Note that I went to Turner Fenton, so grade calculations may not be exactly the same

I think when deciding to go to IB you need to ask yourself the following:

Do I want high marks? Can I put up with lots of work that feels useless?

If you answered yes to both of the above, then I think IB is for you. IB classes usually sport higher average marks, on average ranging from a 5 to 5+ which converts to a 88-92. Needless to say, for an average mark, this is very high. So just by being average, you could easily get an impressive high school average. Now you can argue, that kids in IB are smarter, but honestly, not really. The only difference between IB kids and Core kids is that the people in IB try way harder, so don’t think that you’re too dumb for IB, because as long as you can put in the effort you will do good. Now the trade-off is that you will be worked a lot harder, and a lot of your work may be things you deem useless, such as CAS, EE, and IA’s, all projects which you have to complete on top of your regular course load.

I think that overall higher marks in IB are mainly attributed to how teachers often mark within the program. In Core teachers usually use raw grades, meaning if you got 9/10 on a test that’s a 90%, which can often make it hard to get higher marks as the intervals are so large. However, in IB, due to the increased difficulty, many teachers curve or translate your raw marks. The example which comes to mind was on my Physics exam, where a 50% raw mark translated into a 88%, and a 66% raw translated into a 100%. There is usually quite a reasonable interval to get higher marks, which means silly mistakes don’t have the same impact they would have in Core. However, due to the increased difficulty, you will have to study more. I would put it like this, IB is a safety net, but to have that safety you have to work a lot harder (both on general course work and IB specific content such as IAs), but in my opinion, the trade is worth it.

Another thing I like about IB is that for your DP courses you and everyone else in that course in the whole world take the same exam at the same time (usually in May). The exam is much more standardized than what core teachers come up with, as even for the same course in the same school different teachers can have very different tests and styles of questions. Furthermore, since this is a global exam, you have access to resources from teachers and students all over the world, which can be directly applied to your courses. Additionally, you have access to the full archive of past IB exams which means you will know what to expect when you have to take your test.

IB DP is a lot of work, and at times can feel very hard and overwhelming, but honestly, if you can plan your time out, and put in the needed amount of effort, I think you can do better than you would in core, as it not only gives you the opportunities to get better grades, but also a very effective safety net in ensuring you get a competitive average.