Reply to IB: Part 1 Rant; Part 2 Cliff Notes

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[quote=Anonymous]Long but this might be useful for others trying to make heads or tails of the convoluted IB system.

First my rant: 
It's taken me multiple info night sessions over two years at my kid's school, plus reading online & working to decipher the school course catalog a fair amount, and only this evening do I finally feel like I think I have a handle on it. I frankly have no clue how parents who are not fluent in English and/or are much more strapped for time than I am as a cushy office worker, manage to decipher what their kid needs to do to make IB work and the various nuances to the program. I suppose they just trust that the kid is getting good advice from their counselor and cross their fingers? It's a ridiculously complex program and really hard to actually understand. And I THINK i'm almost there but who knows... :)

OK rant done. 
Part 2: My Understanding now after all that, based on what I've heard. Would really welcome any active IB parents to chime in and let me know if i'm STILL not getting certain parts.

We're at Robinson FWIW since I think some schools do at least TOK differently so below may vary for other HSs...

- TOK elective is only junior year. Yes, there is time in this class to work on the extended essay; some amount of crunch time outside of class will also be needed though toward the end of preparing the draft. They do other philosophy and how/why type discussion topics otherwise. Beyond the extended essay there is also a TOK essay that is P/F (so lower stakes) and done sr year mainly outside of school.

- 3 HLs required and 3 SL courses required (some SLs are just 1 year and they count too; virtually all HLs are multi-year commitments)

- Extended Essay: this gets submitted as a draft in spring jr year; edits come back in June; final version due just after school starts in the Fall.

- CAS: This consists of multiple 100 word (so a paragraph) "reflections" on ECs a typical IB kid would regularly be doing as part of their regular HS activities. The activities themselves don't need to be on top of what a kid does; they most likely can be gleaned from what a kid is doing already and then you just have to write these paragraphs about those activities throughout the two years. Sounds kind of like busy work but not a big extra lift.

- Lang if started in 7th: For 10th you do Lang 4, then IB1, then IB2SL or IB2HL

- Math if did Alg 2 in 9th: Kids heading into STEM majors need to go the IB Analysis route; kids heading the non-STEM route can do IB applications. The Applications route has an AP Stats "break" for jr year if you're on that Alg 2 in 9th route then picks up again Sr. year when you pick if you're doing the part 2 at a HL or SL. Ending with SL is most common for Applications.

- There is no English SL option ( :cry: )

- You only need to take 1 IB elective - it's either a 1 year SL course sr year or it's a 2 year course that run over both jr & sr years. The HL Elective can count as one of the HLs you need.

- Kids do NOT need to take a Physics class to graduate (since they have to do Bio in 9th and Chem in 10th I had it in my head Physics was also required for 11th or 12th but apparently no - can be any science)

- Any class that's a two-year duration - the IB test gets taken sr year; for SL courses that are only 1 year - the test gets taken in the year the class is taken (even if that's jr year)

- At Robinson, AP Calc, AP Stats and AP Gov are the only APs offered.

- To be marked as "most rigorous" for college applications you must be a diploma candidate (again, this may be Robinson-specific)

- Not sure if this is true but supposedly: unless you're headed for a STEM major, there's no "must do's" within the IB requirement tracks for Diploma candidates to be positioned well for selective colleges (i.e. not frowned on to do an elective or language as HL instead of math/science HLs). 
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