The IB Diploma

[assassin_696]

I'd always thought the IB favoured breadth over depth? That may make it harder but I didn't think it went into quite as much detail compared to certain A-levels (i.e. Further Maths).

[raven_gaurd0]

Agreed. It's really...a very hypocritical program. Still, it produces results.

 

 

 

Point is, if you're interested in being a smashing success with a versatile future, go IB. It's not bad, and it's very prestigious. But if you actually want to be learning for the sake of being more intelligent, go for pure advanced AP.

[Video_Tycoon]

I'm in gr 8 this year and the people that came in talking about the IB at a local school sounded desperate for students. Plus no choice. I'm choosing a different school. :|

[Eyebeam]

Hmm ... Just finished IB year 1. All i have to say is that it isnt an easy course, you have to be really consistent throughout the whole year. If you are going to do this course, please be prepared. The amount of work that is given can be quite a lot. Plus, there are numerous essays that you have to do.

[Denismage]

IB is very difficult. You can overestimate your abilities and join, but it's likely you'll have to drop out in a year or two.

[ElkNight]

IB is very difficult. You can overestimate your abilities and join, but it's likely you'll have to drop out in a year or two.

 

Sounds like me. 8-)

[l0l0lpur32]

I'd always thought the IB favoured breadth over depth? That may make it harder but I didn't think it went into quite as much detail compared to certain A-levels (i.e. Further Maths).

 

About the same depth as A-level from what I understand.

[mensilater]

The horror stories about homework in the IB here are way overblown in my opinion. I hardly ever study, never do homework, and only do assignments, but I manage to pull a decent score for my diploma. Sure, if you want to get a perfect point total it's hard, but for your average joe it's quite similar to other high school programs.

[dsavi]

I was thinking of doing the IB but decided to learn Swedish instead at another school closer to me.

[R_I_O_T]

Sister got 41 points. Can't remember which uni's she applied for but her first application got rejected by all uni's. Is in Bristol studying Neuroscience.

 

Sisters boyfriend got 44 points. Got rejected from Cambridge. Is at Bristol.

 

 

 

My brother, 3 A's at A level. Accepted by Cambridge.

 

 

 

Tbh I dont think IB is "recognised" by uni's aswell as A level.

[rangeor]

What exactly is an ' IB Diploma '? Is it like the UK form of AP (college level classes in high school)

 

 

 

And good luck to all who are taking it.

 

 

 

No, it's like AP but a little more difficult. When I lived in florida I went to a pre-IB school which, to be honest, was a lot more difficult than the A-level classes i'm taking now. 8th grade was about twice as difficult as 9th grade was. And i've talked with some of my friends who are taking the IB classes and they say it's terrible. Whenever I instant message them they're always like "sorry busy". ALWAYS.

[Boris5000]

Sister got 41 points. Can't remember which uni's she applied for but her first application got rejected by all uni's. Is in Bristol studying Neuroscience.

 

Sisters boyfriend got 44 points. Got rejected from Cambridge. Is at Bristol.

 

 

 

My brother, 3 A's at A level. Accepted by Cambridge.

 

 

 

Tbh I dont think IB is "recognised" by uni's aswell as A level.

 

 

 

According to UCAS, A 44 (1 mark off perfect) is around 700 points which is well over the recommended ammount for cambridge, 3 A's perhaps is 500 (along with the GCSE's you get) . I'm not sure you are quite telling the truth, Maybe your sisters boyfriend was not suited for the courses he had applied to. However your brother, specialised in 3 subjects and excelled which made him appealing.

 

 

 

With the 44. He should of been accepted since he did so well in the IB, I think you are pulling a little lie there...

[MicroLegionnaire]

Coincidentally, I was wondering whether I should take up the IB Diploma as well, but I decided to play safe and do the A-Levels.

 

 

 

It looked good so far, given how UCAS seems to hold it in higher esteem as compared to other certificates like the GCE A-Levels, but that seems to only be the case in the US, whereas in the U.K the A-Levels still seems to be top dog.

[l0l0lpur32]

Sister got 41 points. Can't remember which uni's she applied for but her first application got rejected by all uni's. Is in Bristol studying Neuroscience.

 

Sisters boyfriend got 44 points. Got rejected from Cambridge. Is at Bristol.

 

 

 

My brother, 3 A's at A level. Accepted by Cambridge.

 

 

 

Tbh I dont think IB is "recognised" by uni's aswell as A level.

 

 

 

According to UCAS, A 44 (1 mark off perfect) is around 700 points which is well over the recommended ammount for cambridge, 3 A's perhaps is 500 (along with the GCSE's you get) . I'm not sure you are quite telling the truth, Maybe your sisters boyfriend was not suited for the courses he had applied to. However your brother, specialised in 3 subjects and excelled which made him appealing.

 

 

 

With the 44. He should of been accepted since he did so well in the IB, I think you are pulling a little lie there...

 

With the IB most top unis want 777 in the best 3 subjects and good grades in other subjects too, but "only" want AAA at A-level - also 3As is 360 UCAS points (and GCSEs don't give any), but UCAS points don't even matter for most unis, they just look at the grades - or people would do silly amount of A-levels rather than the standard 3. For Oxbridge it's more about the interview etc than A-level/IB results...

[Mat]

I find it funny how people think near perfect grades will get you into oxford/cambridge. There is so much more to it then that.. a person with less then perfect can easily get in over a person with perfect.

 

 

 

its about passion for the subject and how good your ps is and you work experience and how well you do in the interview.

[assassin_696]

Cambridge also ask for the marks you got in individual modules, (nearly) everyone has A's who's applying so they like to see 90%+ averages to help them further differentiate. It is also about a passion for your subject, which they can assess through your personal statement and reference and an ability to think laterally under pressure which they assess at interview. It's very hard to make predictions about who would get in purely based on marks.

[Th3_Crusader]

I was in IB first semester until my GPA decreased so instead of doing IB i went just one deploma down. Pretty tough to keep for 4 years

[Alg]

Didn't go for Diploma, but still took most IB Classes... Didn't see much more homework over standard classes. If anything, the standard classes had more homework

 

Only regret not being able to take ToK :cry:

[Boris5000]

Didn't go for Diploma, but still took most IB Classes... Didn't see much more homework over standard classes. If anything, the standard classes had more homework

 

Only regret not being able to take ToK :cry:

 

 

 

The ToK sounds quite fun. Also quite alot of my current teachers are very keen to teach the IB, so it will be interesting...

[Boris5000]

I am totally raising this topic from the dead. But I legitimately have a good reason to. (It was very hard finding this topic again :/)

 

At this exact moment, I am sitting cross-legged with a Japanese text book in my lap preparing for two exams. After tommorrow only 3 left :D, and I will be finished with the IB and I will be free for the next few months until I go off into the world to study Biochemistry. I finish on the 19th and I am FREE (and then it is off to work in lidl.)

 

Overall, my experience on the IB was positive and it was definetly a rewarding course. But hell it was difficult, it is hard to describe really. It just happened at the end of the day. After Christmas I found it stupidly hard, due to the fact I had to finish my psychology IA, write the TOK essay, finishing my English World Lit Essay, Japanese Orals and complete my Maths Portfolio. Other than January-Feb 2011 the rest was pretty much smooth.

 

Apart from May 3-21... (exam time). From the 3rd of May to the 19th I had 15 exams (5 left, including the ones tommorrow)

 

I ended up choosing (for my subjects:)

English SL - Enjoyed it alot - will miss English :(

Japanese Ab Initio - The german teacher decided to teach italian, I happily moved over to Japanese, I think I enjoyed it more than I would have if I kept on with German.

Psychology HL - Pretty straight forward

Biology HL - Harder than I thought.

Maths SL - By far the hardest subject for me, I just don't get maths, but found the exams oddly straightforward.

Chemistry HL - I wrote my Extended Essay in Chemistry hitting 31 marks (which is an A)

Tok... Is evil. Just generally horrible and should die. XD Disregard the post above me.

 

I was predicted a 39/45 at the beginning of the year (based off IQ-like tests - where I scored the highest :/), I'm expecting to get a 35. I didn't put 100% of my effort into the whole course.

 

Anyway, I'll go get a good night sleep.

[KittyKat]

It's really not that hard if you put time and effort into it.

 

 

Doing it this year. It's pretty tough, but it's managable (as a freshman in high school). I have 2-4 hours of homework most nights, sometimes more, sometimes less. Depends on your schedule really though.

What grade are you going to be in for it?

 

IB is junior/senior year...

[All_Is_Great]

I am totally raising this topic from the dead. But I legitimately have a good reason to. (It was very hard finding this topic again :/)

 

At this exact moment, I am sitting cross-legged with a Japanese text book in my lap preparing for two exams. After tommorrow only 3 left :D, and I will be finished with the IB and I will be free for the next few months until I go off into the world to study Biochemistry. I finish on the 19th and I am FREE (and then it is off to work in lidl.)

 

Overall, my experience on the IB was positive and it was definetly a rewarding course. But hell it was difficult, it is hard to describe really. It just happened at the end of the day. After Christmas I found it stupidly hard, due to the fact I had to finish my psychology IA, write the TOK essay, finishing my English World Lit Essay, Japanese Orals and complete my Maths Portfolio. Other than January-Feb 2011 the rest was pretty much smooth.

 

Apart from May 3-21... (exam time). From the 3rd of May to the 19th I had 15 exams (5 left, including the ones tommorrow)

 

I ended up choosing (for my subjects:)

English SL - Enjoyed it alot - will miss English :(

Japanese Ab Initio - The german teacher decided to teach italian, I happily moved over to Japanese, I think I enjoyed it more than I would have if I kept on with German.

Psychology HL - Pretty straight forward

Biology HL - Harder than I thought.

Maths SL - By far the hardest subject for me, I just don't get maths, but found the exams oddly straightforward.

Chemistry HL - I wrote my Extended Essay in Chemistry hitting 31 marks (which is an A)

Tok... Is evil. Just generally horrible and should die. XD Disregard the post above me.

 

I was predicted a 39/45 at the beginning of the year (based off IQ-like tests - where I scored the highest :/), I'm expecting to get a 35. I didn't put 100% of my effort into the whole course.

 

Anyway, I'll go get a good night sleep.

 

There's Psychology HL? wth...

 

Anyways, being the lazy bum that I am, and the fact that IB is near useless to me because I plan on going to a University 10 minutes away from me (a pretty good Uni too), I just did Math SL. Had the test last week and it was ALOT of questions for 90 minutes. My friend drew a happy face for the graph :lol:

 

Are you using IB diploma to apply to Uni overseas/away from home? In that case it definately would be worth it. But to me and some of my friends, we had an apathetic attitude, because in the end our IB marks didn't matter. Calculus was hard though <_<

[Guy]

IB was offered at my old school for sixth form and that is precisely why I changed schools to one that does A-levels. Quote person who does IB 'A social life, enough sleep, good grades. Choose two of the above'. Also I couldn't stand HAVING to do all English, as well as a language and creative stuff. I do science, maths and computers. Not making stuff up about a book or playing an instrument. Also the fact that if you fail one, you don't get the certification bothers me.

 

@echofish on the first page

GCSE is a joke. A child could do it. iGCSE is where it's at - and the leap from there to A-level is supposed to be rather large.

[Boris5000]

There's Psychology HL? wth...

 

Anyways, being the lazy bum that I am, and the fact that IB is near useless to me because I plan on going to a University 10 minutes away from me (a pretty good Uni too), I just did Math SL. Had the test last week and it was ALOT of questions for 90 minutes. My friend drew a happy face for the graph :lol:

 

Are you using IB diploma to apply to Uni overseas/away from home? In that case it definately would be worth it. But to me and some of my friends, we had an apathetic attitude, because in the end our IB marks didn't matter. Calculus was hard though <_<

 

Yes there is Psychology HL and it is as easy as Psychology SL :P Although I failed a bit on paper 2.

 

Maths SL was interesting for me, I did it on the 4th/5th and on paper 1, I was either in blissful ignorance or genuinely found the paper to be easy. Paper 2 was a [bleep] though. (Just looked at your Birthday? You had maths on your birthday?! Unlucky.

 

I am going to a uni that is about 1.5 hrs drive from where I currently live, it's a case of "could have, would have, should have". But I decided to apply to local(ish) uni's.

On a plus side, I could have gotten into Univeristy of NSW with just my predicted grades. And started at the beginning of 2011 (cause I have an aussie passport).

[Jaffy1]

I took IB English, higher level (it's my second language, but it was offered to me regardless).

 

Although I found it fun, it was easy and (at least in my country) of little additional value as far as universities are concerned. I did learn quite a bit about literature and whatnot, but some of the people (who also passed, be it with a lower grade) still are cabbage, so I wouldn't attach too much value to it myself either.

 

For reference, IB English higher level wouldn't even be considered enough to be accepted for a higher level English study at my university (I needed my secondary school diploma for that).