FAQ

CAS stands for Creativity, Activity, and Service.  Using the definitions provided by IB:

• Creativity: exploring and extending ideas leading to an original or interpretive product or performance.

• Activity: physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle.

• Service: collaborative and reciprocal engagement with the community in response to an authentic need.

It is notable that CAS is not "required hours."  It should be instead seen as "required reflection" or "required experiences" that lead toward you being a balanced and well-rounded person!

CAS is one of the required parts of the IB Diploma Program Core.  IB Diploma Candidates (supported by the 11th grade Diploma Core Seminar and 12th grade Theory of Knowledge course) take steps during the two years of the program to grow in these three areas.  CAS isn't supposed to be "lots of extra work" for students, but rather an opportunity to be more reflective about things you might already be doing in your life.  CAS also provides you opportunities to try new things and find out if you'd like to continue doing them.  You'll learn a lot more about CAS in the Diploma Core Seminar and Theory of Knowledge courses.

In the IB Diploma Program, "IA" stands for "Internal Assessment."  They are called this because unlike the exams that happen in May (which are graded externally by IB), the IAs are graded internally by your teacher at BVHS, and then scores are sent to IB.  Each IB Diploma subject has at least one Internal Assessment (IA) that will be done sometime during the two years of the program.  The term "IA" is often used at BVHS to refer to these papers/experiments/reports/projects that are done in class but are graded by your teacher and then submitted to IB to count for part of your overall IB score.  The point value of the IA in each subject is different, ranging from 20% of the overall IB score all the way up to 50% of the overall IB score.

Students are required to complete these "Internal Assessments" if they are taking the IB course or IB exam.  Even if a student is not an IB Diploma candidate and just taking one subject, they must complete the IA for that subject.

In the IB Diploma program, EE stands for "Extended Essay."  Each IB Diploma Candidate is required to write ONE during the two years of the IB Diploma Program.  It is a 3,000-4,000 word research paper that students write in one of the subjects they are studying for their IB Diploma.  Students are paired with an EE Advisor (a teacher at BVHS) who supports them in the research and writing of the paper.  Students are NOT expected to start working on the EE on their own.  They will be supported on this during the Diploma Core Seminar and Theory of Knowledge courses.

It turns out that writing "research papers" is a big deal in college.  It's something that you'll likely be asked to do multiple times during your college years, and the vast majority of high school students don't get a chance to learn this skill until college.  One of the goals of the IB Diploma program is to prepare students for college and life-long learning, and developing skills in real research (more than just Googling an answer to confirm biases or suspicions) are critical in college and in life.  For this reason, the EE is included as a requirement of the IB Diploma Program.

The good news is that you get over a year to prepare for it and write it (where in college you might only have 6-10 weeks to complete it).  The EE isn't an easy thing to do, but students tell us that it's a very rewarding and worthwhile process.

This is a good question, and it's often at the heart of students thinking about whether or not they want to pursue the IB Diploma.  In my mind, the benefits fall into two categories - extrinsic and intrinsic benefits.  

Extrinsic Benefits - these are benefits that provide direct, measurable impact.

• You are likely to earn college credit for the 3-4 Higher Level IB exams that you take.

• You are more likely to be accepted to prestigious universities.  Read this report that shows how much more likely IB Diploma Candidates are to be admitted than students without IB Diplomas.

• All IB courses offer a weighted grade, giving you the potential for a high GPA.  This includes the Diploma Core Seminar and Theory of Knowledge courses.

Intrinsic Benefits - these are benefits that are internal.  They are real, but may not seem like they impact your life on a day-to-day basis.

• IB is very much about reflection and critical thinking, not about taking tests.  Students who go through an IB Diploma Program are better prepared to think deeply about their lives and the world around them.

• You get to write a research paper in high school, years before other students do.  This experience puts you at a big advantage when it comes to writing research papers in college.  You'll have experience with something that many of your peers don't.

• IB courses aren't designed to replace college courses.  They're designed to prepare you for that college learning.  Where AP courses might be focused on how to pass an exam so that you can show colleges you deserve to skip a class, IB courses are focused on helping you develop skills and habits of mind that do more than getting you out of 1st semester college courses.

• Cohorts of IB Diploma Candidates end up becoming (over the two years) a tight-knit group of individuals who are working together toward diverse goals.  Students who pursue the IB Diploma often find they have significant support not just from teachers and their coordinator, but also from other IB Diploma candidates.

This question has a lot to do with the IB organization.  Their goal is to prepare students for the thinking and learning you'll be asked to do in college and beyond.  The goal of the IB isn't to get you credit for a 1-semester college course, it's to prepare you for a life of inquiry and learning.  The reality is that it takes time to help students grow, and the IBO chose to implement the IB Diploma program over two years (grades 11 and 12).

Most of the IB courses at BVHS are two-year courses, but there are a few one-year Standard Level courses.  Many IB Diploma candidates have a blend of two-year classes and one-year classes so that they can meet all the requirements of the IB Diploma Program and also the requirements for high school graduation.

There are indeed six subject groups in the IB Diploma Program:

1. Group 1: Studies in Language and Literature

2. Group 2: Acquired Languages

3. Group 3: Individuals and Societies

4. Group 4: Experimental Sciences

5. Group 5: Mathematics

6. Group 6: The Arts

In order to be an IB Diploma candidate, you must take one course/exam from each of the first five groups, and then a sixth exam from ANY of the groups.  For instance, a student could take:

• English HL (group 1)

• French SL (group 2)

• History of the Americas HL (group 3)

• Environmental Systems and Societies SL (group 4)

• Mathematics Analysis and Appraoches SL (group 5)

• Dance HL (group 6)

Students who do not wish to take an IB course from the Arts group can instead choose to take two subjects from one of the other subject areas.  For example:

• English HL (group 1)

• Spanish HL (group 2)

• History of the Americas HL (group 3)

• Environmental Systems and Societies SL (group 4)

• Mathematics Application and Interpretation SL (group 5)

• French ab initio SL (group 2)

Both of these courses are IB courses, and both of them earn you a weighted grade on your transcript.  Both of these courses support you in what's called "the Core" of the IB Diploma program.  They both help you learn about CAS, prepare to write the EE, and teach you about the Theory of Knowledge.

The Diploma Core Seminar course is taken in 11th grade and the Theory of Knowledge course is taken in 12th grade.  If there are multiple sections of Diploma Core Seminar in grade 11, then there will likely be multiple sections of Theory of Knowledge in 12th grade, and since the class periods might not be the same, it is possible that the exact same class groupings won't be preseved.

The most important thing that the IB Diploma program prepares you for is what it's like to learn in college and what it's like to be a reflective individual who lives a life of learning.  The IB Diploma program doesn't specifically prepare you to study engineering or medicine or mathematics.  It prepares you to be successful in anything you choose to do in college.  If you know you want to be an engineer, then do your best to choose IB courses that align with that pathway.  If you know you want to go into medicine, then look to see if you can fit IB Chemistry or IB Biology into your IB Diploma coursework.

But know that even if you don't get to take ALL the classes you wanted to in high school, college is really the place where you specialize in a subject.  High school is still supposed to be a place where you are completing your well-rounded education and preparing to go to college where more specialization happens.

IB scores are released in early July.  Students are generally admitted to colleges in the Spring of their senior year, and commit to those colleges by May of senior year.  This means that you won't know if you earned your diploma until after you've been admitted to college, and neither will your colleges.  The vast majority of American universities do not offer "conditional acceptances" - in other words, American universities are admitting you based on the work you are doing (being an IB Diploma Candidate) not on how you do on those exams (whether or not you earn your IB Diploma).

Your EE advisor is a teacher on campus who is knowledgeable about one of the subject areas of the Extended Essay as well as knowledgeable about the requirements of the EE.  The EE Advisor is a student's main support and point of contact for questions about the extended essay.  The more often you interact with your EE Advisor, the better you're likely to do on your EE.

During the first semester of junior year, students will learn about the different subjects that are available for the Extended Essay, and learn about what it means to write an EE in any of these areas.  After that, students submit their top three areas of interest for Extended Essays, and the IB Coordinator will pair each student with an EE Advisor based on the availability of advisors and the number of subject requests.  Students are allowed to submit their preference for advisors, but for balancing purposes, it may not be possible to pair every student with their preferred advisor.

No!  Many years ago, CAS was measured in hours, but IB stopped doing it that way some time ago.  You still need to have hours of community service for graduation from high school, but not for IB.  With that said, things that you do for community service hours might work for part of CAS, and some of the service you do for CAS might be able to be credited as community service hours for graduation.  But IB does not count hours of service for anything.

The IB Coordinator will put out a Google Form in September that will allow you to select the level and subject of the exams you plan to take.  Payment for these IB exams is handled through our school's ASB.  More details will come out about that process in September, when it is time to register.  For the 2023-2024 school year, the cost per exam is $125.  If you qualify for a fee reduction, the cost per exam will be $10.

You will NOT sign up for IB exams through an IB website like you might have signed up for AP exams through collegeboard.com.  All exam registration and payment is done through the school and IB Coordinator.

One of the IB Learner Profile attributes is "Caring."  It never ceases to amaze me how caring our IB students are.  I'm asked all the time how I'm doing, and I always get the sense that the student asking genuinely wants to know.

Just like everyone, my life has ups and downs.  These days I've been feeling very tired, but am also as happy as ever to be the IB Coordinator at BVHS.  I'm excited that our school is looking into the IB Career-related Program and the IB Middle Years Program.  It feels like it's a great time to be a Baron.

At home, my kids are getting along really well, and we get to spend quality time together in the evenings and on weekends.  I'm hoping to get a chance to get out and do some intentional hiking in the 2023-2024 school year.

How are you doing??

The short answer is "yes - most likely for the higher levels."  Every college and university has different policies on what AP or IB exams or scores they accept for college credit.  If you'd like to know more about this, Google "IB credit UNIVERSITY" (and put in the name of the college or university you're interested in).

The UC and CSU systems have for several years now offered what they call "thirty for thirty."  These schools offer 30 units of credit for students who earn their IB Diplomas with a total score of 30 or more points.  These 30 units are: 8 for each HL exam that is passed (times the required 3 HL exams) plus 6 more units for earning the IB diploma with at least 30 points.

Remember, also, that college credit comes in two types: course credit and elective credit.  Some colleges might only give elective credit for AP or IB exams where others might give course credit for AP or IB exams.  Getting course credit means that your IB course is directly replacing one of your college courses.  Elective credit means that your success on the IB or AP exam is getting you elective credit at the college, but not replacing any courses or requirements.

This question is similar to the question above.  IB Higher Level exams can get you course credit at universities (including community colleges).  So your IB Higher Level exams might replace courses that are required for an AA degree.  You'd need to check with your community college for more specific details.

Ms. Timmons has been offering IB Dance at BVHS for almost 10 years now, and students are very successful in the course and on the assessments.  BVHS is looking to expand its options in the arts.

Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, students will have options to study IB Theatre at the Standard or Higher Levels.

We are working toward getting one of our teachers trained on the IB Film course, and hope to offer it at the Standard Level in 2024-2025, with Higher Level potentially coming after that.

There are numerous differences between AP and IB assessments.

• Timing of exams: AP exams are offered in one sitting, usually 3-5 hours in length.  IB exams are the same length, but split across multiple days to reduce test fatigue.

• Type of exams: AP exams are always a mixture of multiple-choice questions and free-response questions.  IB exams do not have multiple choice (other than science exams).  This means that IB exams are much more about what you can justify about your knowledge, and not just what facts you know.

• Existence of Internal Assessments:  AP exams always come down to what you can show on that one test day during those 3-5 hours.  IB exams always have some sort of "Internal Assessment" - a project or paper or exploration that is done in class over a period of time.  These internal assessments give students opportunities to show their learning in a variety of ways, and not just through a traditional examination.

• Variety of Levels: AP exams are always the same difficulty level.  IB exams are offered at Standard and Higher levels.  Higher level exams are harder and go into greater depth than their standard level counterparts do.  This variety of level gives you the ability to test higher level in your strengths and use standard levels to show your breadth of knowledge and experience.

You definitely don't have to go to college in another country if you do the IB Diploma Program.  The "International" in "International Baccalaureate" comes from the fact that when the program was started in the 1960s, it was set up as a program for children of international diplomats who wanted their children to get a well-rounded education that would be recognized anywhere in the world.  IB has come a LONG WAY since then, but it is still a program that is recognized around the world.

If you study IB Diploma courses or earn your IB Diploma, you should expect it to be recognized by most universities around the world.  To give an example, here in California, in order to apply to UC and CSU schools, you need to meet the "A-G Requirements."  International universities also have requirements like this, but for many of them, an IB Diploma is an indicator that you got a rigorous, well-rounded education, and that you're prepared to study at their university.

Earning an IB Diploma will also qualify you for specific scholarships at numerous universities around the world that are reserved just for IB Diploma recipients.

As an international organization, IBO offers dozens of different languages, multiple different math exams and levels, a variety of arts, and more than a dozen different subjects in the individuals and societies areas.  We can't offer ALL of those options here, so we have opted to offer the courses that meet the needs of the largest number of students, so that we can prepare as many students as possible for a successful post-high school education path.

Some of the IB course and exam offerings that we provide for students may not be as likely to earn them college credit as others.  In those cases, we have chosen to offer these subjects because we believe that they are the courses that students are most likely to be successful in and that students are most likely to find useful in their future college and career pathways.

I'll give some quick answers here, but know that the CAS Project is something we will be discussing during the Diploma Core Seminar and Theory of Knowledge courses, and students should NOT try to carry out CAS Projects prior to discussing them as a class.

Every IB Diploma Candidate is required to complete at least one CAS Project.  The primary purpose of the CAS Project is to ensure that all students participate in collaboration with others over an extended period of time.  Each CAS Project needs to take place over at least one full month of time.  A CAS Project can focus on just one strand of CAS or combine two or even three of Creativity, Activity, or Service.  You'll learn more about the "CAS stages" and how these are used to plan and carry out a CAS Project.

In short, a CAS Project is an opportunity for you to work with a group of other individuals to carry out an event or activity that covers at least one CAS strand that utilizes all five of the CAS stages.  It should take place over an extended period of time and require collaboration with others.

This is a very difficult question to answer for a variety of reasons.  The amount of time you spend doing homework for classes depends on a wide variety of factors:

• Which IB courses are you taking (some have heavier homework loads than others)

• How you use your time in class (some classes offer significant time in class to complete assignments while others rely on work being taken home)

• What work habits you have when you are  working on homework (do you have a lot of distractions like phones, family, TV, etc)

• How you respond when teachers space work out and give you time to work on something over the course of the week (students who are able to do a little bit of work each day on a project are much less overloaded than those who wait until the last day to complete long projects)

If you are finding that you consistently have large amounts of homework and they are interfering with your ability to sleep or be balanced, please reach out to Mr. Phelps so we can talk about your habits and where most of your work is coming from.  At that point, we can work together to figure out how to improve the situation, which might include talking to the teacher and getting their input!

The year-end IB exams happen at the end of the IB course sequence.  Some of our IB courses are 1-year long (SL only) but most of them are two years in length.  Because of this, most IB exams take place in May of 12th grade.  Students are allowed to take up to 2 (not more than two) of their IB exams in junior year, but they can ONLY be Standard Level exams.

When students meet with Mr. Phelps for their one-on-one IB consultations, they'll build a 4-year plan.  The HL exams are highlighted in yellow and the SL exams are highlighted in green.  If you have specific questions about your exam plan or when you might take certain exams, talking to Mr. Phelps is your best bet!

IB students work hard and they study hard for their exams, but there's always a chance that an exam score will come back lower than expected.  When this happens, there are a few things that students can do.

• Students can request that their IB exam be re-scored.  There is a fee for this service, but the fee is refunded if the score changes.  We usually only recommend that students request a rescore if they were only 1 or 2 marks away from the next highest score.  When you get your scores, check on candidates.ibo.org to see if you were close to receiving a higher score.  If you were, and that higher score would make a difference, consider requesting a rescore.

• Students can re-test for subjects.  Since IB is an international organization, they offer exam sessions in both May and November.  If you earn a lower score than you were hoping for in May, you can register to take the exam again in November and your old score can be replaced by the new one!

The short answer is that BVHS doesn't currently offer a Bilingual IB Diploma.  We're looking into options that would allow students this opportunity, but currently don't have them.

To earn a Bilingual IB Diploma, students must earn scores of 3 or higher in two different "Studies in Language and Literature" subjects in different languages.  In other words, if students took English: Language and Literature HL and Spanish: Language and Literature SL and earned scores of 3 or higher in both of them as part of their IB Diploma, then they would be awarded a special Bilingual IB Diploma.

Students can also earn a Bilingual IB Diploma if they earn a score of 3 or higher in a "Studies in Language and Literature" subject and a score of 3 or higher in an "Individuals and Societies" or "Science" subject completed in a different language.

The reason that BVHS doesn't currently offer a Bilingual IB Diploma is that the only "Studies in Language and Literature" subject we currently offer is English.  We hope in the near future to expand this into Spanish as well, but as of the 2023-2024 school year, this isn't an option.