Grade point average is major factor that contributes to college admissions, a common way that a lot of students increase their grade point average is by taking advanced placement (AP) classes. AP classes allows students the opportunity to place out of colleges classes. However they only allow for a student to place out of universities and colleges within the united states and about a 100 other countries. Recently I have heard about International Baccalaureate (IB) would allow to students that go to colleges abroad to have their credits transfer anywhere in the world. AP and IB classes do have a lot of similarities. Annually in May students that have taken the AP or IB classes have to take an exam that will determine how well they have mastered the material.

The major difference between IB and AP are the goals of the programs. IB is more geared to develop critical thinking and writing skills while AP is more apt to simply stuff a students head with as much knowledge as possible on a certain topic. IB classes should be implemented in more schools because of the use of critical thinking. I think critical thinking is extremely important skill to have going into college. Because I believe that is what will be honed in on. It is already expected of students know the content and know the content well and any student with a impressive work ethic can do this.

Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.