I was in IB - for one year. Hated it. (warning, long rant follows)
Not because of the workload, I found the assignments rather easy actually. But (and no offense intended to anyone here) because of the teachers.
The high school I was at (for that year) was a regular high school that had an IB program. They made a big deal about the program, and how it was so advanced and we'd be taking university-level studies by the end of the program etc. But it used the same teachers they were using for the regular courses. Some of the teachers were good, one was very good, several were terrible.
The math teacher didn't like teaching, and made it known to us. On the first day of class she told us that she didn't care if we showed up to class or not, that she had to sit there and teach even if it was to an empty room so it really didn't matter to her if we were in class.
The science teacher was a lecherous toad, that favoured the pretty girls. And I mean obviously favoured. On the days when I'd get more "dolled up" for whatever reason, he'd always make sure that he tood particularly close to me when checking on my work. Creeped me out to no end, and made me really dislike science class.
The English teacher hated my writing style. I'd have points deducted because she didn't like how I had phrased things. At one point we were reading Dickens, and I just could not get through the book. I'm an avid reader, but for whatever reason I could not read this book. I would start to, but within an hour my head was just pounding. I didn't find out for a few years that I actually needed glasses, and the print in that book was particularly difficult to read. In the meantime, all the teacher did was tell me I was being lazy and irresponsible. I would end up in tears trying to explain to her that I HAD tried to read the book, but she would not listen. Toward the end of the year she had apparently had enough of me and called my mother to complain. If my mother had any doubts about my version of the troubles I was having in English, that call settled it. My mother and I have different last names - she called my mother by the wrong name. She spent 10 minutes complaining about how I shouldn't be in IB and maybe even shouldn't be in grade 10 because I obviously hadn't picked up a lot of the things I should have learned in grade 9. My mother kindly pointed out to her that a) Mrs XXXX was not her name, and b) I hadn't gone to grade 9. I had in fact skipped grade 9, and was put straight from grade 8 into grade 10 IB. But the teacher hadn't bothered to look at my file for anything other than the phone number to call my mother, so for most of the school year she had been scolding and berating me for what she perceived as deficiencies, when she hadn't even bothered to check the file at all during that time.
For the remaining 2 years of high school I went to a collegiate owned by one of the local universities. It was a private school so it cost money, but the education that I received there was leaps and bounds beyond what I got in IB. And not only was I in a university setting, I would have been allowed to take some university courses in my final year (had I elected to).
I'm sure other IB schools aren't the same. At least I sure hope they're not.
