Reply to NOVA Stats for spring '17 UVA, W & M & Tech acceptances (or not)

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Reply to "NOVA Stats for spring '17 UVA, W & M & Tech acceptances (or not)"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That's an ignorant statement.  IB is a complete curriculum as compared to AP which is a collection of classes and exams.  In addition to the Extended Essay, students are required to have 150 hours of CAS activities (creativity, activity and service) which generally force a student to perform in at least one area that they might not if left to their own preferences.  There is also the Theory of Knowledge course (TOK) and a requirement for 5 yrs of language.  IB courses are writing intensive.  You note that the exams are significantly more intensive (two (SL) or three (HL) papers plus the internal assessment (externally moderated).  IB exams and essays are graded externally and the comparative group is the approximately 145,000 students worldwide who take the exams annually.  These grades are forced to an approximately normal distribution (see pg 8 of the document referenced below).

See this document for the IB Statistical Survey from last spring  www.ibo.org/contentassets/.../dp-statistical-bulletin-may-2016-en.pdf

[/quote]

150 hours of activities over 2 years averages out to under 13 minutes a day on activities.  I am quite confident that students aiming for competitive colleges easily meet this requirement regardless of the IB diploma requirement.  AP courses at the schools I have worked at are plenty writing intensive (in my experience equal to or slightly more so than IB classes, but every school and teacher is different).   AP foreign languages also require 4-5 years of study.  (And students can take an IB ab initio foreign language exam with less than 5 years of study, so the IB diploma does not technically require 5 years of language.)  IB exams generally take more hours to complete, no doubt about that, but time does not equal intensity.  Compare Math SL and Calc AB for a particularly pronounced difference.

Over 2.5 million students take AP exams, and the score distribution varies by subject (see https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2016/Student-Score-Distributions-2016.pdf).  An end of course assessment graded externally is the most obvious similarity between the two programs.[/quote]

Sorry to beat the horse... but I was under the impression that if my rising 8th grader didn't take a foreign lang. in 8th grade she would be out of luck to obtain a full IB diploma.  Are you saying that isn't the case?  FWIW, my rising 8th grader has no idea what IB is and has no interest in taking for. lang. this coming year (despite my advice).  But, I hate to see IB lost as an option if she learns about it in a year's time and wants to pursue it.  There is no discussion about IB planning in our MS at all.  [/quote]

Isn't 8th grade algebra also required for IB?[/quote]

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