IBO is the International Baccaulaureate Organization. It was created (initially) to help diplomats' children (who move around a lot) have a steady curriculum despite the constant traveling and shifting of schools from country to country. Hence, wherever you go, if you do IB the curriculum should be rather similar, and you don't need to start over! It has become a rather respected name now throughout the international community, as it is called international it is offered at schools extensively throughout Europe and US, South America is getting more and more as well now. In our school we offer AP and IB, and IB is considered above AP. Like there are AP classes there are IB classes, however, IB classes have an option of being whats called Standard Level (SL)(1 year class with SL test), or Higher Level(HL) (2 year class with HL test).
Generally, the IB tests are much more challenging than the AP tests. And are even worth more at colleges (if they choose to acknowledge IB, it is rather inchoate in the US). For our math HL test, if you get a 4 or above (IB scores), you can obtain 12 Math credits in college, i think in AP you get like 6 or something. Also, colleges like Cambridge prioritize IB diploma's over AP tests.
Anyway, furthermore IB has created a seperate diploma to signify to colleges the "challenging" you have taken. It's called the IB diploma and several standards need to be met: You need to take 3 HL's and 3 SL's throughout your Junior and Senior year. Also you must partake in i think 50 community service hours with equal proportions in certain categories, it's like "Community," "Action," and "Service" hours or something i have forgotte. In addition, you must write a 4,000 word essay on a topic approved by your IB director. If you pass all HL and SL tests and complete these steps you get an IB diploma.
Anyway, thats more than you probably wanted to know. I just felt like typing . I like the IB program at our school, it is nice. Especially because we get the same teachers for the HL courses and i like them a lot (actually, all except for english). Physics is crazily easy so it's not that hard of an HL, it's just a lot of work. Math is the only hard one and i think i'll take the SL test for that cause i'm taking 4 HL's and 2 SL's. So hope this helps. Kudahafus.
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