IB Programs

Marian
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:02:44 +0000

What katliamom says is almost identical to what I would say about IB as I know it, even though we apparently come from different parts of the country. (I’m from an area where it would be inconceivable to describe a group of kids by their ACT average; almost everyone here takes the SAT instead.)

IB is TOUGH. It is tough even for top kids. More than one-third of the students in my daughter’s IB class were National Merit Semifinalists – and they STILL found it tough. If implemented well, IB is an excellent program that prepares students very well for college, but it is not for everyone – and not even for everyone who has the ability to succeed in it.

Students with narrowly focused interests may be frustrated by the limited ability to specialize that IB offers. They would be happier in a school that offers a variety of APs, from which they can pick and choose at will. (My son, who refused to even consider IB, was this type of student.) Students with highly time-consuming extracurricular activities may be frustrated by the sheer amount of work that IB requires. Depending on how IB is implemented in a particular school, it may also be a poor choice for a student who wants to be able to do advanced work in multiple sciences (but this differs from program to program). Also, depending on how IB is implemented in a particular school, it may hamper rather than helping students who need to earn good scores on SAT Subject Tests in order to qualify for particular colleges.

I like IB. I especially liked the well-run, well-taught, 20-year-old and highly successful IB program at my daughter’s high school. (100% of the students in her class who stayed in the program long enough to attempt the IB tests earned the IB diploma.) It was a good experience for my daughter and for many of her classmates (though not all). But if I were choosing between implementing AP and IB in a high school, I would choose AP. It is more flexible and allows a greater variety of students to participate. It’s also easier to implement. A school can start with a few APs and then add more as the program develops. IB is an all-or-nothing proposition.

AP is also the better route to getting college credit and advanced placement in college. When IB students get credit/placement, it is often on the basis of AP exams that they took after completing IB courses. (And taking those extra exams is expensive and annoying.) My daughter, who completed the full IB diploma with scores of 6 or 7 (7 is the highest possible) on all six of her IB exams, got ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIT or advanced placement from her college on the basis of those test scores. However, she also took 8 AP tests (some based on IB courses, others on AP courses that she had taken outside the IB program). She got scores of 4 or 5 (5 is the highest possible) on all of those exams, and received a total of 30 college credits, with either advanced placement or exemptions from requirements in all of the subjects except one (for which she also had to take the college’s placement exam). Your results may vary.