As you read some of our previous posts, you might’ve wondered, “What is IB?” The purpose of this post is to help you have a general understanding of what the IB program entails and all of its different aspects.
First off, what is IBDP?
IBDP is the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, that presides over the course of one’s junior and senior years of high school. This program offers an international curriculum (it is taught internationally in about 140 countries), as well as international credit, being recognized by many universities around the world. In order to be a part of this program, students must attend an IB school.
IB students are required to complete exams in six subjects (one from each subject group), and three core requirements. Students are evaluated and given marks through internal (classroom teacher graded) and external (IB reader graded) assessments, as well as end of the year examinations, consisting of two or three timed written tests.
Furthermore, internal assessments can vary based on subject: oral presentations, practical work, or written work. These are usually graded by the classroom teacher, whose grades are then modified by IB readers. The total marks you can earn are varied for internal assessments, but they translate to an overall IB subject grade out of a 7.
Subject Groups
IB students who want to pursue a diploma are required to take 6 subjects. One from Groups 1-5 and one from Group 6. Three or four subjects must be taken at Higher Level (HL) for two years, and the rest will be taken at Standard Level (SL) for one year.
Here are the 6 IBDP subject groups summarized below.
* Disclaimer: Certain IB schools only offer a certain amount of courses that you can choose from in terms of IB, so keep that in mind!
-Group 1: Studies in Language and Literature
- This is taken at either SL or HL (for our school, it is required we take this as HL), in the student’s native language (for us, it’s English).
- Group 2: Language Acquisition
- This is an additional language, taken as Language B (SL or HL) or Language ab initio (SL only). There is a wide variety of languages that IB offers you to test from. (We both chose to do Spanish as our second language for this category).
- Group 3: Individuals and Societies
- These courses are offered as both SL and HL and include: Business Management, Economics, Geography, History, Information Technology in a Global Society (ITGS), Philosophy, Psychology, and Social and Cultural Anthropology. World Religions and Environmental Systems and Societies are also offered, but at SL only.
- Group 4: Experimental Sciences
- 5 courses are offered at both SL and HL: Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Design Technology, and Computer Science. Some SLs that are offered in this category are Sport, Exercise and Health Science, Environmental Systems and Societies, and Nature of Science.
*For this group, you will have a Group 4 project, where all of the IB students in your grade, from your school, will be participating to solve a certain scenario based on their knowledge in the sciences. You will be split up into groups, with one person in each science that is offered in your school. This will happen junior year!
- Group 5: Mathematics
- As of next year (2020-2021), the math programs offered will be changing. The math curriculum will consist of Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation SL and HL, and Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches SL and HL.
- Group 6: The Arts
- These courses are offered at both SL and HL, including Dance, Foreign Languages, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Film.
Core Requirements
There are three core requirements needed in terms of pursuing the IB diploma.
- Extended Essay (EE)
- For this requirement, IB students must write an independent research essay up to 4,000 words about a subject from the list of approved EE subjects. They can either choose a topic they are currently studying, or one that interests them.
- Theory of Knowledge (TOK)
- This is a course that you take throughout your IB career. It introduces students to theories about the nature and limitations of knowledge and provides practice in how to determine the validity of knowledge. In essence, it challenges how you know what you know.
- Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS)
- CAS allows students to aim for personal growth and challenge themselves through these three categories. As you may have seen, in our previous post, we mentioned different ideas for CAS. This is what that post refers to. At the end of the IB journey, students must have 40+ CAS experiences logged for IB to then grade. Activities and extracurricular events you attend already can count for CAS, and in essence is just a way to hold a student accountable for staying well rounded!
That’s pretty much it for the basics of IB! If you would like any more information or are curious about any aspect of IB, please contact us below! Also, feel free to leave comments suggesting posts you’d like to see, or how you liked our posts!
- Riya
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