Now that school is over, it’s the perfect time to reflect upon the past academic year and ponder whether you have wasted the past ten months in the wrong program. In fact, you may have squandered the past two, three or even four years in your effort to prove your test-taking ability or intellectual prowess. Well, ponder no more. As someone who had every intention of graduating with an IB or International Baccalaureate diploma but was suddenly thrust into AP classes, I am more or less qualified to illuminate you on the little-known benefits and flaws of each program. But first, we’ll examine three key differences.

1. Program structure

Okay, you could easily find this in a mainstream media report, but for all the AP students who have asked about IB, it’s worth repeating. The IB Diploma Program is a two-year program with six subject groups: math, science, social sciences, language, foreign language and art. Although there might be three or so class options for each subject group, you choose one to take and test in at the end of one or two years. If you choose to study the subject for one year, you take the SL or Standard Level test. If you study the subject for two years, you take the HL or Higher Level test. You need three SL tests and three HL tests to get your fancy IB diploma. The downside to this structure is that if you’re good at everything, you’re typically forced to give up on at least one subject at the end of your junior year. On the other hand, if you choose the AP route, you can take as many one-year classes as you damn well please, your schedule, school’s policy, parents, motivation and mental stability allowing. The College Board even encourages you to take a ton of AP’s through the AP Scholar Awards. If you can brute-force your way through a large number of their classes, they’ll put in a good word to colleges.

2. Class requirements

There really aren’t a lot of requirements in AP classes besides what your teacher decides you need. No one is going to force you to take the AP test at the end of the year, either. If your Calculus AB teacher has been terrible or you slept through most of AP Chemistry, you can opt out of the test. This might be strategic if you’re trying to achieve a certain level of the aforementioned AP Scholar Awards or you realize that your college of choice won’t take your AP score no matter what you get and your three hours would be more productively spent playing video games. Conversely, if you wanted to take an AP Physics 1 but your school wouldn’t let you, you could always study on your own and take the test without even taking the class. Essentially, you have every option that you could ever want. However, in IB, not only do you have to take a test at the end of the year, but you also have to submit big assessments like essays and oral presentations throughout the year for IB. Your teacher grades some of these assessments, and others are sent to Switzerland or Thailand or some other place you can brag about. If you do badly on these assessments, you also have a chance of not getting your IB diploma. Oh, did I mention that there’s one of these assessments per class?

3. Graduation requirements

Because the AP program doesn’t offer a diploma (just our beloved Scholar Awards), failing an AP test doesn’t affect your ability to graduate unless you’ve also failed the class. Technically, if you fail all of your IB tests but met your district’s graduation requirements, you can still graduate, just without your IB diploma. However, you will have wasted two years of your life suffering not just from tests and assessments but also from an Extended Essay, CAS and Theory of Knowledge. These three elements also count toward your IB diploma but aren’t part of any regular class. Your Extended Essay is a 2,000-word essay that you’re supposed to write during the summer between your junior and senior year, while CAS is essentially mandatory extracurricular activities (they are not above forcing you to be well-rounded). They also force you to take a philosophy class in the form of TOK. While the rest of your classes teach you what you know, TOK teaches you why you know what you know, or rather, why everything you know is a lie. Some people are into questioning reality, but some people just want to graduate.

These are the main differences between the two programs you’ll see on paper. Next time, we’ll discuss the less tangible differences, like which one gives you more bragging rights.