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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone write in more simple terms what the IB program looks like. I have looked at the website, and while it looks very interesting, what does it actually look like in the 4 years your kid is in HS?

My DC is in AP and this has been our experience:

-AP is pretty much pick-and-choose which classes you want, as long as you meet the core requirements: English, Math, Science, Social Studies. 
-There are AP languages- Spanish, Latin etc. but that's not a requirement as long as you finish your 2,3 or 4 years that's in your track. 
-This year, our school said they are encouraging kids to take at least one AP class prior to graduation. Some kids take more than 5 by the time their graduate. 
- There are no requirements for volunteer work (did I see this on the IB site?) 
- There are AP electives- like Music Theory. 
- In our school, there are about 25 AP courses to choose from. There are no required sequential courses except for AP Capstone but you are also not required to take both courses. 
- In our school, kids were not allowed to start AP until 10th grade. 
- From what I gather here at DCUM and in DC's cohort here's the number of APs taken per grade:

9th- none
10th- 1 or 2
11th- 2 to 4
12th- 3+

If anyone knows more, please feel free to add. 
Would appreciate hearing from IB folks. Thank you!

[/quote]
Where is this?

In MCPS, you can take AP classes in 9th grade -  AP Computer Science Principles and AP Gov.

My older DC is in IB.  Unless your schools has the MYP program, IB classes don't start until 11th grade or so, except for IB precalc in 10th.

My DC is in a school that has MYP, so their 9th/10th grade classes are geared to set them up for the IB Diploma program starting in 11th.

IB classes:
Language lit
Foreign Language - DC took both the AP and IB exams in this foreign language in the same year.  
Social studies - history, econ, etc.
Science - bio, chem, physics 
math -most of the kids take precalc by 10th grade. DC took AP BC Calc in 11th grade, and now taking MVC and HL math senior year
arts & electives

There are SL (standard level) courses and HL (higher level) courses.  The higher level courses are a 2 yr course, and you must take a minimum of 3 HL courses.  DC's HL are STEM related.
Each class has an internal assessment research paper, and one additional course that must be taken is the "Theory of Knowledge" which also requires a research paper.   As stated, IB program is a lot of writing.

For the Diploma,  you take 6 IB exams:

Student must earn at least 24 total points.  No exam may be below a score of 2 ( scoring is 1 to 7).  There is a minimum point you can score for HL and for SL.
(45 total pts. possible – 42 from IB subjects + 3 from TOK/EE)

My DC has taken both AP and IB classes and exams. DC self studied for one or two of the AP exams .  Lots of IB students do that.

From what I hear, AP is mostly about breadth, but IB is mostly about depth.

For example, in DC's IB World History class, they picked like three topics and delved into it quite deeply.  Some of the stuff DC was learning I didn't realize.   Whereas in AP history, you just go over the events and dates -- pretty boring stuff, really.  DC really hated history (including AP US History) until IB history when they really delved into some of these topics. Then, it got really interesting.

So, really, it depends on your kid.  [/quote]

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