Are IB classes worth taking?

Many hardworking students strive to be the best in school, taking the most prestigious classes requiring the utmost responsibility from each student. Usually these students refer to these classes as Advanced Placement (AP) classes.

But what if there are classes that are at the same level as or even more advanced than AP classes?The International Baccalaureate (IB) program offers such classes.

Only a portion of high schools have this program, and it is often referred to as a very challenging high school program. Although these classes may look good on the college resume, they often leave a heavy burden on students with tremendous amounts of pressure to excel. This results in numerous students dropping out of the program.

This begs the question, “Are IB classes worth taking?”

The IB program is a program helps students develop into the growing world. According to ibo.org, the IB program’s goal is to “…develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills needed to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.”

With the numerous opportunities that the classes has to offer, many students initially start off in the IB program with the ambition to be the best. However, as the years progress, students realize the amount of work and effort they have to put in, resulting in hundreds of students dropping out. These students may drop out due to poor grades, or perhaps the lack of time.

Overall, the IB program is worth it for people who have the dedication, time, effort, and the grades to focus solely on these classes. Without these four requirements, IB classes are not worth taking. Even though the program can make the college application look better, people without these requirements can overall have a poor GPA in these classes.

“I think the IB program takes a lot of work and effort,” said Ben Yoo, a freshman IB student at Valencia High School. “Also, it may not be easy to make it through this rigid program. I think taking this program makes you set good study and work habits.”

When considering the numerous requirements that IB has, it all depends on the student to make the IB program worthwhile or not.