AP and IB Coursework

Webinar Transcription

2021-07-15 AP and IB Coursework

[00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar on AP and IB Coursework. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start off with a presentation. Then answer your questions in a live Q and a on the sidebar. You can download our slides and you can start submitting your questions in the Q and a tab.

Now let’s meet our panelists.

So headed what’s up, everyone. My name is Arham Habib. I am a rising sophomore at the university of Pennsylvania. I’ll be concentrating in finance, the business school. And I’m also interested in statistics and data science, which is probably going to be a minor. Um, someone says, I can’t hear, uh,

I can hear you. Uh, the webinar’s going to be recorded out. Handle it. You can keep going. All right. Sounds good. [00:01:00] Uh, multiple people can’t hear. Oh, no. Okay. Um, that’s weird. Okay. Um,

Okay. Some people say they can, you can keep going. They’ll just have to log out, log back in. Okay. Um, yeah, so I took 12 APS in high school. It didn’t do any of the IB curriculum. Um, of those 12 APS. I took eight AP tests towards the end of my senior year. It just wasn’t worth it because pens and taking the AP credit.

And I did it ended up getting fives on all the exams. Um, I don’t have a lot of direct IB experience. If you have questions about that. Um, I won’t be as detailed about it, but I did have a lot of friends that were in IB [00:02:00] program. So with that being said, let’s get into it. Um, starting with what our AP and IB classes.

So AP classes are basically just designed to give students who are passionate about the subject or passionate about curriculum. Um, that goes beyond high school level, the chance to take college level coursework. And these encompass a lot of subjects there’s APS for almost anything that you could be interested in and use these in a few ways in the college application process, you can use them to earn college credit.

A lot of colleges will take them for credit. Um, it just so happens that I ended up going to one of the ones that doesn’t, um, beyond that they’re used to show passionate about your subjects, or if you really into chemistry, science, math, whatever. You can use APS to show that you’re really delving into the subject.

And finally, in some schools, like my school A’s in regular classes are weighted out of a 4.0 is an AP class is rated out of [00:03:00] Fargo. So they could be used to boost your GPA. Then moving on to the IB program. These are an international program with focus on global education. So it’s for students during grades 11 and 12.

And instead of AP classes where you kind of take them all a cart, you take the IB program to get the diploma you need to get. I will be a certain number of credits. Um, if you want to get that diploma, which comes from taking a certain number of IB courses and just doing relative numbers, I think the IB program is way smaller and happens that, uh, less schools than the AP program, just because you have to commit to giving students full diploma.

If you do that, And people usually complete the whole Ivy program. If they want to partake in it, they don’t usually say classes all the cart, uh, as opposed to APS where people, you know, take them wherever. So moving on. The question is how do these systems differ from each other? And as I was kind of alluding to [00:04:00] in the previous slide, AP classes are really designed to showcase passionate about individual subjects or just college credit.

And it’s marginally cheaper to take AP exams than it is to take IB exams. I think that they’re like 20 bucks cheaper. But when you take APS, you only have to take those individual classes. When you take IVs, you’re taking a whole lot more exams. So on aggregate, I think the cost of the AP program is significantly cheaper.

On the other hand, the IB program is more cohesive and holistic. If you’re going in there, you’re almost getting a full college liberal arts education when you’re in your junior and senior year. And what’s interesting about the IB program is that through responsibilities don’t really end in the classroom.

There’s also some work that you have to do in your community. For example, writing research papers or carrying out other extracurricular projects. Whereas for APS, you’ll sit in the class, you’ll take the test and get a grid and that’ll be ends of it. And RVs really have a global focus [00:05:00] and they have international baccalaureate.

It kind of hints that. And as I said before, it’s kind of designed to mimic the same type of education that you’re getting in college with exposure to a lot of different subjects and a lot of different ways of thinking.

So one of the questions that you might have is why do some schools have AP classes and others have IB classes? Um, and just real quick, somewhere in the chat asked, do you get college credits for IB? Yes, you do. Um, with some schools, I believe most schools that accept AP credits also accept IB credits. Um, and then I think that like I’ve had, they also don’t accept diabetes.

School is really don’t have a preference to giving credit to one system versus the other, um, ethnic clauses are usually more widespread just because they don’t need you to have an entire program. It’s really common in like smaller school districts, where you just have a few AP classes with teachers that are very well equipped to be teaching those [00:06:00] subjects.

Whereas for the IB diploma and IB program, you have entire schools that are dedicated to just offer the infrastructure of the program. And when you sign up for these schools, you understand these often I will be participating within the IB program. Um, so to get an IB diploma and the way the class is kind of work, you take three of these things called high-level courses, three of these things called standard level.

Um, I’m not entirely sure how these work, um, Yeah. Um, but for APS, there’s no diploma involved. You can get certain awards, like if you scholar or anything. Um, but APS do tend to be considered like at one level and with the chief day way that this. Um, yeah. And a solid McKenzie on unit. I think that she has some more experienced IVs.

Yeah. I go for the higher level versus standard bubbles. I’m, uh, I’m an Ivy grad, but, um, HL is just like the [00:07:00] harder class. And then so is like regular. So with HL, you’d get a little bit more work and then, um, You can take more H L’s like some people take four HLS, cause they’re crazy. And then to ESSA, but you need a minimum of three HLS.

Um, and then you also have other requirements like the cast project and the extended essay and then TOK, which is like a philosophy class. Yeah. I’ve heard a lot about, about CRK. Um, but once again, uh, on average, AP is far more popular just because I think it’s offered at more schools. It’s a little bit easier to train teachers.

To teach AP classes. Um, but a pretty significant order of magnitude. I think over 10 times, students take AP tests, then those who take IB tests on. And then the question is how are these courses evaluated? So for APS, most schools give you a grade within the class, but when you actually go to the college board and the person [00:08:00] administering the program, the only way you’re evaluated as an end of the year exam.

So, oh, it must have, or I guess a fact that some of you guys might not know is that anyone can sit down for an AP exam. Even if you haven’t taken the class, as long as you just pay the money to get into the exam. And in some cases it’s really cinder, just hate tests that taking the class. So in my school, for example, a lot of people sat for the AP Chinese exam.

Just because their families happen to be Chinese and they wanted to get credit for college level language without taking any language courses. So that was the way they opted out of it. Something else that was pretty standard was a lot of people that took, um, upper level calculus for our community college sat for a calc AB or calc BC exam just by not taking calculus, um, at our high school.

And so these tasks can vary in length. They go between two to four hours, and usually there’s a lot of, a lot of different types of sections and they’re very focused on, um, you know, showing your work for your response [00:09:00] questions. That’s where most of your grade tends to come from. Obviously they’re also evaluated at the end of the year with the test, but what’s interesting about, um, is that on IBS also have a section of labor you’re evaluated by your instructor.

Um, and so I just can’t find them that, uh, another note that I have is this depends on your high school. I know some high schools offered thing where if you take AP classes, you get either the grade that the teacher gave you. Or if you got a five on the AP exams, you happen to just get into it in the class automatically.

My college roommate really took advantage of that slacked off in class and got all fives. So that’s what. Oh, I’m saved his GPA and I’d be testable Weaver weighted one to seven instead of one through five.

Yeah, so a little bit more in see what you’ll actually encounter on the exam. IB exams, that two components, the external, the internal one with the external is more [00:10:00] similar to the AP test. It’s just a test. You have essays, short answers, multiple choice questions. And the internal one is based off an instructor evaluation.

And I did have this tidbit about the average score being 30 out of 45 for an IB decree. I think Mackenzie mentioned that the minimum like graduate and get a diploma is 24 out of 45 points. Um, and I’d assume higher is better. Um, AP exams have multiple sections most than have the multiple choice part.

Most of them have a short answer part. And then a lot of the language based APS on hot essays, the scored one to five, the average scores, three of these roughly corresponds to letter grades. If your school does these. So a five would be an, a four through BSC, but they are hard classes. So a three is considered passing.

A lot of people do send threes in just for the heck of it, just that they can get credit. And I don’t think if you’re wondering if there’s like a difficulty gradient between them. I don’t [00:11:00] think that there is a significantly difficult on that one is more difficult than the other, but I do think that there’s certain APS and certain IVs that come with their own like reputation.

For example, the opera now I was in high school. I think one of the most dreaded ones was AP chemistry. Um, we didn’t have very good average scores on that. And there were other ones where almost everyone in the class like AP calculus, BC 24 out of the 25 people in my graduating class got a five on it. So, um, it depend,

so now we have a poll at McKenzie TennCare. Yeah. So the question is, what grade will you be entering this fall? Yeah, the, I A’s were some, I didn’t actually have to take the exam, but for one class did I S is it launched? Okay, there we go. I didn’t actually have to take the [00:12:00] exams, but for one of my classes cause COVID happened, but the IAS work fun, I use are pretty much just essay.

Or well essays. And then some classes you have to do like a project out in the community with an S interesting. Um, other than that, she’s usually my teachers are pretty forgiving about it. Like you take a test and we’d have a month of school at the island where rich to writing for our grades. And we do whatever in those months we were just like, watch movies and stuff.

Has a little bit more wiggle room and Frieda than I V but, um, so I’m going to close the poll. So the results are, oh, no. Oh, sorry. The results are there’s one eighth grade or 12 ninth graders. Uh, 14, 14, 10th graders, 24 11th graders and three 12th graders. Prompts to whoever’s going into eighth grade. I didn’t know [00:13:00] where he was when I was headed into eighth grade and real quick, Christian, I saw your question.

How can you tell if you’re taking an IB class? I think your school should pretty clearly state what classes are IB. And I also think that it’s kind of hard to get in Civ classes if you’re not in the diploma program, which I think is something you have to like apply to your opt-in to. Um, so you should be pretty clear what, what courses you’re taking.

Um, now, so the million dollar question, why I saw some people that were like, why did you take it’s for baby? Um, and like the reason is that it shows colleges that you’re challenging yourself. Showcases passions, demonstrates competence in college level coursework basically shows them that you’re a capable person that can take, um, the workload and for IBW at these community things that can also show that occasion to the community.

But I think that’s something else that’s really important to, um, highlight is that colleges will only evaluate APS in the context of the school and community that you like. [00:14:00] So full disclosure, I hop in to live in the bay area. I go to a really competitive high school, uh, where like the norm was for people to take at least, you know, four or five and oftentimes more APS and other places only have one or two APS in the entire state.

And that’s totally fine. Both ways. You’re not at a structural disadvantage. It’s just colleges look to see the people that have challenged themselves most relative to their peers. And I really wanted, didn’t want to be in a situation where, um, you know, I was slacking on relative to other people. Um, But yeah, I think that’s some of the purposes of AP and IB coursework.

Um, and definitely don’t feel stressed if you don’t have these opportunities here, if you don’t want to take up any courses because it all is a relative game.

Um, and can they hurt a student’s application? This is a pretty interesting question [00:15:00] on just because I think obviously a lot of people have would going into the process is more as always. And that’s not necessarily true as with any POS getting bad grades, um, can hurt a student’s application because it shows that instead of rising to the challenge, meeting expectations, you’re instead of being overwhelmed and that can almost show like this person has a tendency to bite off more than they could chew.

Maybe if you don’t want them in our, in our college or in the selective program. But something else that can hurt is taking AP and IB courses and not submitting test results. Um, I’ll speak to the AP program just because the IB has this diploma that you do, like tend to get a score. And so it’s harder to hide individual bad grades for the AP.

There was this misconception among underclassmen, but like if you got anything below. Like just don’t submit it. And if a college sees an AP on your transcript and don’t see the corresponding score, the assumption is that you just scored really [00:16:00] badly that you got like a one or two. So I would really highly encourage you, even if you got like a three-year anything to just bite the bullet and submit to colleges, um, cause at least shows that you’re not a quitter and they can assume the worst.

And finally IPI and IB classes take away from your extracurriculars. This can also hurt student. Um, for example, if you come home, you do homework for five hours a day. You don’t have any time to do anything else with your life. You’re probably not going to be shown up, showing up as a very well-rounded person.

And that can take away from your application just because you want to have boards, dimensions, mentions, and someone who goes to school and does their work and really quickly, I think that some of these questions are pretty easy to run through. So an alternative for API B courses. Um, we’ll get into this later, but college courses and like community colleges can be a good substitute.

And I did take some of those just for the heck of it. Um, [00:17:00] BC, it has a little bit more content than AB AB tons to stop integration. BC goes into different levels of integration. You got. Got an understanding of something teller series to get an understanding of, um, like parametric calculus, um, I guess just a little bit more interesting, fancy stuff.

A lot of it is the same skills that you learn in AB with a little bit more flare to it. Um, and yeah, it is a lower level BC and at least the way my, my college. They let you opt out of introductory calc only if you’ve taken BC, but taking the ABA isn’t, um, sufficient and we’ll get into some more detailed questions later towards the Q and a.

But yeah. Um, something that people always like to know is how can students balance taking challenging coursework with getting good grades in these courses? It’s the first of these it’s important is just general time [00:18:00] management skills. You’ve got to make a schedule for your homework. I’d rarely recommend getting friends in your classes and find a method of studying that works best for you.

What could this look like? Um, got a study group to go over your questions before I test get people to send you homework that you don’t know the answers to. Um, I’m a very firm believer of work smarter, not harder. And so like my calculus, BC teacher didn’t even make homework mandatory and he was just like, do as much as you need to prepare for this task.

The flip side of that was our class was totally Tuskegee. So like just to save time, because it was my junior year, I would do like one homework problem with each one. And if I got it right in the first scout, I’d be like, okay, I got this concept. This is fine. Um, I had a lesson that I have, particularly for underclassmen.

So freshmen and sophomores going into the process is if you don’t know how much you’ll be able to hack off, maybe if you took one AP and it was really challenging, it [00:19:00] is better to under commit and vice versa. Just because I believe most schools have like a two week drop period. And after that, you’re kind of stuck in the position.

If an AP class is easy for those two weeks and then starts getting really hard and you’re taking six of them, you’re in a situation where you’re going to spend a lot of time, I guess, doing schoolwork and, um, really not much else. Or you’re just going to end up getting bad grades. And, um, you obviously don’t want either one of those, so be conservative, unless you think that you can really deal with it and just know your own capabilities on.

Yeah. And the next question is how can students balance taking challenging coursework with extracurriculars or family commitments, aside from what I’ve already said about, you know, not [00:20:00] attempting more than you can manage. I think a really cool trick is trying to get a lot of work done during the school day.

I feel like for the majority of you guys that are in high school, you probably know that you’re not spending every second of the day, you know, religiously working away. It’s probably periods of time where you’re just twirling pencils or on a now I would be on my phone a lot. Um, it’s a really intelligent use of your time to just get as much homework done as possible during the school.

Um, so that you don’t have to do anything at home. You can just kind of have a good time, not whatever. And just prioritizing is also important. At the end of the day, you decide what’s important to you. You have to work to make ends meet, or if you have to support your family, otherwise. It’s always important to understand that these are just classes of 5.0 versus a 4.0 and one class isn’t going to be the reason you do or don’t get into a college.

So everything’s relative. And if you really need help, don’t hesitate to discuss these things through your [00:21:00] teachers. A lot of them just want you to succeed, particularly in upper level classes. And if you explain to them the situation, a lot of them will like carve out exception.

And yeah, the last slide, I guess, is what advice would you give to students who are interested in AP or IB coursework? If you have the opportunity to participate in it? I really do highly recommend it. Um, for APS, at least focused on subjects that you’re passionate about. Don’t just get roped into peer pressure of like taking AP chemistry.

If you know, you really don’t enjoy chemistry. And last thing is don’t stress out. If your school doesn’t have an AP or IB prep. Everyone’s evaluated within the context of your unschool. I guess this is where I can kind of discuss some alternatives. So a lot of high schools that don’t do AP have honors courses, which are rated like equally it’s ethical.

Um, so you can go ahead and take those. A lot of places have community [00:22:00] colleges where you can go and like, do. So back when I was in high school, I did, um, I did a political theory course, um, with one of my friends that was pretty fun. I started taking money, your algebra and like community college, my senior year.

And then I kind of realized that I was done. Senior-itis had hit and wasn’t amidst yacht anymore. So I dropped it. Um, yeah, dual enrolled. What about dual enrollment? Yeah, that’s all that you do when you’re with your community college and. I guess. Yeah. Mackenzie, do you want to talk a little bit more about what types of people should go into the IB coursework or IB program?

Sure. Um, and then the Q and A’s right after this slide, but, um, with IB, it’s very writing intensive. Like for all of my courses, we had the IAA, the internal assessment, which is an essay for. And it’s an essay. And so, um, it’s writing and reading intensive. So if you’re more into humanities or you feel you’re going to go into a humanities major or [00:23:00] something pre-law or something where you’re just going to need a lot of writing, even pre-med could use a lot of writing too.

Um, it’s just a good program. It gets you really just acclimated. So. College level rigor because in college you’re writing a whole bunch of essays. So that’s really the biggest part of it. Um, it is a lot, it is a lot of work depending on what all else you’re doing. Um, like which McCall it. I. I had my IB coursework junior year, I ran cross country also in half.

The people in IB did cross country. So it was like we would be at school together. Then we would go to practice and then afterwards we would have to do homework. So we’d be getting home at like five, six, and then we on weekends, we had meats and stuff, but it wasn’t hard to balance as long as you did not like procrastinate on your work too much.

Because it wasn’t even so much homework. Honestly, it was mostly just preparing us for [00:24:00] like writing our essays, our IAS, understanding, like, um, what we were reading about there wasn’t so much day to day homework, but that can vary from school to school. Um, so as long as you were just staying on top of like, getting your essays done, meeting what your IB coordinator or your teachers and stuff, you were pretty good.

Cause we would go to. Somebody’s birthday was happening every other week. So it was like, we would go to movies together. We were together all the time, and then it was like small, a small class of us, only 28 people in the IB program in my class. And then it was like, it’s really, as long as you like writing or you want to get better at writing, IB is good.

Um, you don’t necessarily have to be like the top students. It’s honestly, not that difficult, but that again varies from school to school. If you have good teachers teaching it or not. Yeah. I mean, it was totally second. I was able to do a lot of issues and still, like, I was traveling a lot, um, [00:25:00] just probably stuff, unless you should receive her accommodating.

They were like, um, my AP econ teacher, my senior year, I made like a rule where every time I go to like another country, I just have to bring back the currency from it and he just let me skip quizzes or know, skip homework. Um, but yeah.

Yeah. So that is the end of the presentation part of the webinar. I hope you found this information helpful and remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab, moving on to the live Q and a I’ll read through questions you submitted in the Q and a tab, paste them in the public chat so you can see them and then read them out loud before our panelists gives you an answer as a heads up.

If your Q and a tab, isn’t letting you submit questions. Double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar [00:26:00] landing page. Uh, okay. SU uh, well, there was a lot of questions in the chat. Um, okay. Um, I think you answered what is dual enrollment? Um, I’m gonna just throw a question from the, um, pre panel questions, but, um, okay.

Darn. Okay. How do I ensure fours and fives on the AP exam? You know, it’s a little bit scared. Anytime asks you, anytime someone asks you for it, daring tea on, I guess I can zero work for me. Um, what our school did, but that higher piece where is really look at the structure of the tests and what’s weighted more.

And I guess just how to get over the minimum threshold. So to get thighs in a lot of AP exams, you just have to get 60, 70% of the raw points in the test. Um, for example, I know someone [00:27:00] asked her if he U S history. Um, I think if you got 60% on the multiple choice, And averaged 70% through your written essays, you would comfortable you get a five.

And so something that I would really recommend to people is don’t stress about the little details. Don’t stress about missing one multiple choice question here or there, or giving like a ma free response somewhere. If you want to get fours and fives consistently, you just have to play the points game, give pretty decent, like 75% correct answers to everything.

Um, you don’t have to embellish it and have to make it into a work of art. Um, and then you’ll get like straight ticket fives down the board. I think there are a lot of questions asking, like which classes you took specifically? Like what 12 did you take? Okay. Yeah, we can, we can run through that. Um, shoot, it’s been awhile.

I’d say if he comes three. AP AP calculus, [00:28:00] AB AP language and AP literature. Um, if you world, um, if you bio, I already mentioned AP U S right. Um, then AP econ, uh, There was like a, there was a government, one that I took there for a minute. I was like a semester course.

I took, I took macro micro and then I took gov one semester and the other semester I was teaching, um, I took macro and gov. Gotcha. Yeah, I guess not going back here, two separate ones. Yeah, totally forgot about that. Um, and then I took computer science principles, computer science, um, which is AP Java and some schools.

And I think that’s most of that. Oh, in calculus, AB and calculus, BC, you had a packed schedule. Um, so a lot of people are asking me like, which [00:29:00] one’s harder, which one’s easier, or just advice for taking the courses of. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think the most, the only AP where I’ve walked out of, and I’ve been like that test really, really was difficult, was chemistry.

Um, specifically the free response. There were just so many miscellaneous concepts and like, I did not know. I didn’t know the nuances of a lot of things I got to remember. I got one question about like a titration. They were like, what type of flask is corrected use? Like does, does the water go into the acid, the acid and the water?

And like, I was 75% sure about that stuff from like my lab work, but I hadn’t prepared for that at all. Um, so that was probably the most difficult, uh, the easiest in terms of scores was probably talk BC and I know it’s a little bit unintuitive. But because everyone is with BC at my school had already taken AP and we had an [00:30:00] absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal teacher and the threshold for a five.

And like BC is like 60%, 65%, I think 96% of the people who said calc BC got by. Oh, okay. I’m going to do the offer real quick and then we’ll go back to the Q and a, uh, okay. Here’s the script. Okay. Okay. Let me send this off before I forget.

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Now back to the Q and a.

Oh, sorry. I forgot. How heavily do you think AP [00:31:00] scores during the pandemic will be, um, weighed in the upcoming college admission season? I’m going to be totally real with you. I don’t think you’re going to matter at all. I’m speaking from personal experience, I guess. I guess I can disclose this because I turned down the offer.

I had multiple people come up to me and offer me absurd amounts of money. It’s like take this house with them on zoom. Um, and I’m sure a lot of people’s at that, given that you’re paying like a hundred dollars for a test. So I feel like colleges know that. I feel like they’re not going to like really care about any of your AP scores from the pending.

Uh, there are some questions about honors classes and if they’re just as good. Yeah, that’s a really good question. So I think at least in my school, the way the hierarchy kind of went was on regular honors and then AP it was normal to take like honors chemistry and then [00:32:00] AP chemistry the next year, just because it was difficult.

Um, however, there were also courses where you would take APS instead of honors. For example, there was honors calculus, and then there was AP calculus and there was no regular calculus. Just the understanding was that students that wanted to take the test would go to the AP. Everyone else would go to the honors one.

So I do think that there’s some classes where honors are kind of structured as pre-recs and there’s others where honors are structured as alternative. From a GPA perspective. I think that at my school, at least they were both weighted out of five. However, understand that an AP score is backed up by a college board, like independent test.

So it’s benchmark to some extent, whereas some schools have been known for having really, really easy honors. And there’s no way for colleges to verify how hard you actually worked during that. So, I guess that’s the subtle nuance there. Uh, can you still take AP tests even though you’re participating in the IB diploma?

[00:33:00] Yeah, absolutely. I think that there’s a lot of courses where the same skills would probably carry over. I think there’s a lot of courses where you also just don’t need AP like knowledge from the class. Take the test. For example, I feel like almost anyone who has a solid understanding of like the same types of English and essays he’s should be able to take AP Lang and get a pretty decent.

The only thing you have to consider, if you want to take the exams is the IB exams may be going on at the same time while, depending on what your cause you don’t what the IB program, it’s a two year program. So junior year you don’t take any exams unless some of your classes were one-year classes, but that depends.

But if most of your classes are two years, then you won’t see the IB exam until your senior years. So, um, you may not be able to do AP and IB exams at the same time, because the days. But if you do want it to do that, then do, um, do the makeup AP exam [00:34:00] actually take the IB exam on the right day because it’s more stressful.

Yeah. Yeah. And like the other thing is if you, I can see a situation where you might want to do that, but if you’re already getting credit from an IB exam, I think it’s almost a little bit overkill to also take the AP. Um, I see like very few situations where that would be valuable unless like, You know that you bombed like a class in IPE and you want to take the AP test to show that you’re competent in that.

Uh, what do you think of the AP capstone program? That’s interesting. Um, it was really new at my school. They introduced it when I was a junior. Um, and. It was a really easy class because they hadn’t really figured out what they were doing with it yet. It was almost like a guaranteed five obese, fierce GPA.

I think everyone that did it got really, really bad scores P exam because most of [00:35:00] our projects were knowledge that, so I think the right types of people that should go into AP caps are those that actually have a passion project that, that really want to put time into aside from an hour, every day in school.

Something, it’s probably like, like it’s actually interesting gruff intellectual value. It’s credited to mimic college research. Um, don’t do it if you just want to, like, I guess put like 30 minutes into a research project every night and call it a day. Um, but yeah, if you’re into research, it can be a valuable opportunity.

The cast project for IPE is kind of similar, um, which we call it. Um, the question. Okay.

Do you have anything while I’m looking for questions? You could just talk about the AP program. Sorry. Yeah, [00:36:00] pretty sure. I see the question. The chai is that happened consistently is having a B in an AP class, just as good as having an ed honors class. Um, There’s like some, there’s a lot to unpack there. I think that there’s no like scale that colleges use in evaluating that.

I think if you’re a straight a student in general, a single B boat hurt you too much. However, if you’re like straight, take it in before. Um, having one a in an honors class, instead of just another be in an AP class might be more beneficial. So it really depends on like where your GPA, I guess the standing, um, there was a question about whether or not it’s worth it to take AP human geo.

I’ve heard, I’ve heard things about that class. I haven’t. So why don’t you take this question? I [00:37:00] have no idea what that. It’s uh, AP human geography is a freshman AP course that a lot of people take, like just to get them started in AP. It doesn’t actually correlate to any course in college. So you can’t really use it for credit.

And then not too many people do good on the exam. I don’t know why it may just be the teachers that keep getting it, or I just keep hearing from the wrong people, but I haven’t heard many people getting over it too. I’ve heard like one lucky person getting a four in that class and it’s just across the board a useless course, but it’s, it’s useless at this point.

It’s like, if you want to take it, go on ahead, but it’s, it doesn’t really do anything in my opinion. Yeah. Um, sounds like you should stay away from it that every other AP course is pretty good though. I’m taking AP and 12th grade, um, is of no value since common app is already done. [00:38:00] Um, this interesting. I think it’s important to show that you’re still taking a rigorous course load your senior year.

I’d say, look for if he’s my senior year. Um, however, with that being said, I think the test and the grand total of zero of them, I got some nice refunds on basically. I just wanted to show every college that I was applying to that like, Hey, I’m still here. Like I’m still challenging myself. Like I care about learning.

And the second that I got my acceptances, I was like, psych, you’re not going to resend me for not taking my tests on.

I like you ha if you want to get into a good school, you got to take it. So upgrade year, because they still look at your 12th grade transcript. Yeah. But after you, after you got like a letter of acceptance, you can, you can tell a little bit.

Uh, would taking IB [00:39:00] classes look better than AP classes or not necessarily. I personally have a lot of respect for people who committed the audience diploma, just because it’s almost like spending two years, like in pseudo college, instead of just picking, you know, courses that you might be strong and.

You’re not taking the AP tests and those, however, I’ve never heard admissions officers say that they’d prefer one over the other. So I think it really is a question of personal preference and what skills and what like educational experiences you want. And the kinds of can speak to that too. I guess the I V so like, this is my, uh, pretty much, I don’t know if you can see it, but I took, um, Uh, HL English, HL history of Americas.

I think that was HL bio. And then I had French ITGs, which is a computer science course. And then I took ma oh, I took HL math. That was the thing. And then, um, It’s like [00:40:00] the different AP classes is literally just like a regular class. You just have the big exam at the end. I B is you. Um, your scores are determined by not only your test score, but also your I a so you have your IAA and your.

EA, no one says that, um, external assessment, which is the exam and then your internal assessment, which is your essay or your project that you do in the class. And then it’s like your teacher decides your, I score the IB program besides your exam score. And then they, um, The average it, I think. And then, um, you have to also do TOK, which is a philosophy class, your extended essay, which is a 4,000 word essay.

And then, um, Your cast project, which is create, it’s like a passion project. And then you have casts, um, assignments where it’s like monthly things you have to do [00:41:00] and write about pretty much. It’s a lot more work. It’s not just taking a class, it’s also doing stuff outside of the class. So if you want to put in the time, commitment to it, and if you’re willing to like manage your time.

Cause it’s like I did IB, but I also did sports. I had extracurriculars. I did. What else did I do? Um, I did others. I had a lifestyle. Um, it’s just really about being able to manage your time and not getting, um, last-minute on those essays.

Um, okay. Uh, okay. How can I effectively self prep with the prep book? Right. That’s a great question. Um, I think that start off not really worrying about the content of the test itself. Um, I think a schedule for going through, [00:42:00] uh, like the educational parts of it and just stick to that schedule. And I think most proud books come with like tests and individual sections of that and a bunch of sample your heat tests.

So worry about the sample like he’s has till the end, but do the test pretty judiciously at the end of each section, because if you’re self-studying, there’s no other way to like, keep yourself accountable for your learning. Um, after you’re done with all that, take it, but like the practice tests go back to the sections that you struggled on.

I guess a lot like self studying for the assets. And review those and yeah, just keep at it. And hopefully in those practice tests towards the end of it, you’ll be averaging a five. Uh, oh my gosh. I just had it. I just had the question. Um,

Okay. Any tips for someone who’s about to take their first AP class? Yeah, I [00:43:00] think a big one is just don’t get intimidated by the name of AP. I think a lot of the OCI classes that I say honestly is getting some of the regular ones that I was taking. So there’s no reason to be too stressed. Um, pay attention, be mentally prepared to do the homework and not just copy off friends, especially in the beginning to get a gauge for, if you have a good grasp of what we call inside, or if this is, um, a class that might need some extra attention.

Um, yeah. And just don’t stress about it. A lot of AP classes were just like regular classes. The last thing that I’d say is if you’re a way to organize your notes and tests throughout the. That would be really, really helpful because it’s towards the end of it. When you’re studying for the AP exam, it’s really convenient when you have a year’s notes, a year’s worth of notes, like chronologically organized coming from someone that never did that, that would’ve made my life a lot easier.

Uh, if you do well in the AP costs, [00:44:00] will you do well in the current. Um, I think how well you do in AP classes, it’s really, as upon the teachers that you have in your grading system, the AP test is more standardized. So a good question to ask your teachers in the beginning of the year is, um, like what grade do students usually got on the AP exam?

Teachers are pretty forthcoming with that. And just by asking your friends, you should be able to get a feel for what the average grade in the class usually is. So there were classes in high school, like AP chemistry, where you’d be like the average grade was a B minus, but the obvious score in an AP test was a four to class was harder than the test.

There were also things like AP capstone, where almost everyone got into it, but the average score in the test was like a two or three. So it really depends school to school. Um, uh,[00:45:00]

someone asked if, um, there are like pre-recs I guess, or like classes in high school that can help you get prepared for taking AP APS later on. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of courses of honors is kind of pipeline to get students into APS and ease them into the more intense curriculum. Other courses have like accelerated prerequisites.

So like in my school, for example, there was accelerated algebra two did absolutely nothing. And your transcript or GPA boost, but like the promise was it would get you ready for going into AP calc KB. So just look at your school’s pathways, talk to your counselors about what courses lead well into wished one.

And is the general rule of thumb. You just dipping your toes into the water. Honors costs are a good place to start. What classes are easiest to self study for and another person as is self studying for AP exams worth it. If you’re unable to take, um, [00:46:00] multiple AP classes due to schedule. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, starting with what classes are easiest to self study?

I think classes with a set curriculum out of the AP, like calculus are really easy to self study, just because the way that you do a derivative or integral doesn’t change, regardless of whether you’re in an AP class, you are not. Um, I think something is also really easy to the flip side is classes that are really into the abstract came.

Like appreciating literature or English language. Isn’t a skill it’s exclusive to the AP classroom. So if you take that test by yourself, you should probably do all right. I think some courses that I would not self study or the science. Just because biology and chemistry are like such a huge net of things.

Um, and a lot of AP like curriculum has very specific parts, but that they focus on that you might not know about unless you take the class. Um, I [00:47:00] also think as a general rule, it might be a little bit difficult to self study, a push AP us history and AP world because those tests and the requirements and their essay.

Are so weird and nitpicky that really just taking the class. It helped me get through the prerequisites. And if I didn’t like, even if I knew world history really, really well, it would have botched the essay because it wasn’t the right type of structure of the essay. That’s weird. Uh, what if you, um, way, if you take dual enrollment classes, finished them during the summer, would it be okay to like chill senior year?

Oh, this is a question about your senior year and like demonstrating course of rigor. I advise I’d advise against that just because, you know, so many students are like, I’m going to take linear algebra and, you know, microbiology or organic chemistry at my community college after I graduate. And then they get accepted into [00:48:00] schools and they just don’t do that.

Missions officers know this is a thing. So if you take it really easy your senior year, and you’re just like, yeah, I promise you, I’ll go to community college afterwards. It’s your senior summer admissions officers know you’re probably going to be out driving you’re out, having a good time. So if you want to demonstrate rigor, that’s probably not the best way to go about it.

However, if you take courses on winter semester and finish that before you submit your common out for all your schools, I think it’s a better way of going about it. Uh, is, is Khan academy, a good resource for self studying and learning a little more before the test? Yeah. Khan academy is great because they partnered directly with the college board, that access to the type of content that’s going to be on the exams.

So it’s about as accurate as you’re going to get for self studying his junior year, the hardest year in high school. It depends what you make of it. Um, yeah. My junior year [00:49:00] was definitely, always funnier that I had in high school. And that’s because not even because of the classes that I was taking, but I debated really competitively in high school.

And before you applied to college, everyone wanted to get a high placement in state or not instead of a bunch of random invitationals, because obviously you want to say like the state champion or national champion or whatever. And because I was spending so much time at tournaments that’s when I kind of found myself like slacking in classes and my grades slipping a little bit.

I’m not sure that Mackenzie’s experiences are. She can definitely talk to that. Uh, they were about E well, senior year got canceled about half, second semester, but, um, which, and they call it, um, I. Well with the IB to pro Jesus with the IB diploma program, it’s like, all your classes are IB pretty much. And then I have like one elective that was [00:50:00] open for like dance or something.

And no, and I had to dance in weight training, but the rest of my classes were just IB courses. So it was like junior year. Wasn’t that hard. It was just getting used to like learning how to write for the IB exam and doing the, um, Readings and just keep, like getting used to the workload, but that wasn’t that hard.

Um, and then senior year is like, if you did not start, um, junior year, senior year is when you’re trying to rush and get your done. Uh, even though you should have started junior year, um, I started and then I like procrastinated because I felt I started enough early enough, but it was not early enough. And then, um, Which I call it.

I A’s, we’re just do one after the other, like, not all at the same time, luckily, but it was like, they would just keep coming is like every other, every two weeks or so. I had to write another 12 page essay, which I like [00:51:00] writing. So it wasn’t that bad for me, but my friends were suffering and then, but that’s kind of what colleges, so it’s like, it really gets you prepared.

So, um, It’s not that bad, but if you don’t want to fully commit to the IB diploma program, which has all the casts E TOK and stuff, they do have IB, um, CC course candidate, um, where you can just take a few classes, but you don’t have to do all the extra IB stuff. You can just take the class under the.

Uh, okay. Uh, what was your most enjoyable learning experience? That’s an interesting question. Um, see, there was a project that we did towards the end of ape. Where it was super simple. It was just like managed a portfolio for a few months, winter. It gets actual [00:52:00] money. Um, I thought that was really interesting.

Definitely made me more sensitive to the content we were learning in class, which was about how the fed and inflation affect things like the stock market jobs, et cetera. Um, but it also got me to like make my own portfolio and start trading a little. So I think that’s something that’s really directly affected my own bank account.

And more than that, the trajectory that I wanted to go and pursue during like in my life on, you know, I’m a finance major. I went into it like for the money, but also because I had some funny experiences in any economy, my tissue. Uh, what AP classes should I take if I’m focused on going to medical school and majoring in neuroscience or, and doing the pre-med track, and another person asked for engineering.

Okay, sweet. Uh, for med, I think [00:53:00] AP bio and AP chem are good places to start. I don’t think it’s directly related, but I think AP physics is also useful just because you might get credit for it and be able to skip physics or at least introductory physics. Also it’s valuable to like think like a scientist have a broad range of subjects of expertise.

So if you have the schedule space for. Then geophysics, I think bio encounter probably useful. And like, you shouldn’t have taken those a priority and something it’s pretty interesting that one of my friends did is he took a lot in just to make his way, like make his life a lot easier in that school, because a lot of like, you know, med school and your undergrad, like education in neuroscience or in similar subjects is going to be based off like Latin roots.

So a solid understanding of plot and really helped them out. Um, and for engineering, I’d flip it around so they can have priority to take physics and chemistry. Take bio if you, at the time, [00:54:00] I think bio is probably the least like legitimate AP science that’s offered, so don’t stress too much about it. Uh, and then you’re definitely want to knock out the maths.

So you want to take calc AB or BC? Preferably BC and you probably also want to take AP statistics and that’s probably a good place to start. If you want to go into computer science, then I’d really recommend taking AP Java also called AP computer science. A don’t really bother with computer science principles.

It’s kind of a joke of a class. I didn’t learn that much from it at all. Um, it’s like more ways to approach code, like thinking and less actual code and data structures. Uh, well, this is, this one was interesting. Uh, do you have any suggestions on AP classes for someone interested in becoming a private investigator or a detective?

Okay. That’s kind of wild. That’s a very cool dream. Uh, I guess AP bio is a, [00:55:00] is a good place to start on. I’m having trouble. Like if you really want to go and be a private investigator, what would you even major in, in college? Do they have like AP forensic science? Is that a forensics in my squad? I feel like some sort of forensic science class would be good.

Something reading writing would probably be good for that because working with people, something analytical. So like, yeah, probably reading, writing classes. Um, a lot of people are. Oh, sorry. Um, well we have five minutes until, um, webinar’s over, but, um, a lot of people are asking like, how should senior year look?

Like, what should your course load look like to get into competitive schools, but then also, how do you like time manage? Yeah, I can speak to this for sure. So I can talk about my senior [00:56:00] schedule. Um, first semester I was doing on like Stott issue literature. If you saw, if you lit, um, I was in debate, um, which isn’t an adhere in honors.

It’s just something that I, that I chose to do in high school. Um, I was in econ and then I was TA for a class. So. That’s five on, there was a sixth one somewhere in there. Um, I think like Spanish or something, but yes, there were six courses. And then my second semester I dipped it down to five courses on draw.

Wait, uh, sorry. My first semester I also took gov and that was the one that I dropped the next semester. Um, I really wanted to have a chill second semester, senior year. Uh, there’s six courses for APS in the beginning of my first semester, prove to colleges that I was still, you know, having the game. I did get all A’s, um, towards the end of first semester.[00:57:00]

Um, I was also traveling constantly. I was debating pre-teen USA. I deal with a lot of my teachers where I was like on, Hey, I’m going to miss this exam, please just like, be cool with it. And they were like, okay, I guess like you’re you’re all right. We’ll we’ll cut you some slack. So real shout out to my high school.

She issues their second, second semester hit started getting my acceptance. I got like straight BS. Um, and that’s the way to have an enjoyable senior year while still having rigorous courses. Just be totally comfortable dropping a bunch of BS. You’re towards the end of it. You don’t get to drop by B if you did the diploma focus, if you want to do the diploma program, you gotta be committed pretty much.

Um, AP has more wiggle room, definitely. And so, uh, where’s my script. Okay, so thank you to our panelists. Uh, Okay, thank you everyone for coming out tonight and thank [00:58:00] you to our panelists. This is the end of the webinar. We really had a great time telling you about, um, telling you about AP and IB courses.

And here is the July series. Um, so come out to the other webinars, know that you can download these slides and then also you can. Sign up to get a college advisor or you can even, um, just email if you have different questions. Uh, so yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Didn’t even know y’all and good luck with your courses.

Bye.