Diploma Years
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (DP) will be offered for students in grades 11-12. The Diploma Programme is a comprehensive and balanced two-year curriculum and assessment system that requires students to study courses across all disciplines. Within this structured framework, the Diploma Programme provides a great deal of flexibility, accommodating student interest and abilities. All students explore the connections between the six major subject areas, study each subject through an international perspective, reflect critically on what it means to be a knower, pursue one subject in great detail through independent research, and have the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills through local and community outreach.
IB courses are typically more challenging than regular high school courses, and so students may be asked to do more homework. The challenge, however, is not always in the amount of homework assigned; rather, it is in the quality of the assignments and the extent to which students engage in those assignments. The added benefit here is that students take greater responsibility for their own learning while they acquire the valuable skills of time management and organization.
Students with IB Diplomas who now attend universities report that their involvement with IB has given them the tools needed to succeed at university and to make the most of their post-secondary education. In
particular, students comment on their sense of preparedness, self-confidence, research skills, the ability to manage their time, and the willingness to be actively engaged in their own learning.
A student pursuing the full IB Diploma will take six IB exams, including one literature course taught in the student’s native language, one foreign language, one social science, one experimental science, one math, and one arts course. The arts course can be replaced by a second social science, a second experimental science, or a third language. Of the six exams, three are taken at the standard level (after a minimum of 150 teaching hours) and three are taken at the higher level (after a minimum of 240 teaching hours).
IB students are expected to take their examinations at the conclusion of the two-year Diploma Programme. However, the IB permits students to take one or two standard level examinations at the end of the first year of the Diploma Programme. The remaining exams are taken at the conclusion of the second year of the Diploma Programme.
