RMIB Program Experience

[Anonymous]

DD is debating between CAP and RMIB. Currently goes to Eastern and is unsure of workload and amount of stress. What time do your kids go to bed on an average school night? Which classes are the most challenging? What's the deal with AAF? Is it a replacement for Alg 2? Is the program noticeably more individually focused than Eastern? (CAP presented its program as project-based with events such as Cap Congress, CAP POTUS Election, and studying the 2020 election.) Is the environment very competitive? What about the gen pop? How does the workload compare to Eastern's? How does placement testing for Chinese work out? What electives are available in 9th grade?

[Anonymous]

RMIB is a pressure cooker. Often you'll hear college will be a breeze after this experience...

[Anonymous]

CAP has some group projects, though not a ton. There is a fair amount of homework especially if writing isn't your strength. Any kid from the Eastern magnet will be fine. Your freshman and sophomore year are fairly booked, but things open up in 11th and 12th. You get two electives outside of CAP, usually foreign language and PE/health/tech requirement. CAP electives will cover your arts requirements. My CAP kid, a junior, goes to bed by 10 p.m. most nights and does a varsity sport but no other major extracurriculars.

[Anonymous]

From my CAP kid: "OMG do not do Richard Montgomery if you have any concerns about workload and stress! RM is like CAP and Blair magnet combined."
The kids who went to RM, I'm told, really wanted the most rigorous program and thought magnet was their second choice. And CAP their third.

[Anonymous]

For our kids it was the best HS education possible. Incrediblely difficult and stressful. My kids would say college is nothing compared to RMIB. But they would do it again. Best 4 years of school... but it’s not for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:RMIB is a pressure cooker. Often you'll hear college will be a breeze after this experience...

Pressure cooker for some, perfect fit for others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From my CAP kid: "OMG do not do Richard Montgomery if you have any concerns about workload and stress! RM is like CAP and Blair magnet combined."
The kids who went to RM, I'm told, really wanted the most rigorous program and thought magnet was their second choice. And CAP their third.

I suspect PP’s daughter maybe correct.

[Anonymous]

Lack of sleep is really hard to deal with. Poor kids look like zombies.

[Anonymous]

"the principal has mixed world language classes. IB Spanish 5 students are now in the same class as AP Spanish students and regular 5 students, although they have different rosters based on the course. Students taking different courses also take different assessments, even while in the same class. The summer homework quiz was different for IB and regular students, even in the same class. Everyone in the class is expected to prepare for both IB and AP Spanish exams, although some have no intention of taking the other. The same goes for French.

Current IB sophomores are also now in Honors Algebra 2, instead of IB AAF. AAF is almost essential to success in IB Precalculus; many freshmen in IB Precalculus struggle because they have not gotten the added support from taking AAF.

IB students are very upset with these changes. If this keeps going farther and all classes become integrated, many will choose to return to their home schools. After all, there's no point in taking hour long bus rides and having hours upon hours of homework if they're getting the same education that they would get at a school that's fifteen minutes away. "

I saw this in an older post about RMIB. Is this still true?

[Anonymous]

"From my CAP kid: "OMG do not do Richard Montgomery if you have any concerns about workload and stress! RM is like CAP and Blair magnet combined."
The kids who went to RM, I'm told, really wanted the most rigorous program and thought magnet was their second choice. And CAP their third."

This is just crazy talk. It's not like the SMAC students don't take lots of AP to complement the SMAC classes.

Similarly, the IB science and math classes don't hold a candle to SMAC classes.

That doesn't mean both RMIB and SMAC aren't lots of work, just that they are pretty much comparable.

For both programs stress comes and goes over the years.

The big difference in terms of stress is that SMAC students can pick and chose among electives they really want 2nd semester of their senior year after college apps are over.

This can be really stressful for some students depending on what they pick or how large of a program they choose to write for Software Design but it doesn't have to be.

RMIB students who finish their diploma, on the other hand, spend that semester finishing their extended essay and studying for the majority of their IB tests.

This can be really stressful for some who want to max out their IB test scores or who get a bad case of senioritis, but again it doesn't have to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"the principal has mixed world language classes. IB Spanish 5 students are now in the same class as AP Spanish students and regular 5 students, although they have different rosters based on the course. Students taking different courses also take different assessments, even while in the same class. The summer homework quiz was different for IB and regular students, even in the same class. Everyone in the class is expected to prepare for both IB and AP Spanish exams, although some have no intention of taking the other. The same goes for French.

Current IB sophomores are also now in Honors Algebra 2, instead of IB AAF. AAF is almost essential to success in IB Precalculus; many freshmen in IB Precalculus struggle because they have not gotten the added support from taking AAF.

IB students are very upset with these changes. If this keeps going farther and all classes become integrated, many will choose to return to their home schools. After all, there's no point in taking hour long bus rides and having hours upon hours of homework if they're getting the same education that they would get at a school that's fifteen minutes away. "

I saw this in an older post about RMIB. Is this still true?

NP. I don't know how old this older post was, but I too would love to hear some feedback from recent RMIB parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"the principal has mixed world language classes. IB Spanish 5 students are now in the same class as AP Spanish students and regular 5 students, although they have different rosters based on the course. Students taking different courses also take different assessments, even while in the same class. The summer homework quiz was different for IB and regular students, even in the same class. Everyone in the class is expected to prepare for both IB and AP Spanish exams, although some have no intention of taking the other. The same goes for French.

Current IB sophomores are also now in Honors Algebra 2, instead of IB AAF. AAF is almost essential to success in IB Precalculus; many freshmen in IB Precalculus struggle because they have not gotten the added support from taking AAF.

IB students are very upset with these changes. If this keeps going farther and all classes become integrated, many will choose to return to their home schools. After all, there's no point in taking hour long bus rides and having hours upon hours of homework if they're getting the same education that they would get at a school that's fifteen minutes away. "

I saw this in an older post about RMIB. Is this still true?

NP. I don't know how old this older post was, but I too would love to hear some feedback from recent RMIB parents.

The math piece sounds like a personal gripe from about 3 years ago when there were a handful of kids (8? 10?) who had not taken geometry in middle school, so they had a completely different math pathway leading to a specific IB course for their diploma. The current bulk of kids who take geometry in middle school take AAF in 9th and IB Precalc in 10th. However, you really should go to the meeting to find out the pathways for the entering 9th graders, because IBO just completed their 5 yr curriculum update for math, and I don't know if any of those changes affect the pathways.

The upper level language classes are all combined, but at least 2/3 are IB. The content for level 5, 6, 7 in IB/AP/Regular is the same, but the writing demands are different. My kid doesn't see any issue with the combined sections.

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

are you saying level 5 student will be in the same class as level 6 and a level 7 student?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:are you saying level 5 student will be in the same class as level 6 and a level 7 student?

No. An AP level 5 is in the same class as an IB level 5, but certain tasks are differentiated for the slight differences between the course requirements.