IB has given me everything it promised. However, it has also given me a bit more than I bargained for. Before I launch into an analysis of my experience with IB, I issue the reminder that junior and senior years are difficult whether you choose to do IB or not. I have yet to meet anyone who was stress free as an upperclassman.

The IB program at Harriton promised that I would receive a well-rounded education that had breadth and was thorough. So far I have. In chemistry and math, I am learning information that I would not have been covered otherwise until college. My history classes cover topics that I would never have covered otherwise outside of IB considering how centered the traditional curriculum is on the United States. I would not trade what I am learning for anything.

That does not mean that the IB program is flawless. There is a considerable amount of paper writing that becomes quite tedious. This is because the IB has no way to moderate the learning that goes on at each IB school, so it runs its program by issuing IA’s, internal assessments, for each course. These are lengthy writing assignments/research papers that you have to do in every subject, most of which occur senior year. Unfortunately I was not informed of these before I enrolled in IB, but I suppose my writing needed some experience anyway.

IB claims that it will make you a more productive student, who knows how to deal with long-term deadlines, and perhaps it does to a certain extent, but I have not compared myself with those who have not done IB. Yet, it is entirely possibly to go through the entire IB program and not acquire this skill of tackling long-term deadlines. Without this skill, IB has a lot more stress than if one attempts to organize and prepared. IB certainly kept me much more engaged than I believe I would have been outside the program.

While it has made me write papers across subjects, the IA’s have had quite a bit of flexibility on which topics I could write about, including the extended essay (an independent research paper that I would not have gotten to do outside of IB).

The IB program has also definitely made me into more of a thinker. It truly does encourage thinking across disciplines, which has engaged me more than I would have done outside of the IB program. Overall, the IB program at Harriton has given me a lot. While certain elements might be tedious, it has engaged me much more than I believe I would have been without it.