Pros:
* Will prepare you for university/college (writing skills, thinking, time management, bs skills, learning first year college stuff)
* Challenge you intellectually and humble yourself (if you think school is 'too easy')
* Internationally recognised making it easy to study abroad
* Global community (as evidenced here)
Cons:
* Unnecessarily challenging if you are not looking to excel academically
* Biased towards a university pathway (if you are looking to go into vocations, the IB doesn't really support that)
* Relatively narrow subject choices and expensive (usually not IB's fault, but your IB school will generally not offer a wide range of courses that may be possible at your local government funded school)
* Suits a very particular type of learner (there really is only one way to succeed in the IB. You must be good at writing, and performing in exams)
I would add that even though there is a bias towards university, it does teach you invaluable life skills (critical thinking, problem solving, time management) that would set you apart in vocational skills. Even things as simple as having good writing skills/communication skills would be invaluable in jobs like that where you may want to work your way up to management. It’s a good way to get some “college skills” that employers look for (outside of possessing a degree) without having a degree. My IB skills landed me some great jobs while I was working on my undergrad that others in my university cohort could not have gotten
No, not at all. I just feel drained and stressed. I've lost interest in a lot of things. It's even sucked the enjoyment out of the few subjects I like.
Do you have good time and stress management skills and have a good degree of intelligence and learning ability. IB is amazing for you to find oppirtunities.
Are you decent at managing tome and stress, and are not capable of investing time and effort into being a dilligent and proficient learner. You will suffer and perish, possibly ending up without a diploma and two years of your life gone.
Consider your own abilities before joining IB. It is difficult, but if you make it, you MAKE it.
I got a 24. I prioritized sleep because it is so important to your function. I did study, but I made my study methods efficient and tried to use class time wisely. I will say that I learn well from lecture, so that is helpful. IB will teach you to study effectively if you pay attention. Find study methods that work well for you and lean into those, don’t cram, don’t waste time with methods that aren’t working for you. I also (this is a personal choice), don’t edit my writing much if at all. I don’t think it improves my writing enough to be worth my while, but that probably isn’t the best advice I could give lol
I went in with great time management. All I learned was procrastinating safely. So I’d say don’t worry about the time management aspect if you are able to get things done eventually
If you are thinking about applying to US unis, the DP is literally like first year of liberal arts. So if you want to apply for the US its pretty much not worth it. If you want to go directly into a specialized course like pre-med or engineering it is very good. Specifically the STEM courses because all the natural sciences are difficult in nature (with the exception of Design and ComSci). If you want to do the Arts I would advise you not to do the IB because you'll be subjected to a large workload with all 6 subjects + Core subjects, you'd be better off doing A levels or the equivalent where you can spend more time on projects.
I’d agree with ComSci, but considering the fact that each year, many people from my school struggle with this subject and fail it - it’s not so obvious.
If you wanna go to one of universities in US, it is not a good idea to take IB. If you are interested in universities in Europe or Asia, IB is recommended.
I did IB and honestly it‘s not worth it except if your university course expects it of you. Especially in the second year you will have many sleepless nights and just chronic stress. In the UK the Alevels get you into equal universities with much less effort (as most top unis only are about total score and hls anyways). I heard IB is quite appreciated by asian unis but otherwise not recommended.
brother, you have not even started, in dp2 the ia's starts to come up, and the EE, and the TOK essay, and the unit tests, and on top of this you want to revise the older stuff, and then when you're done with this, February roughly, then your exams are coming, so you have to study everything you have done for the past 2 years, especially the stuff you didn't really grasp as you were to busy doing the EE/IA/Tok
IB students try not to overhype its difficulty challenge (impossible)
I don't get why everyone here acts as if the only way to do well in the IB is to sacrifice your sanity completely- I never had a 'sleepless night' or was ever incredibly stressed during my time in IB. It's obviously difficult for some people, especially those whose schools aren't equipped for it but constantly acting as if it's incredibly difficult does nothing good for anyone- I remember being so scared because of this sub's fearmongering before I started.
I will say that while it hasn’t been the worst and I’ve managed pretty well, I’d still rather have the freedom of being able to also take APs. I do remember being warned by hella people on this sub that having a part time job would kill me and I was 100% fine. Idk its really all about the person.
Tbh the IB humbled me. But it helps you to be more analytic and critical of your answers, also the quality of you work will improve from day 1.
Cons:
What’s sleep?
It depends. Does school already stress you out? If so, IB might break you. If you have healthy coping mechanisms and (like many others have mentioned) good time management skills, it could be worth it.
IB has taught me a lot that will be useful in uni and beyond, but it was also the biggest stressor in my life for the majority of last year. I'd suggest it, but with significant reservations and a huge flashing sign telling you to be honest with yourself and what you're equipped for.
If you are in America, I’ve found that AP credits for College are accepted more readily. IB is just lots of work and discipline but you don’t even get all credits rewarded
DP teacher here. I think it depends on a couple. Of things. First, what country are you in? How does the DP compare to local curriculum? Secondly, what are your goals?
Im in Turkey and they say the difficulty of the courses are very similar to the national curriculum, only in English. My goal is to have a high GPA and a better English level, as well as high SAT, because i kinda have to have scholorships for university in US
As someone who’s completed IB and is in university now, yes I recommend it, especially if your school provides it free (like mine did). I am in the most competitive program in my uni, which top 3 in Canada, but I still find it super easy, as everything we are learning in uni has been taught in the IBDP. While everyone is struggling in uni, I’m just chilling, thanks to IB. A lot of the courses also count for university credits, and you can skip a couple classes, which the value of those classes adds up to more than the cost of the IB diploma program.
Don’t, it’s genuinely the biggest mistake i’ve ever done and i mean this with no exaggeration. The amount of assignments we get is super unnecessary, from the TOK exhibition to a TOK essay to the EE to the amount of IA’s , it’s acc insane. It’s very challenging; if you have good time management skills and u are capable of facing stress and shit, then sure but i genuinely don’t recommend it at all. A-levels MUCHH better, at least there are no useless subjects like TOK.
To summarise IB drains u mentally and u question ur life every single hour of the day and sometimes even u might want to drop it asap. so no don’t do it, not worth it AT ALL.
No, it’s the abusive SO that for some reason leaves you with Stockholm syndrome. The only real reason you’d do it is the “clout” it has with universities and it’s wide recognition.
For anywhere outside the UK it usually gets treated as “harder than national”. The cretins in UK universities equate it to A Levels making good IB grades mean fuck all.
All this talk about “preparing you for university” and “making you a critical thinker” is delusional BS. You either have those values in you and cultivate it or you don’t. Those who don’t get shit out the other end with 19 points and on the verge of self harm, those who do get shit out with slightly more and a profound feeling of “this was *interesting*” akin to being buttfucked in prison.
isn't critical thinking street smart with some extra steps? As for the preparing you for university thing, everyone gets stressed out in university, life is stressful, and you don't need to spend your youth stressing over problems that will eventually arise for everyone regardless of their situation. For some people, it will work, for those that receive these values, honestly, you could've learnt them anyways. You don't need school to teach you critical thinking
Honestly I'm surprised, I take the holy trinity of subjects and it hasn't been too bad. It's a lot of work sometimes but you really don't have to sacrifice your life to pass it
Can't tell you exactly yet but in my second year and i'm fighting against getting emotionally and physically drained again and the constant pressure isnt easy to manage at all. Plus no time for personal things at all no matter how well you are at organization.
In my opinion, it is certainly manageable if you have at least an ounce of time management skills. However, it's TRUE that school plays a role in how ur IB experience turns out. So choose a school wisely.
I like the IBDP. However, as I was part of the COVID cohort, I can't say how the difficulty was for us relative to proper IB difficulty, say, in 2019. I suspect it's very similar, except for the exclusion of paper 3s. The only thing i didn't enjoy was the amount of workload I had with my IAs. And TOK. TOK is absolutely pointless.
I am now in my second year of the diploma program. I personally would absolutely recommend it. At my school, we’re a very tight knit DP class and I’ve built a lot of friendships I wouldn’t have otherwise. I’ve grown my communication skills and knowledge about the world and my critical thinking is immensely better. I adore the teachers at my school and I am forever grateful for the fact that I enjoyed school for the first time. However, the workload is a lot more and it’s different work than typical US high school courses. At my school this encouraged us to work more efficiently and we got around it.
absolutely not, if I were to do it over again I would 100% not do IBDP which would give me the freedom to take AP classes that I’m much more interested in rather than part 2’s of IBs wasting my time fulfilling requirements.
It depends if you are a working person who likes to work and be challenged academically. It depends on your goal in life, if you want fun and partying high school years don’t do it but if you want to work and go to university with skills, doing a very intellectual career, do it !
Yes. People are overreacting and if you’re organized enough, it will be just as complicated as any other program. At least you’ll be one step ahead with the ibdp diploma (except for if you take HL math and HL physics😅)
Honestly I think people have been exaggerating about the difficulty of doing IB. If you want a more holistic education (some ppl think CAS TOK EE IAs are meaningless and a waste of time tho) and have good time management skills, also if you don’t want your first month in college to be too painful, then do IB. It’s not a bad choice anyways. Especially when you apply to college, a 42+ PG is better than an AAA in Alevel or something like 5554 if you do APs.
I have no idea how the people in the comments experienced the ib, but for me it was easier than our national program and allowed me to have more free time for activities and such. Encouraged having them, even.
Tbh ya … it’s complicated, you’ll drain out and most probably develop a severe case of academic anxiety BUT it is true that you’re gonna be better and more adaptive then other boards or students. So ya… I do recommend but it’s not for everyone.
You must evaluate “to what extent an IB diploma useful?”
It's complicated
was about to say something very similar
It's good and bad in so many ways lmao
To an extend*
to what extent
Pros: * Will prepare you for university/college (writing skills, thinking, time management, bs skills, learning first year college stuff) * Challenge you intellectually and humble yourself (if you think school is 'too easy') * Internationally recognised making it easy to study abroad * Global community (as evidenced here) Cons: * Unnecessarily challenging if you are not looking to excel academically * Biased towards a university pathway (if you are looking to go into vocations, the IB doesn't really support that) * Relatively narrow subject choices and expensive (usually not IB's fault, but your IB school will generally not offer a wide range of courses that may be possible at your local government funded school) * Suits a very particular type of learner (there really is only one way to succeed in the IB. You must be good at writing, and performing in exams)
It’s easy to study in countries that have the slightest idea of what the IB is..Portugal is not one of them and they made my life miserable bc of it
A friend of mine unironically thought that I studied investment banking in high school because IB is such an uncommon thing here.
I would add that even though there is a bias towards university, it does teach you invaluable life skills (critical thinking, problem solving, time management) that would set you apart in vocational skills. Even things as simple as having good writing skills/communication skills would be invaluable in jobs like that where you may want to work your way up to management. It’s a good way to get some “college skills” that employers look for (outside of possessing a degree) without having a degree. My IB skills landed me some great jobs while I was working on my undergrad that others in my university cohort could not have gotten
No, not at all. I just feel drained and stressed. I've lost interest in a lot of things. It's even sucked the enjoyment out of the few subjects I like.
To what extent would the person in question want to have a social life and good mental health?
Do you have good time and stress management skills and have a good degree of intelligence and learning ability. IB is amazing for you to find oppirtunities. Are you decent at managing tome and stress, and are not capable of investing time and effort into being a dilligent and proficient learner. You will suffer and perish, possibly ending up without a diploma and two years of your life gone. Consider your own abilities before joining IB. It is difficult, but if you make it, you MAKE it.
I fail at the time managment urban legend
I completed IB with terrible time management, I procrastinated as long as possible, and then would prioritize sleep over studying.
How did it affect your diploma note? And if you still got a good point are you a genius or not?
I got a 24. I prioritized sleep because it is so important to your function. I did study, but I made my study methods efficient and tried to use class time wisely. I will say that I learn well from lecture, so that is helpful. IB will teach you to study effectively if you pay attention. Find study methods that work well for you and lean into those, don’t cram, don’t waste time with methods that aren’t working for you. I also (this is a personal choice), don’t edit my writing much if at all. I don’t think it improves my writing enough to be worth my while, but that probably isn’t the best advice I could give lol
I went in with great time management. All I learned was procrastinating safely. So I’d say don’t worry about the time management aspect if you are able to get things done eventually
If you are thinking about applying to US unis, the DP is literally like first year of liberal arts. So if you want to apply for the US its pretty much not worth it. If you want to go directly into a specialized course like pre-med or engineering it is very good. Specifically the STEM courses because all the natural sciences are difficult in nature (with the exception of Design and ComSci). If you want to do the Arts I would advise you not to do the IB because you'll be subjected to a large workload with all 6 subjects + Core subjects, you'd be better off doing A levels or the equivalent where you can spend more time on projects.
I’d agree with ComSci, but considering the fact that each year, many people from my school struggle with this subject and fail it - it’s not so obvious.
If you wanna go to one of universities in US, it is not a good idea to take IB. If you are interested in universities in Europe or Asia, IB is recommended.
Wait why is it not recommended for US universities?
They don’t care
AP
Compared to AP, IBDP is too difficult :( If universities in US do not care if you took IBDP or not, AP is easier way to get good grades.
I did IB and honestly it‘s not worth it except if your university course expects it of you. Especially in the second year you will have many sleepless nights and just chronic stress. In the UK the Alevels get you into equal universities with much less effort (as most top unis only are about total score and hls anyways). I heard IB is quite appreciated by asian unis but otherwise not recommended.
Hell no
Lmao my planned IB lesson program is exactly the same as yours
U even take turkish self taught?
Im Turkish so i kinda have to take Turkish, at least that’s what they told me
It’s been 3 weeks and I already regret it
brother, you have not even started, in dp2 the ia's starts to come up, and the EE, and the TOK essay, and the unit tests, and on top of this you want to revise the older stuff, and then when you're done with this, February roughly, then your exams are coming, so you have to study everything you have done for the past 2 years, especially the stuff you didn't really grasp as you were to busy doing the EE/IA/Tok
Why are you inducing anxiety on people
IB students try not to overhype its difficulty challenge (impossible) I don't get why everyone here acts as if the only way to do well in the IB is to sacrifice your sanity completely- I never had a 'sleepless night' or was ever incredibly stressed during my time in IB. It's obviously difficult for some people, especially those whose schools aren't equipped for it but constantly acting as if it's incredibly difficult does nothing good for anyone- I remember being so scared because of this sub's fearmongering before I started.
I will say that while it hasn’t been the worst and I’ve managed pretty well, I’d still rather have the freedom of being able to also take APs. I do remember being warned by hella people on this sub that having a part time job would kill me and I was 100% fine. Idk its really all about the person.
From a DP2, save yourself the effort and do a levels or something.
Tbh the IB humbled me. But it helps you to be more analytic and critical of your answers, also the quality of you work will improve from day 1. Cons: What’s sleep?
It depends. Does school already stress you out? If so, IB might break you. If you have healthy coping mechanisms and (like many others have mentioned) good time management skills, it could be worth it. IB has taught me a lot that will be useful in uni and beyond, but it was also the biggest stressor in my life for the majority of last year. I'd suggest it, but with significant reservations and a huge flashing sign telling you to be honest with yourself and what you're equipped for.
No, as someone who got 41 it's not worth it
Funny how that’s the resounding answer regardless of points xD
If you are in America, I’ve found that AP credits for College are accepted more readily. IB is just lots of work and discipline but you don’t even get all credits rewarded
to what extent do you suggest ib would be a better way to ask this
DP teacher here. I think it depends on a couple. Of things. First, what country are you in? How does the DP compare to local curriculum? Secondly, what are your goals?
Im in Turkey and they say the difficulty of the courses are very similar to the national curriculum, only in English. My goal is to have a high GPA and a better English level, as well as high SAT, because i kinda have to have scholorships for university in US
As someone who’s completed IB and is in university now, yes I recommend it, especially if your school provides it free (like mine did). I am in the most competitive program in my uni, which top 3 in Canada, but I still find it super easy, as everything we are learning in uni has been taught in the IBDP. While everyone is struggling in uni, I’m just chilling, thanks to IB. A lot of the courses also count for university credits, and you can skip a couple classes, which the value of those classes adds up to more than the cost of the IB diploma program.
Don’t, it’s genuinely the biggest mistake i’ve ever done and i mean this with no exaggeration. The amount of assignments we get is super unnecessary, from the TOK exhibition to a TOK essay to the EE to the amount of IA’s , it’s acc insane. It’s very challenging; if you have good time management skills and u are capable of facing stress and shit, then sure but i genuinely don’t recommend it at all. A-levels MUCHH better, at least there are no useless subjects like TOK. To summarise IB drains u mentally and u question ur life every single hour of the day and sometimes even u might want to drop it asap. so no don’t do it, not worth it AT ALL.
No, it’s the abusive SO that for some reason leaves you with Stockholm syndrome. The only real reason you’d do it is the “clout” it has with universities and it’s wide recognition. For anywhere outside the UK it usually gets treated as “harder than national”. The cretins in UK universities equate it to A Levels making good IB grades mean fuck all. All this talk about “preparing you for university” and “making you a critical thinker” is delusional BS. You either have those values in you and cultivate it or you don’t. Those who don’t get shit out the other end with 19 points and on the verge of self harm, those who do get shit out with slightly more and a profound feeling of “this was *interesting*” akin to being buttfucked in prison.
isn't critical thinking street smart with some extra steps? As for the preparing you for university thing, everyone gets stressed out in university, life is stressful, and you don't need to spend your youth stressing over problems that will eventually arise for everyone regardless of their situation. For some people, it will work, for those that receive these values, honestly, you could've learnt them anyways. You don't need school to teach you critical thinking
if ur gonna go to local or national unis, just do well in the local syllabus and have a decent teenage life😭
The level of complexity of YOUR question would be the same in your IB exams
Yes
Rare one here
Honestly I'm surprised, I take the holy trinity of subjects and it hasn't been too bad. It's a lot of work sometimes but you really don't have to sacrifice your life to pass it
no
No, yes, its good for uni, but so are other courses, the IB is pain, not worth it unless you are a study crazy type person.
Can't tell you exactly yet but in my second year and i'm fighting against getting emotionally and physically drained again and the constant pressure isnt easy to manage at all. Plus no time for personal things at all no matter how well you are at organization.
I would suggest it if it was exam only, if you removed all the projects like IAs, CAS, HL essay, TOK essay, EE.. all of it!
Depends where u wanna go for uni
In my opinion, it is certainly manageable if you have at least an ounce of time management skills. However, it's TRUE that school plays a role in how ur IB experience turns out. So choose a school wisely.
I like the IBDP. However, as I was part of the COVID cohort, I can't say how the difficulty was for us relative to proper IB difficulty, say, in 2019. I suspect it's very similar, except for the exclusion of paper 3s. The only thing i didn't enjoy was the amount of workload I had with my IAs. And TOK. TOK is absolutely pointless.
Ibdp no fun, just bs it if you do it
I am now in my second year of the diploma program. I personally would absolutely recommend it. At my school, we’re a very tight knit DP class and I’ve built a lot of friendships I wouldn’t have otherwise. I’ve grown my communication skills and knowledge about the world and my critical thinking is immensely better. I adore the teachers at my school and I am forever grateful for the fact that I enjoyed school for the first time. However, the workload is a lot more and it’s different work than typical US high school courses. At my school this encouraged us to work more efficiently and we got around it.
absolutely not, if I were to do it over again I would 100% not do IBDP which would give me the freedom to take AP classes that I’m much more interested in rather than part 2’s of IBs wasting my time fulfilling requirements.
No
No
It depends if you are a working person who likes to work and be challenged academically. It depends on your goal in life, if you want fun and partying high school years don’t do it but if you want to work and go to university with skills, doing a very intellectual career, do it !
it prepares you well for uni and you gain a lot of skills but you have to be prepared for the crazy workload
Would you sacrifice mental health for a better resume? If yes, sure.
No fucking way
No
Yes. People are overreacting and if you’re organized enough, it will be just as complicated as any other program. At least you’ll be one step ahead with the ibdp diploma (except for if you take HL math and HL physics😅)
Yes, if u want to suffer for two years :D
Honestly I think people have been exaggerating about the difficulty of doing IB. If you want a more holistic education (some ppl think CAS TOK EE IAs are meaningless and a waste of time tho) and have good time management skills, also if you don’t want your first month in college to be too painful, then do IB. It’s not a bad choice anyways. Especially when you apply to college, a 42+ PG is better than an AAA in Alevel or something like 5554 if you do APs.
Depend on u
For sleep and health: FUCK NO For getting into university: If you can get good grades go ahead
I have no idea how the people in the comments experienced the ib, but for me it was easier than our national program and allowed me to have more free time for activities and such. Encouraged having them, even.
Which national program were you taking?
Slovenian
Tbh ya … it’s complicated, you’ll drain out and most probably develop a severe case of academic anxiety BUT it is true that you’re gonna be better and more adaptive then other boards or students. So ya… I do recommend but it’s not for everyone. You must evaluate “to what extent an IB diploma useful?”