<p>Kaeroze,</p>
<p>As shown by my other posts I like flexibility. With AP students can take an AP class when its appropriate for them. With the IB diploma student they must do the more advance HL classes during their senior year. IB Diploma students can only take the HL exams during their senior year. My issue with this is that all students are not created equal. There are many students ready to do advance work earlier than the senior year. I have seen students do AP work from the 8th grade to the 12th grade.</p>
<p>One obvious example of the advantage of doing things earlier is calculus and physics because physics is calculus. Because my son finish Calculus AB in the 9th grade he is doing very well in his honor physics class. My son’s physics teacher noted in my son’s grade report that my son is doing very well because of his excellent math abilities.</p>
<p>AP students can also be very well rounded. My son will finish 8 AP exams by his junior year. The exams he will finish by his junior year are</p>
<p>Calculus AB
Calculus BC
The two Physics C exams
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
computer Science
French</p>
<p>Also finishing advance course work by the junior year is important for apply to college. While AP/IB exams are not required for most colleges it is important for highly selective schools like the Ivy league schools. The highly selective schools will take AP/IB exams into consideration. The problem with IB Diploma students is that their advance course work and exams is done in the senior year. The highly selective schools will be unable to see the students performance on the IB HL exams.</p>
<p>If my son gets at least all 4s on his 8 AP exams he will be consider an AP national scholar. Less than 1% of all AP students are AP national scholars. AP national scholar is considered an academic honor in college common application.</p>