The Truth About IB

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The Truth About IB

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The hidden perspective of IB.

To many people trying to figure out whether IB or AP is a better choice, let me tell you an option that you will not regret. Please note that this is for the IB Diploma Programme. As a current IB senior student, let me just say half of the stuff the teachers say to try to convince you to join the IB program is a lie. There is not much satisfaction that you can get out of it. I did not know much about the program when I was a sophomore deciding, but after experiencing the program (almost the entire program) and reflecting back, it is just not worth it."

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Before I dive into specifics, an overview on how the IB program is structured will help you out. The IB program or International Baccalaureate program is designed to accommodate a variety of aspects to make you a “well-rounded student”. The program requires you to take 3 Higher Level topics that spans over the 2 years that you are in the IB program and 3 SLs that spans over one year except for your foreign language which spans over 2 years. Each SL is tested at the end of the year you choose to take it, except foreign language. Each HL is tested on your second year in the program. Each test is scaled from 1 to 7, this includes your Internal Assessments and your External Assessments. The External Assessments are the tests you take in May and other various assessments throughout the year. You must receive up to 24 IB test points in order to receive the diploma. You are required to complete an Extended Essay during the summer before your senior year, complete a Theory of Knowledge Essay in the second year you take the class, and complete approximately 150 hours of Creativity, Action, and Service or 10 events. Creativity, Action, and Service or CAS is one of the aspects that IB uses to try to balance out student lives. If the program was not implemented, all IB students would be focused on studying for their exams with the chance they get. Now let’s get to the reasons."

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One of the reasons why it is not worth it is because your Grade Point Average (GPA) will not gain anything in the end. The amount of course loads that you have to take as an IB student is cumbersome. The difficulty of the class is present, but if you cannot get all A’s at the end, then it does not benefit you at all. Some of the IB classes are not weighed to colleges. Standard Level classes or SLs do not receive any additional points to your weighed GPA. That is basically half of your IB classes! Only the Higher Level classes or HLs receive the additional point. The amount of work that you have to do in your Standard Level classes is a lot and not worth the effort because it does not help you in any way. "

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Another reason why IB is not worth it is that in order to receive college credit, you must have 30 IB test points. I know I may have elaborated on some of this before, but repeating it again would not hurt. With IB, each subject test is scaled from 1 to 7. AP is scaled from 1 to 5. For IB, you must receive at least 24 test points out of your 6 tests, 3 from HL and 3 from SL, to receive your diploma. If you accumulate 30 test points out of those 6 tests, you receive college credit. Yes, you receive some college credit when you get the IB diploma, but it is not as much. Also, the acceptance of your colleges is contingent on you receiving your diploma. If you do not receive your diploma, colleges can rescind your admissions. If I knew that from the beginning, I would have not joined the IB program. In addition, not all colleges accept IB credits because the course may be varied. Let me tell you a story on what happened recently with this. When I was a junior, I took one of the hardest SL’s in the school, IB History SL. The teacher rushes through the class because it is a two-year course crammed into one-year. So, by all means, made things difficult. In the end, most of us only got a B because of the speed and the amount of work we need to put into the class. The IAs were terrible and the tests were difficult if you could not 


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memorize every single fact about the topic (Yes, the infamous fill-in-the-blank tests and difficult multiple choice). By the time college applications came around, the University of California system refused to acknowledge that the class met the A-G requirements. In order to make sure that the requirement was met, the school had to rename the class and its certification down to Regular US History. We did all that work and at the end, the grade is no different than a regular US History student. Also, if you do not receive a passing score, a 4, on your HLs, you may be at risk of failing to receive your diploma. You are allowed to fail one HL only and get your diploma. SLs do not matter at all. If the school did not structure the program where we can take AP classes for our HLs, except for English, and some for SLs such as Chemistry and Foreign Language, then we may have not received much credit at the end. "

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In addition, IB requires addition requirements in other to receive your diploma such as completing an Extended Essay or EE and a Theory of Knowledge essay or TOK Essay. You can receive up to 3 additional test points if you receive an excellent score. However, if you fail any of these essays, you do not receive your diploma. This additional requirement is unwarranted because it does not show colleges how well you can write and perform, it is a hidden factor of IB that many colleges do not get to see. Plus, these essays require a lot of dedication and work. Something every IB student must be able to do. "

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The Internal Assessment or IAs is one of the most ridiculous aspects of the IB program. In the beginning, the teachers say, “Why place all of your eggs in one basket? With the IB program, you have multiple opportunities to shape your overall grade.” When I first heard that statement, I thought “Oh, this option seems to be better than AP because with AP there is only one test.” After completing multiple IAs in the program, I think it is better just to take the AP test. Let me explain why. First, you do not have to spend countless nights and weekends to complete a requirement that is only 24% of your overall test grade. The requirements for these Internal Assessments are extremely cumbersome, especially the ones for Chemistry SL and HL, and time consuming. In addition, some IB teachers are very slow at grading these IAs to give you any feedback to improve on your next one. Let me tell you that for my IAs, I got screwed over because I did not know what I was doing nor did I have enough guidance to do one. This case is most applicable for IB Biology HL because I did a handful of IAs but never received any feedback until second year IB Biology HL where I received feedback just before the last IA of the year was due! This made me very upset because I saw my total scores and they were very disappointing. Remember, your overall IB grade is composed of this component, even failing this part will have a large impact of your overall grade."

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The cost also threw me off. I did not know that every year, I have to pay $680 to $700 to cover IB exam fees, registration fees, and shipping costs. At the end of the program, it will cost approximately $1400 to be in the program. I understand why the teachers are pushing students to take IB because the school gets more money for every student enrolled in it. I don’t blame them on that, since everyone has to make a living. Regardless to say, the program is not cheap. With AP, the most you will every pay is around $91 for exam. This number changes slightly per year, but not as much. This cost comes down to around $700 to $800 for the 2-3 years you decide to take AP, assuming 8-9 tests. Significantly lower than the $1400 with IB, and that does not include the fees for the AP tests. "

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Health is a major factor of IB because most of the students involved in IB do not receive proper amounts of daily exercise. Most of us work in a sedentary lifestyle where we sit at home and work on our homework or study for a test. The majority of us hardly ever go out and talk a run

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around our block, run in a 5K, or be active in a sport all-year round. I used to be able to run a mile within 8-9 minutes, now a days, I can barely even run. I would try to find time to run, but the amount of homework that I have to finish and tests to study for conflict with my ability to do so. "

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1IB

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tries to convenience you that when you join IB, that you will get these benefits:" It increases academic opportunity - IB Diploma Programme students are 21% more likely to be admitted into 10 of the most prestigious universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford." IB students care about more than just results - Colleges value students with meaningful experiences beyond the classroom such as Creativity, Action, and Service." It encourages you to become a confident and independent learner with strong writing skills." It’s a qualification recognized by universities around the world - The IB Diploma Programme is internationally benchmarked, allowing graduates to continue their studies anywhere in the world." Graduates are globally-minded - An international mindset is a key 21st century learning skill. Second language learning - an IB requirement - has been linked to higher achievement in school and university." The IB encourages critical thinking - Inquisitiveness and interpretation are among the key cognitive properties of an IB education." DP students have proven time management skills - Research has found that IB students develop strong study habits and critical time management skills, key indicators of college readiness." It assesses more than examination techniques - IB never teachers to the test - exams are assessed with no grade inflation for more than 30 years." Subjects are not taught in isolation - Theory of Knowledge classes encourage students to make connections between subjects and gain the skills they need to be critical thinkers." It encourages breadth and depth of learning - IB students choose courses from six subject groups and study subjects at different levels."

Most of these benefits are either false or meaningless. Let me break it down on why it does not mean anything. " • With the first point, IB students are not any different from being admitted to the top Ivy League schools. In our year, most of us got rejected because our profiles are not good enough. There is no benefit at all with the IB program in college selection." • Most IB students only do CAS because it is a requirement, if most of us did care more than just results, we would have done a lot more than we are required to do so. In America, results are key to success. It is sad, but true." • If you are planning to go to another country to study, then by all means, this point applies to you. Otherwise, it does not do anything in the United States." • Globally-minded. That is such a FALSE term. Most students in the IB program are not globally minded. They do not know what is happening around the world. I mean sure, they understand another language and that is considered to be globally minded, but in reality they are not. IB students are stuck in their own bubbles just trying to get the best marks or grades. We are one of the most isolated students on campus because we have to." • The time management skills is subjective. Some students have no change in timemanagement because life does get in the way, or they improve. The ones who improve are

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Retrieved from the walnuths.net site under the IBCC/IBDP program section.

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the ones who are the most intelligent ones in the pack. The average student either remains constant or drops in this skill." • “IB never teachers to the test.” That is also a lie. Most of us just learn how to take the test. IB is no different than AP, SAT, and ACT. We all learn at the end how to take the test and get a passing grade." • In context wise, IB does tries to connect different subjects together, but I still do not see it as much as they say the program does." • The Hexagon is your death call."

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Now, some of the teachers that teach IB do know what they are doing, but some have terrible teaching skills. Some teachers still treat you as if you do not know what you are doing and think just because you are in IB, you do not deserve to have a life in high school. The excuse, “Well, you did sign up for it” is what is going to keep biting your tailbone at the end. Even though we did sign up for the program, that does not mean that we not human nor do we have lives. Most of the times, we do not get proper amounts of sleep because of the course load. Since the courses are varied in difficulty, you cannot compare one person’s schedule with another UNLESS they have the same exact HLs and SLs as you. The people that have it easier in IB are those who select the easier HLs and SLs or the cop out subjects. Of course they will say something like it is easier for them, but if you ask another student that has the hardest course loads, they will say it is harder. But, back to the teachers, some of them are unorganized, insincere, hypocritical, unable to take criticism, lash back at their students for such criticism, and act like they are a student more than a teacher. If you do join the program, be careful what you wish for."

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When you join IB, you also unofficially agree to lose your social life. In the program, majority of us agree that you can only have two out of the three things on this list."

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• Social Life" • Good GPA" • Health"

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I, myself, had to choose between Good GPA and health. At the same time, the cost of not having a social life has damaged my morality because I was not able to balance my life. In reality, all three of these aspects need to be balanced. In IB, you lose one of those aspects, leading to an unbalanced lifestyle. The amount of course work that IB demands makes it extremely difficult to be able to balance out all three of those aspects. The closest thing to a social life you can ever have in IB is during a CAS event or hanging out with friends during lunch. Not much there is it. "

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Speaking of CAS, I must say that CAS is not all that bad, but its purpose has just shifted to just a requirement. Many IB students do CAS events because they have to, not because they want to. Whenever we hear about an event, one of the things we first say is, “Does it count for CAS?” If it does not, then we just do not do it. Our time in IB is filled with other activities to do that the ability to experience leisure and freedom is almost invisible. "

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Granted, that not everything about IB is bad, there are some good points of the program. The community composition is made up of a diverse and interesting selection of personalities. Over time, majority of the students in the program have a common ground and purpose. There is a lot of support within the group and majority of people try to work together as whole to be able to

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come out of IB with some sanity. I must agree that the IB program does bring some people together and allows you to discover new personalities and make new and deeper connections with other individuals. "

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This letter would have never been published through official channels because the school does not want individuals to be deterred from joining the IB program. However, I was able to practice my writing and citation skills in the process of scribing this letter. Anyways, if you were an sophomore deciding whether to join IB, the Ice Cream Social was one of those events to try to sway you to join IB. The IB Ice Cream Social every year around February is used to bring in unsuspecting sophomores into the IBDP without the reality of it. Most of the speakers who speak at the Ice Cream Social are IB students who try to say positive aspects of the program or cover up the hard reality of it. Majority of the information you ask a teacher will most likely be sugar coated or filled with propaganda on how the reality is. I am not saying that you should not trust your teacher, but the reality of the program is sometimes too much to handle."

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Well, that is all I can say about the IB program for now. This is just a brief overview on how it works. I hope that this can give you another aspect of the IB program. If you are a sophomore and you have signed up for IB and changed your mind, I hope you signed up for the AP classes as a backup because you can change during your summer appointment. Even though AP is not a walk in the park either, it is still better than IB. Both are fairly difficult routes, but AP allows your to have more freedom with your schedule and choose classes that you want to take. Again, both are challenging in their own special ways. If you are a junior and do not want to continue before the summer begins, it is your call if you want to drop it and trust me your junior year is the easiest year in IB. The hard stuff hasn’t even come yet. If you are a freshman, you still have a year to decide. If you still want to join the program and you have the mentality, a high GPA, and willing to risk your health, by all means join the program. If you want to maintain your sanity, your GPA, and your health, join AP.