Should You Do IB? Advice from a former IB student
Hey y’all! I just logged into my old Tumblr from back before I started IB diploma and I thought it would be a good idea to do something I’ve always wanted to do: reflect on the pros and cons of IB and why I quit. Hopefully this helps any prospective students or first years :)
First off, I did full IB from fall 2018-late summer 2019. The year I was in IB was honestly one of the best years of my life. A week before I started my senior year, I had to quit due to health issues, but I still continued taking the max # of iB courses that my school would allow for non-diploma students.
Also, if you have any particular questions, I’d be happy to answer in the comments!
GOOD REASONS TO DO IB:
1. The community is amazing. Until IB, I had only made a handful of friends in high school. Suddenly, I had 20-30 close classmates that I got to get to know really well. By the end of senior year, I knew a bit about almost everyone.
2. The academics are fun! Before IB, I had never felt really challenged by school except in math. Suddenly, I got to take all these cool classes.
3. Going off that, IB is great for students who love group discussion and essay-based work. We wrote so many essays in high school that I could practically churn them out in my sleep haha.
4. It teaches you work ethic. Because you will have a lot of homework, you CANNOT coast and still pass. More than the material, this is probably the best thing I got from the program.
5. Whether or not it’s a good thing, your school will probably give you priority access to certain things. For example, our school got us library passes for the local university database, tickets to a TED talk, etc.
REASONS NOT TO DO IB:
1. The worst decision I’ve seen a lot of students make is going into IB because all your friends are in it. Please please please listen to your gut and don’t do this. You can always take a few classes or see your friends at lunch, in club activities, etc instead.
2. You have are prone to stress easily or have a lot of other activities outside of school. This is not to say that you can’t do IB with this, but if you have a lot of family responsibilities outside of school, a chronic illness, an anxiety disorder, etc. you need to put these factors into consideration and trust your gut for how much you can handle academically. If you do decide to do diploma, please don’t feel shy about asking for extra resources such as extended deadlines and school counselor visits. Many teachers will be flexible in my experience because they know your workload is really heavy.
3. You just want college credit. Not only do most IB courses take two years, you often have to score fairly high on exams with very nebulous/subjective criteria in order to get any college credit. Honestly, programs such as AP will give you SO many more credits.
4. You do better with memorizing facts or listening to lectures. While this varies depending on the course, in general, IB focuses on a concept-based style of learning. While this could be a fun challenge for some, it may be easier to take courses like AP if you tend to learn more by memorization.
HOW TO DECIDE IF YOU SHOULD DO IB:
If you’ve already thought about all of these factors, then I would recommend
1. making a list of pros and cons
2. talking to your academic advisors
to make your final decision. Good luck!
Just logged into this account for the first time in years. I have no clue if anyone is still active on here, but here’s what I learned from having done IB :)
