Can someone help explain the IB math pathways at W-L?
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Anonymous
| DC is a freshman at W-L and is planning on doing full IB. Is currently in A2/Trig Intensified and is struggling (B-/C+ struggling, not failing). What might the next 3 years look like? New to IB (older sibling was not IB) and not finding easy to understand info on the math pathways options from here. The names of the IB math classes aren’t familiar to me so I can’t tell which is more or less advanced. I also find the mix one year and two year classes confusing. I dont want DC to land in a class that is too hard or too easy. Help? |
Anonymous
I can't remember the details, but it sounds as though your son was on track to do the equivalent of BC calc junior year. It is definitely possible to slow down a little and do the IB equivalent of AB calc junior year instead; I'm not sure what 10th grade math would be for that. |
Anonymous
| Thanks - yes, trying to slow down. There is no need to take the equivalent of BC junior year, especially if struggling now. I don’t want to have him stay on the fast path by accident. |
Anonymous
| I would talk to his counselor at school to find out exactly what his options are. My DDs counselor has been very helpful. |
Anonymous
| Did you (parent) reach out to counselor, or did the student? My son had his meeting with his counselor before he was ready for it (he was once of the first scheduled) so he didn’t really ask the right questions. |
Anonymous
| With that low a grade in math, I’d jump off the path and get some math tutoring for a more solid foundation. |
Anonymous
| My freshman is in Alg 2 this year and my junior took it last year (intensified). For both of them it has been the most challenging math of the pathway. Tutoring helped them both immensely. For both it has been their only and first B. |
Anonymous
| My now-senior full IB student at W-L took Alg. 2/Trig as a freshman, then Dual Enrollment Pre-Calc as a sophomore, then AP Calc AB as a junior, and is now in the 1 year IB Math Studies class. |
Anonymous
So is that the partial IB option? |
Anonymous
Oh wait - you do say “full IB”. I didn’t realize DE & AP was an option for IB… |
Anonymous
| My Kid, a junior is taking IB Math SL, it is a two year course. I think the first year is equivalent to pre calc and second year is calc. There is also IB Math HL, I believe is more advanced. IB math is hard, many kids have dropped out after first semester. My kids class is down to like 10 students. |
Anonymous
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DD is a junior and taking Calculus BC as an full IB student. She took SL Math last year and Algebra 2/Trig her freshman year. She did well with Algebra 2, but she was lucky to have it 3rd period, which means they met everyday and had a shorter class.
She is struggling this year both because Calculus BC is hard and because full IB = TONS of work. And something to have on your radar: she did not get all of her first choice classes. So even though she tried to even out her schedule with some easier classes, she did not get them. Her schedule is a monster this year. |
Anonymous
| Thanks PP - good to know! Which are the most monstrous of the IB classes? Flying a bit blind as he rolls into this… |
Anonymous
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My DD also really struggled in the intensified Alg 2 in 9th grade. Talk to your counselor, they were very helpful and DD moved to regular Alg 2 for the rest of the year. She still went on to take the DE Pre-Calc class in 10th and now in Calc AB as a junior. I'm not clear on the IB math paths but I know, however, that when my DS took AP Calc BC in 12th grade he said there were also IB students in the class. So, it's essentially the same class at that level just shows up differently on the transcript. You could talk with the IB coordinator to understand the paths.
Watching my kids go through the higher math classes, I've definitely come around to a slower path for math is probably better. DD ended up OK in DE Pre-Calc (with a tutor) and we were proactive about setting up a tutor to help with Calc AB. In retrospect, especially with the challenges of covid, she probably would have been better off doing "Algebra 3" in 10th (the all DL year), which would have given her a more solid foundation before the pre-calculus class and she'd still get to calculus by 12th. |
Anonymous
As someone else mentioned, it's not that IB kids are taking AP classes, it's that there are IB classes that translate to AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC, and the classes are taught to a mix of students. IB students are given the option of paying to take the AP exam (APS will pay for either the AP or the IB exam, but not both) in case they go to a college that doesn't accept IB credits. Did that make sense? |