When freshmen are starting out at Pembroke Pines Charter High School (PPCHS), there are only two available college-level classes offered directly from the school: AICE Geography and AICE General Paper. Aside from dual enrollment through Broward College (BC), many freshmen opt for the highest level of classes and take AICE Geography as an elective.
This is their introduction to these “college-like” classes, with many more alternatives like Advanced Placement (AP) becoming available to them the following year. However, numerous benefits come with filling up their schedule with many AICE classes.
AICE is the abbreviation for the Advanced International Certificate of Education, a program by Cambridge University that is meant to challenge high school students with incredibly rigorous coursework. As mentioned before, it is equivalent to other programs like AP and International Baccalaureate (IB).
One large difference, however, is the existence of the AICE diploma. This is a certificate that is a gateway to many post-high school opportunities. One example is Bright Futures, which is both much easier to get with AICE and pays for the entirety of one’s tenure at a public Florida college, and covers 75% of tuition at a private Florida university.
There are many additional benefits, such as waiving the HOPE requirement and the certificate itself looking good on any college application. While this is all helpful, one very important detail about the courses is how both teachers and Cambridge itself present and teach them.
Another way AICE and AP differ greatly is how their course materials are presented and how the final tests are answered.
AICE is fully paper-based on its final exams, containing solely free-response questions. AP, however, is almost entirely digital, with most of the tests consisting of multiple-choice questions (MCQs).
“I feel that AICE allows you to explain yourself better,” says former AICE Biology teacher Maria Pardo. “With AP tests, it’s more about having to guess right on the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) without really knowing much. In AICE, if you don’t know it, you don’t get it.”
Ms. Pardo’s point explains why many students take APs, despite the benefits the AICE courses offer. If a student is either poor at free-response questions, has difficult-to-read handwriting, or simply does not enjoy writing, then they will be much more inclined to take AP courses.
On the other hand, the actual content of AICE courses is much more in-depth than their AP alternatives.
AICE math teacher Marianne Guzman says, “I see that for AICE Math in particular, the course prepares students very well because of its in-depth work. You learn a large amount of content that is needed to solve various problems, and I think that all of it is incredibly relevant.”
When it comes down to choosing AICE, it is mostly based on personal preference. Someone who enjoys and does not want to take HOPE would likely go down the route of AICE. In contrast, a student who may have bad handwriting or doesn’t like the teaching style of the AICE curriculum is almost certainly going to take the majority of their classes as APs. Both are college classes that look great on any application or resume, so taking either will benefit anyone’s high school career.
