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1st Year University Biology vs IB Biology HL


meh

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I've decided not to take my IB bio credit in university (which I could use to skip Bio 107 at the University of Alberta) because I feel that taking the class in university should be a decent GPA booster. However, I'm just wondering how much more material there is to learn besides what I've already learned in IB Biology. Looking at the Bio 107 syllabus it seems like IB has covered all the topics (ie cell structure, cell respiration, photosynthesis, cell reproduction, DNA) but is this material explored in much more detail than IB or is it mostly the same? Obviously I'm not expecting comments specifically on what the course through the U of A is like, but I'd appreciate hearing from anyone with related experience/insight/thoughts :)

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  • 6 months later...

For anyone wondering about the answer:

Bio 107 (cell biology) didn’t really cover any different topics from the IB curriculum. I already new a fair portion of the material, but there were still a lot of details that added to my IB knowledge. I really enjoyed the class (having a good professor makes a big difference) and it was definitely a nice GPA booster for me. Having said that, you still have to put in a good effort if you want to do Really well. I got an A+ but worked my butt off for it – in my class only the top ~4% got an A+.

It was nice having a course on material that I was already familiar with, and I had a really positive lab experience. In the lab we did things like study cell respiration and photosynthesis rates, work with DNA, and examine various microorganisms. The worst part was writing the full lab reports, but it really paid off having IB lab-writing experience! This is in contrast to Chem 101 (general chemistry). A lot of it is brand new material; right off the bat we were learning about quantum mechanics and looking at atomic structure from a perspective much, much different than how I had learned in high school. People in my class who took AP seemed like they were already familiar with some of the material though. As for the labs, they were tedious and boring, but the assignments were really easy (I’m sure this must variy from university to university) and brought up my overall Chem 101 mark.

If anyone has any further questions feel free to ask or shoot me a message! :)

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