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IB or A Levels!?!

So my school George Greens does IB and they literally brainwashes you to choose IB. I know what I am going to be when I grow up (a businesswomen) and what uni I want to go to (LSE) and where I know what courses I wanna do! I am so confused tho does IB get you "to the top of the acceptance letter pile" according to my English Teacher

Reply 1

sixthformer

A - LEVELS

believe me

A-Levels fo sho

Well, the IB is worth up to 720 UCAS points and if you have intentions of going to an American university, you will probably need it, but it's harder than A levels... Your English teacher is probably right, as 360 UCAS points (university scholarship level) is only about 50% so your choice :smile:

Reply 4

xChelseyChelsey

Don't do it. My friend was a straight A* student at GCSE, was predicted straight A's in 5 A-Levels, would have easily got it. Never got below an A* in any test without any work. She was just naturally bright. She then decided to do the IB so went off to another school. She got into 3/5 top Universities, less than people at our school doing A-Levels, she did however get into Oxford. She would have walked the standard offer at A-Level and the university say they don't prefer people with the IB, if anything the other way around. Because she did the IB and over stretched herself she didn't get in, not even close. Out of her school which in our area in London was one of the top couple for doing the IB only about 1/3 of the year even passed it. It's not worth it at ALL. Don't try and over stretch yourself when there's no need at all. It's a myth that Universities prefer it, actually a lot of the top places (like Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Kings) told our head of 6th form they preferred A-Levels because they're more traditional. Stick to A-Levels. :smile:

Reply 5

zincoff

I also was in a similar situation to you last year.
IB is known for being generally more rigorous, but at the end of the day in terms of how much more IB is respected or how much of a broad platform it gives you really depends on your subject combination. I picked my A level subjects because I still didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I wanted to pick subjects that gave me options. I picked Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Economics. If I had done the IB, I would have done those subjects plus french and english at standard level along with probably biology. So to be honest, IB wouldn't really have made a difference to me, and A levels gave me an opportunity to do the subjects that I wanted.

If you don't enjoy the subjects you are forced to take with IB- such as english or a language, i don't suggest doing it if you don't enjoy it. This is purely because even if you take them at standard level, it's no use wasting your time on subjects you don't like- but if you do, then I think IB may better for you.

Reply 6

dstevens

Clearly, with most of the people commenting (myself included) having never studying both systems, there is a strong chance that there will be some bias or misinformation somewhere in this thread.

For me, the decision to take A-levels in physics, chemistry, maths and further maths was pretty simple. I have known for some time now that I want to study physics at university so I was able to take four subjects that were relevant to physics (physics, chemistry, maths and further maths). I have never liked English or any other essay subjects a great deal so I was quite pleased to get rid of them. I would also question whether the education in these subjects that you would get with the IB would have as much depth as A-level because with the IB, you would have a much greater number of subjects to study but in the same amount of time.

The IB system definitely has its benefits though, a broad education is probably a good thing for most people and especially if you're not sure what you want to study at university. Even if you are sure what you want to study, you may develop skills with the IB that you wouldn't with A-levels. If you really can't narrow your choices down to just four subjects, the IB might be for you but if you've got a strong idea of a smaller number of subjects you'd like to take, A-levels might be a better option.

As for the IB being more respected by universities and more likely to get you an offer, I'm not so sure. The general consensus is that the standard offer for IB students is much more difficult to achieve than the standard A-level offer. To me that would suggest that either IB students complain too much or are simply not up to the job, these scenarios are unlikely as a lot of people who study for the IB are excellent students, or that universities simply don't have enough respect for the difficulty of achieving a high overall grade. Whether you're more likely to get an offer with the IB or not is open to debate but it seems that if you do get an IB offer, you'll probably have more difficulty keeping it than an A-level offer.

To conclude, I don't think you'll be hugely advantaged or disadvantaged either way in terms of the level of your education entering university but most offers for IB grades are likely to be a bit more difficult to meet but your decision as to which route to follow should really come down to personal preference above all else.

Reply 7

NidaJaffri

Original post by dstevens

Clearly, with most of the people commenting (myself included)
I have never liked English or any other essay subjects a great deal so I was quite pleased to get rid of them.