Certificate:  the successful completion of any IB exam that does not count toward the IB diploma.  Registration for exams must be completed in late October of each school year.

Full-diploma:  the successful completion of six examinations in five or six subject areas, taken in a two year cycle in the eleventh and twelfth or twelfth and thirteenth years.  An extended essay, Theory of Knowledge class and a CAS activity are also required (as defined below).

Higher level:  an IB course that is completed in two years. This university level course can be used for certificates leading to advance placement and credit at many U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities.

Standard level:  an IB course that covers about 60% of the material of the higher level course.  University advanced placement is not usually given for such a course.

Extended essay:  a required project for the full diploma candidate, the extended essay is a substantial independent project.  Usually about 4,000 words, the essay is chosen in one of the subject areas, and is a mixture of research skills and thoughtful analysis,.  The essay is planned with the IB Coordinator and IB class teachers in the spring of the junior year. Once a subject is chosen and IB teacher agrees to guide the candidate, the diploma candidates are expected to have a rough draft completed by the first week of school in their senior year.  The completed essay is due at the beginning of February in the senior year.

Language A1:  this is one's first language and it has a literature-based syllabus.  For all students at ISKL, it is English.  A student must be fluent and sophisticated speaker, writer and reader to pass these
examinations.

Language A2:  a language in which the student is highly proficient.  Its principal aim is to enable candidates to use the language in oral and written communication in conjunction with literary texts.

Language B:  a learned language.  Its aim is to develop listening, speaking, reading and writing.  Most students at ISKL take this category in French or Spanish.

Untaught languages:  the IB recognizes that many students speak more than one language fluently, but these languages many not be taught at the school. Arrangements can be made at ISKL to have an IB examination in one
of more than 20 languages.

Ab Initio languages:  this is an IB language taught "from Scratch" over two years to prepare for a standard level language B exam.  At ISKL this exam is Malay.

Theory of Knowledge:  a course taken by all full diploma candidates and other interested students.  The teacher attempts to interweave the I.B. subject areas so that the commonalties and differences in man's various fields of knowledge are understood.  This class does not have a formal IB examination, but the teacher does evaluate the diploma candidate's performance for the IB office, and class papers and tests may also be evaluated by IB examiners.

CAS activities:  This acronym stands for Creative, Active, Social Service. At ISKL, diploma candidates may complete their CAS requirement by doing
combination of activities in the arts, athletics and service projects.