took the Spanish AP to hedge on Spanish SL – he took both junior year and wasn’t taking Spanish senior year, so he wanted to be sure he had credit/placement after five years of taking it. </p>
<p>Yes, we had a spreadsheet for all of this. 
While he wound up taking a lot of APs, at least half were to 1) make sure he had placement/credit options for Standard Level exams, for which colleges seldom grant credit, and 2) make sure he had scores on either AP or IB that would get him credit/placement. If college were more flexible about accepting IB exam scores, a lot of these gymnastics would become unnecessary. </p>
<p>In addition, a number of the classes S took were cross-listed as AP/IB so there would be enough students to fill the course. The school had a hard time filling some AP classes without IB students, and so combining gave everyone in the school more opportunities and choices for advanced coursework. The teachers taught both curricula, which increased the kids’ workload because there was not always full overlap. ETA: S’s IB program was also a full diploma or bust scenario. If you left the program, it was back to your local HS.</p>