[EmmaJane_]

If I get bad AS results in August (I've had a very difficult year with some circumstances I'd rather not go into, which is why I'm expecting to fail), I was planning to go to college and start doing the IB instead. Is this a bad idea?

[CLS94]

(Original post by Muscovite)
It's a bad idea anyway as it just isn't as recognised as A levels. before I get any IB nazis telling me it's much harder and it takes up your life etc; I know a girl who scraped into a second-rate university when if she had taken A levels she would have gone to somewhere like Oxbridge; Durham; UCL; the LSE or Warwick; it is harder and probably more interesting but no worth the gamble in my view

How do you know she'd have gotten into somewhere like that had she done A Levels? Oxbridge in particular but also the others look at more than just grades, they are also interested in whether you suit their style of teaching, devotion to your subject, wider reading and other activities related to your proposed course. And that is just supposing she'd have gotten A or A* grades at A Level, which isn't guaranteed.

OP, although the IB is almost undeniably harder, it will stand you in good steed for the future, it is recognised by all UK universities and is completely manageable if you put the work in. It is also, in my opinion, much more interesting and helps you develop skills helpful for uni admission, and once you actually reach uni as well.

[EmmaJane_]

(Original post by CLS94)
How do you know she'd have gotten into somewhere like that had she done A Levels? Oxbridge in particular but also the others look at more than just grades, they are also interested in whether you suit their style of teaching, devotion to your subject, wider reading and other activities related to your proposed course. And that is just supposing she'd have gotten A or A* grades at A Level, which isn't guaranteed.

OP, although the IB is almost undeniably harder, it will stand you in good steed for the future, it is recognised by all UK universities and is completely manageable if you put the work in. It is also, in my opinion, much more interesting and helps you develop skills helpful for uni admission, and once you actually reach uni as well.

I think the IB looks far more interesting than A-levels too!
How is it harder than A-Levels? More work? More complex/detailed?
Also, when are the exams for the IB? Same time as A-Levels?

edit: by time I meant time of year, like june/july?

[Jamito]

(Original post by EmmaJane_)
I think the IB looks far more interesting than A-levels too!
How is it harder than A-Levels? More work? More complex/detailed?
Also, when are the exams for the IB? Same time as A-Levels?

edit: by time I meant time of year, like june/july?

You do all of your IB exams in the second year

[EmmaJane_]

(Original post by Jamito)
You do all of your IB exams in the second year

Oh, that's good! Thanks

[Jack93o]

no, A-levels are the real deal

[CLS94]

(Original post by EmmaJane_)
I think the IB looks far more interesting than A-levels too!
How is it harder than A-Levels? More work? More complex/detailed?
Also, when are the exams for the IB? Same time as A-Levels?

edit: by time I meant time of year, like june/july?

It really depends a lot on which subjects you decide to take. In any case you will obviously be taking more of them, as well as Theory of Knowledge, CAS and your extended essay so you can't devote as much time to each as A Levels. Very generally, HL subjects are around as much detail or slightly more than A2s, wheras SL is around the same as AS. Maths is a notable exception - HL is like A Level + A Level further maths, wheras the 'Maths Studies' option is more like GCSE with a few bits added on. Beginners languages ("Ab Initio") also don't get near AS standard obviously.

That does mean there tends to be more work, but you will normally have more time allocated to lessons and less to 'study periods' or whatever your college calls them. Having been in 6th form for a year I'm sure you can appreciate how much 'study' they tend to involve and how lesson time would be far more useful

The exams are from mid to late May at the end of the second year.

[Pride]

(Original post by EmmaJane_)
I think the IB looks far more interesting than A-levels too!
How is it harder than A-Levels? More work? More complex/detailed?
Also, when are the exams for the IB? Same time as A-Levels?

edit: by time I meant time of year, like june/july?

I wouldn't recommend taking the IB if you 'fail your AS exams'. They are resit-able exams.

Switching would just waste a year.

The problem with the IB is the workload, and arguably, the lack of recognition for the work required to excel in them. You have to complete 6 subjects at IB - 3 at higher level, an extended essay, theory of knowledge and CAS hours, compared to perhaps the 3/4 AS and A2 exams. Yet, for a course at university requiring perhaps AAAb, it would also require 38+ points and 6s in certain subjects. The IB offer is a lot more difficult to achieve than the A-level offer, if you ask me.

The IB is good for those who want to broaden their options, maybe not sure what they want to do in the future. It's also good for those who'd really like qualifications recognised abroad. Apart from that though, it is in my view very unwise to do the IB, and certainly in your situation, from what you've told us, I would stick with that opinion.

by the way, IB exams are all in the 2nd year, your college might give you mocks and stuff along the way.

edit:

and OP? by the way, what would you say are good grades? What would you be happy with? What do you aim to get?

[CLS94]

(Original post by Muscovite)
I see your point but I don't think you actually have experience of what you're talking about; the IB takes a serious commitment; it is NOT held in higher regard than A levels by admission tutors as they are not allowed to do so as poorer students from some state schools would only be able to do A levels - this isn't my opinion this is the law. Simple as. It is a better mode of education but it is much better (with respect to going to university) to get the level grades and then do extra curricular; because extra curricular as part of the IB means nothing as it is compulsory anyway! An a level student doing voluntary work will be held in much higher regard than an IB student doing the same thing as the IB student has to for the CAS side of her/his course! Obvious stuff really... And believe me this girl WOULD have gotten the grades with A levels as she herself admitted that the only reason she failed is because the workload was too much. I'm sorry but the IB on closer inspection diminishes the impressiveness of breadth of study and community service by making it compulsory. It doesn't serve as any way of 'separating the boys from the girls'. Which is why whilst it's a nice thought; I implore OP to play it safe and go for A levels. It's just plain logic.

*It's 'stead'

I never said it was held in higher regard, but there are a lot of misconceptions about universities being harder to get into if you've taken it which are simply untrue. I don't buy the stuff about CAS being compulsory making it less valuable either. Universities at the top end pay scant regard to irrelevant extra-curriculars at A Level, and would likely do the same if the CAS was like this. However, certain outcomes have to be fulfilled, there is a learning and reflection process to it and it is not simply running round a field for 50 hours. It has more value to it than irrelevant extra curriculars even if it does not have a direct link to the degree applied for at uni. And if your activities are relevant, the fact there has been serious thought put into them makes them if anything more impressive.

[CLS94]

(Original post by Pride)
I wouldn't recommend taking the IB if you 'fail your AS exams'. They are resit-able exams.

Switching would just waste a year.

The problem with the IB is the workload, and arguably, the lack of recognition for the work required to excel in them. You have to complete 6 subjects at IB - 3 at higher level, an extended essay, theory of knowledge and CAS hours, compared to perhaps the 3/4 AS and A2 exams. Yet, for a course at university requiring perhaps AAAb, it would also require 38+ points and 6s in certain subjects. The IB offer is a lot more difficult to achieve than the A-level offer, if you ask me.

The IB is good for those who want to broaden their options, maybe not sure what they want to do in the future. It's also good for those who'd really like qualifications recognised abroad. Apart from that though, it is in my view very unwise to do the IB, and certainly in your situation, from what you've told us, I would stick with that opinion.

by the way, IB exams are all in the 2nd year, your college might give you mocks and stuff along the way.

edit:

and OP? by the way, what would you say are good grades? What would you be happy with? What do you aim to get?

If you look closely at the admissions statistics where they are available, the general trend is that whilst the IB offer is harder to acheive, those who do achieve it have a much better chance of getting an offer than those who achieve the A Level requirements. This just suggests that they see it as a better discriminator of academic potential, rather than them not being keen to take IB students.

[bownessie]

IB is hard. I don't think it has anything to do with it being less recognised, it is very well recognised, it is just very hard. I don't think it is given the credit that it deserves in terms of what you have to get in to get into universities with it. I think it is easier to get AAA than 36 points at IB. If I were you I'd stick to A-levels. IB is great in the sense that you learn a lot, but you have to ridiculously hard and almost always have to do a subject or two you dislike/aren't good at/hate.

I can see why IB is considered a really good sixth form option and I honestly do think I was more prepared than quite a few of my peers for university. Ultimately though, I question whether it was worth the stress I had to go through to do it.

And honestly if you are coming back from a difficult year, it is better the devil you know than the devil you don't. I'd start with As again or just continue on to A-level if I were you. I have some friends now who took IB, we always said they should've taken A-levels because IB didn't suit them, and they are now struggling to get into universities they want to go to.

[EmmaJane_]

(Original post by Pride)
I wouldn't recommend taking the IB if you 'fail your AS exams'. They are resit-able exams.

Switching would just waste a year.

The problem with the IB is the workload, and arguably, the lack of recognition for the work required to excel in them. You have to complete 6 subjects at IB - 3 at higher level, an extended essay, theory of knowledge and CAS hours, compared to perhaps the 3/4 AS and A2 exams. Yet, for a course at university requiring perhaps AAAb, it would also require 38+ points and 6s in certain subjects. The IB offer is a lot more difficult to achieve than the A-level offer, if you ask me.

The IB is good for those who want to broaden their options, maybe not sure what they want to do in the future. It's also good for those who'd really like qualifications recognised abroad. Apart from that though, it is in my view very unwise to do the IB, and certainly in your situation, from what you've told us, I would stick with that opinion.

by the way, IB exams are all in the 2nd year, your college might give you mocks and stuff along the way.

edit:

and OP? by the way, what would you say are good grades? What would you be happy with? What do you aim to get?

My head of Sixth Form isn't allowing anybody to resit year 12, I did badly in my unit 1 January exams - I did maths, physics, biology, chemistry, and I'm sure I've done even worse in the summer. Resitting means I have to re sit 9 exams (biology unit 1&2, chem unit 1&2, physics unit 1&2, maths C1, C2 & whichever unit S1/D1/M1 I've done best in) on top of my year 13 exams too. Whatever I decide to do, I'll have to do an extra year.

I suppose the question is do I go to college and re-do my A-Levels, or do I go and start the IB?

[mevidek]

Nope, you just need to time-manage well and work hard. Ignore Muscovite, he's talking about 1 person. In the Sixth Form I'm going to, they get around 13-30 people each year getting into Oxbridge (though this year it was 8 if I remember correctly). I wouldn't recommend you stop doing A-levels though; try restarting your courses, or just continue them and then decide.

[M'Ling]

If you do the IB you will become one of the "IB-Preachers", who persistently deny the A-Level student to claim difficulty in their exams. I'd stick with A-Levels, in case these self-proclaimed Gurus are correct.

What I would say is that with A-Levels, one's exams are only just around the corner; you're never very far away from the next cramming session. With the IB, though, you're guaranteed to get to second year, but will have to face a beast session at the end of the course.

You never know, though, you could be better suited to IB than A-Level. Some people are. Most are not.

[Pride]

(Original post by CLS94)
If you look closely at the admissions statistics where they are available, the general trend is that whilst the IB offer is harder to acheive, those who do achieve it have a much better chance of getting an offer than those who achieve the A Level requirements. This just suggests that they see it as a better discriminator of academic potential, rather than them not being keen to take IB students.

what does that mean? Does it mean that there are more IB students in competitive courses at university than A-level students? Or does that mean there's a greater percentage of high scoring IB students getting into a competitive course than high scoring A-level students? Or something else? That's very vague, and also, very difficult to support with statistics.

what I'm saying is that IB offers are more difficult to achieve than standard A-level offers.

[chickenonsteroids]

No.

A couple of my friends switched from A levels to the IB. Though I'm not sure how they're doing right now. I think they're doing fine grade wise (but I can't put a number on it).

You just need to work smart for the top grades. Though I wouldn't recommend switching because of what's been mentioned about A level grades. The way I see it, it's easier to get into the universities that require much lower entry requirements but much harder to get into the top ones. For example, most universities see the higher levels as A2 levels and standard level subjects as AS levels. For Cambridge, their typical A level offer is A*AA and their standard IB offer for higher level subjects is 766 all the way to 777. I've never really understood that to be honest.

[curseofthepirates]

Personally, I can't say whether the IB is better or worse than A-levels, but is it for super intelligent people? Definitely not.

Here's my proof:
My IB school (in Austria) was not a private school, and the only way of keeping it free was to also make us take all the subjects needed for the Austrian Matura. So, I (for example) had 37 hours of classes a week, only 17 of which were actually IB-related. In the end, out of around 50 students, 2 people didn't pass; most others passed with average grades (around 30), and two of us even managed 40 pts. (which I consider quite good for our type of school). Moreover, most of the people did the tests of the Austrian Matura the same week as the IB finals and passed both with no problems.
To be fair, we probably had a looot less homework than most IB people. But if the IB was really as difficult and time-consuming as it claims to be, we wouldn't have been able to compete on a world level at all.

So tldr: all in all my point is that the IB is not particularly amazing in its difficulty and you'll definitely do fine. Don't worry about it. =)

[c.anez]

"The same people that whine about how difficult the IB is are the same people that don't manage their time well." <<< This is true..

The IB won't be difficult if you manage your time really well (make a time table, etc) and NEVER procrastinate.

I know many people at my school who aren't very intelligent at all (in fact, some I would consider generally stupid) and completed the IB and recieved their diploma.

If you do decide to take the IB, give in all your effort and keep track of things or everything will pile up all over you and screw you over.

That's all there is to it really..

[Venomilys]

universities don't know how to view it. An AAA course might require 36 points whilst another AAA course might require 34/32.

[Venomilys]

(Original post by c.anez)
"The same people that whine about how difficult the IB is are the same people that don't manage their time well." <<< This is true..

The IB won't be difficult if you manage your time really well (make a time table, etc) and NEVER procrastinate.

Exactly. I procrastinate to hell, I literally only did one C4 past paper the day before the exam and now I am hoping for an A* in maths A level.