International Bacclaurete

• Instructional hours: SL courses require 150 hours of instructional time over the two-year program, compared to 240 hours for HL courses.
• Core curriculum: The core curriculum and educational aims are often the same for both SL and HL subjects. HL courses simply include additional topics or components to be explored in greater depth.
• Purpose: SL courses ensure students maintain a breadth of knowledge across different academic disciplines. This keeps students well-rounded and allows them to manage their demanding workload more effectively, leaving more time and energy for their HL subjects. 

• Increased Depth and Breadth: HL courses cover more content and explore topics with greater complexity compared to SL. 
• More Teaching Hours: HL subjects require approximately 240 teaching hours, whereas SL subjects require about 150 hours. 
• Advanced Assessments: HL students often face more demanding assessment components, such as a lengthy Extended Essay or in-depth internal assessments, showcasing their ability to conduct independent research and apply complex concepts. 

 The TOK curriculum is structured around three interconnected parts: 

• Core Theme: Knowledge and the Knower. This mandatory theme prompts students to reflect on their own perspectives as "knowers" and on the communities of knowledge to which they belong.
• Optional Themes. Students explore two of five optional themes, which include:
  • Knowledge and technology
  • Knowledge and language
  • Knowledge and politics
  • Knowledge and religion
  • Knowledge and indigenous societies
• Areas of Knowledge (AOKs). The course examines five compulsory areas of knowledge: the arts, history, the human sciences, mathematics, and the natural sciences.