[eah]

Studying Engineering. Electronics exam tomorrow. I got the "power", If you know what I mean

Oh, I know what you mean.

[youtube]S0rT3AsJFWg[/youtube]

Or did you mean this?

[Nephalem]

Awesome stuff

All of the above.

[gingagalaxy]

IB = International Baccalaueate

Complicated name and complicated everything. I've never heard of it until now. It seems that america has the most schools teaching IB programs. Maybe my school has these curriculums, I've just never heard of it.

Anyway, oral presentations are easy. I'm 18 and I've had at least 20. In fact, a couple days ago I was praised for being such a good speaker, which I was quite surprised of.

What I thought it was AP...
Advanced Placement...

[eah]

What I thought it was AP...
Advanced Placement...

From what I've read on the web, IB sounds like an education system. They might be for more advanced/wealthy students or their programs could have varying degrees of difficulty. I really don't know. But it sounds quite complicated compared to the public school system I've been through.

Given the rigorous tests IB has, I guess "IB" can be analogous to "AP." But AP is simply an advanced placement course. IB is more of a collection of courses all wound up in a 15-year stretch.

[imahaxor]

Studying Engineering. Electronics exam tomorrow. I got the "power", If you know what I mean

I was sure that this is what you were hinting at.
[youtube]-dJolYw8tnk[/youtube]

[Prodigy9]

What I thought it was AP...
Advanced Placement...

From what I've read on the web, IB sounds like an education system. They might be for more advanced/wealthy students or their programs could have varying degrees of difficulty. I really don't know. But it sounds quite complicated compared to the public school system I've been through.

Given the rigorous tests IB has, I guess "IB" can be analogous to "AP." But AP is simply an advanced placement course. IB is more of a collection of courses all wound up in a 15-year stretch.

Partly right. The IB program (or Programme, as they prefer to call it) is a complete curriculum with a bunch of different subjects, and getting an IB diploma depends on your performance in exams for each of those subjects, as well as an Extended Essay (i.e. senior thesis) in a subject of the student's choosing, and a "Theory of Knowledge" course that I don't really know much about because my school's TOK teacher didn't take it very seriously (which was fine with my classmates and I, as there is no final exam in the course, and from what I've heard it's pretty tough when taught seriously). So in that sense, it is more of a complete "education system" than AP. However, like AP, it is still possible to take individual IB courses mixed in with other standard classes (if your school allows it--mine had IB in addition to the standard curriculum, but I've heard of "IB schools" where IB is all they teach).

IB is kind of for more advanced students, with the difficulty of the courses and final IB exams being greater than you'd normally see in high school. It's not so much related to the students' wealth, at least not directly, but it did start as a program for the children of diplomats and international businessmen (the "international" aspect of the program was to ensure that such students would have a consistent education even if they frequently moved, and that their education would be recognized for college/job applications around the world). These days it's a lot more popular, so even though it's still useful for such students, it's also done by people like me who are perfectly happy to stay in our respective home countries.

It's not a complete 15-year program, but rather a series of three programs. The only one my school district had was the "Diploma Programme," which corresponds to high school level work and is the only one strictly required for getting an IB diploma; the others correspond to elementary school and middle school.

In terms of being analogous to AP, that's a pretty decent comparison, although the IB program is perhaps a bit tougher only because IB is usually a comprehensive program while AP is usually a set of unrelated classes. AP used to be the preferred option for getting college credit, since it was by far the most common advanced program for high school students, but now that IB is becoming more popular there are more schools that accept either AP or IB for credit or for testing out of prerequisites. There are obviously also a lot of smaller differences, like AP exams being graded on a 1-5 scale (where a pretty large number of students can get a 5) and IB exams being graded on a 1-7 scale (where only a few students get a 7, but a 5 or 6 is also considered to be very good).

[mitchie151]

Basically, I have a choice of what i can do... and im not doing IB

IB, from what ive heard is for students who are efficient, organized and good in every field. It allows them to study pretty much anything they want at university.

However, i have my mind set on exactly what i want to do at university, so i have no intention to do the IB... The fact that you need to learn a foreign language is a major turn away for me...

[Prodigy9]

IB, from what ive heard is for students who are efficient, organized and good in every field. It allows them to study pretty much anything they want at university.

Efficient/organized is essential. You don't have to be extraordinarily good at every field, but you do need to be extraordinarily good in some fields and adequate in the rest. In determining whether you get your IB diploma, they compare your grades from different subjects, so a very high score in one subject can offset a lower score (as long as it wasn't too low) in another subject.

However, i have my mind set on exactly what i want to do at university, so i have no intention to do the IB... The fact that you need to learn a foreign language is a major turn away for me...

Probably not a bad decision in your case, then. There *are* perks to doing IB even if you know what field you want to go into--it really depends on the college, but some of them can be quite generous in giving free college credits to IB students. As for the foreign language, many colleges unfortunately place a lot of emphasis on it regardless of IB/AP/whatever. Typically, colleges will either require foreign language experience in high school to be admitted to the college, or require such courses to graduate from their college. You could obviously make things a lot easier for yourself by fulfilling such requirements outside of IB, but you may not be able to avoid foreign language altogether.

[mitchie151]

but you may not be able to avoid foreign language altogether.

I've already done about four years of french, i guess its a language i could consider. Still the whole language seems a little pointless to me... at least, European countries xD

[Prodigy9]

I've already done about four years of french, i guess its a language i could consider. Still the whole language seems a little pointless to me... at least, European countries xD

:lol:
That's the one I learned. I studied it for a few more years in college, just because I enjoyed it, but I haven't had much practical use for it in a long time.