Reply to If AP is more popular/better/more flexible, why does FCPS put IB in all the lower-ranked schools?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "If AP is more popular/better/more flexible, why does FCPS put IB in all the lower-ranked schools?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]In regards to history courses:
You can sit and take the AP exam without taking the AP class and earn a 5.  You can't sit for an IB exam without taking the class.  In history, especially American history, the AP exam is very dependent on memorizing facts.  The exam consists of a DBQ (document based question where kids write an essay based on a set of questions), a free response essay and multiple choice.

The IB exam for history is looking students to be well versed in the content, but also be able to analyze, evaluate, and make judgements on their own.  Typically, if a kid is on a higher level track in IB for history, they take a course entitled "History of the Americas" junior year, and "Topics" senior year (which is more modern world history outside of the Americas).  Students study subjects in depth (much like college) versus doing a survey style course where they are trying to learn everything (which is more AP style).  In the Americas course for example, they may just study the American Civil War, the Great Depression in the U.S. and Canada, and the Cold War in the Americas (looking at the U.S., but also Cuba, and Guatemala as case studies).  In Topics, they could focus on the Interwar years (between WWI and II), Authoritarian and Single Party States and study several regimes in depth (for example they may spend 8 weeks learning only about Stalin or Hitler or Mao or so on....).  Students take an exam after taking both courses and their overall exam score is dependent on many things: an Internal Assessment (a research paper they turn in), a "paper 1" which is similar to an AP DBQ essay, a "paper 2" they write two essays in 90 minutes on World History topics, and a "paper 3" where they write three essays on Americas topics. Examples of prompts: http://www.ibo.org/contentassets/7f6c7681e0b34fc8b0541c1229c7521d/gp3_historyhlsl2.pdf
and here are examples of AP prompts: http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap14_frq_US_History.pdf
IB does not have a multiple choice section on the exam and the kids take it over several days.

AP is not for everyone.  IB is not for everyone.  I was trained in both (AP Euro and World and IB) and see value in both, but IMHO, I believe that IB's depth and method are better for students who plan on studying in depth anything in the social sciences or humanities.  It will definitely prepare any student analytical reading and writing skills.  On the other hand, if your kid is going to be an engineer and doesn't particularly like history, but regular history is too easy for them and they are just trying to get the credit for college, AP may be a better option.

Coincidentally, AP is changing the way they do things and it seems to me they are changing to be more like IB.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics