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Why IB Students get such high offers

Because A levels have more depth.

Every IB student whines about how tough & unfair their offers are compared to A levels, and complain that Universities "don't understand".

I think they do understand perfectly by now, as it has been a well known qualification for over 10 years, and they have lots of experience comparing qualifications.

So obviously, the reason that they ask for high offers is because the IB is easier, and doesn't contain a lot of the A level content.

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That's definitely not true
Reply 2
Original post by cheeriosarenice
Because A levels have more depth.

Every IB student whines about how tough & unfair their offers are compared to A levels, and complain that Universities "don't understand".

I think they do understand perfectly by now, as it has been a well known qualification for over 10 years, and they have lots of experience comparing qualifications.

So obviously, the reason that they ask for high offers is because the IB is easier, and doesn't contain a lot of the A level content.


I took IB and I guess it's true that some of us think that IB students receive unfair offers. However, I think it would be hard to compare the two and say which one is "easier" as not many have experienced both the A level and IB system. I think that it's probably true that A levels have more depth, but IB has more breadth in terms of students studying 6 subjects along with TOK and EE.
Reply 3
Original post by cheeriosarenice
x


I'm not really experienced with the IB but I thought if you do so many subjects then surely it's more difficult to go in-depth with every single subject? Hence, it could be slightly less in-depth than A levels- but not significantly easier.

I wouldn't claim it's any easier as I'm pretty sure some A level students would struggle to have so many subjects. I know I'd be annoyed doing subjects that I didn't necessarily enjoy.
Original post by mynameisntbobk
That's definitely not true

yes it is.
Why are the points scores so high then?
Original post by j132
I took IB and I guess it's true that some of us think that IB students receive unfair offers. However, I think it would be hard to compare the two and say which one is "easier" as not many have experienced both the A level and IB system. I think that it's probably true that A levels have more depth, but IB has more breadth in terms of students studying 6 subjects along with TOK and EE.


Yeah but 5 a levels would be harder
Reply 6
Original post by cheeriosarenice
Yeah but 5 a levels would be harder


I still think it would be difficult to compare the two systems without actually experiencing both of them. I don't really have an opinion on whether IB is "harder" or "easier" than A levels because of this reason.

Anyway, under "Acceptability" section of the TSR IB article http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/International_baccalaureate, it briefly explains how UCAS's new tariff system compares the two.
Anyone else got anything intereseting to add to the discussion
bump
You only have to see the A level student twitter account to know how many problems us A level students get from it.
I don't see any IB students twitter account with ratings as high as the A level students account.
Says enough.

With the IB you get "higher level" and "lower level" like you could do low level maths and high level french, do you get that with A levels? No it means you probably wont get an offer.

I think A levels are hard, but i'm not saying IB's aren't hard either.
Original post by Guren
You only have to see the A level student twitter account to know how many problems us A level students get from it.
I don't see any IB students twitter account with ratings as high as the A level students account.
Says enough.


Surely this can't be serious?
Original post by Necrosyrtes
Surely this can't be serious?

Why would you half quote me? I said they are both hard...
Original post by Guren
Why would you half quote me? I said they are both hard...


I was quoting that part specifically. I was commenting on your claim that, since you don't see IB student accounts on twitter as you do with A Level, it could be considered as evidence that A Levels are harder. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to convey sarcasm or a 'tongue-in-cheek' statements via text, so I just can't tell if you are serious about that claim?
Original post by cheeriosarenice
Yeah but 5 a levels would be harder


No one gets offers based on 5 a-levels though.
I guess it's partly because you have to study a greater number and breadth of subjects - so go into less detail for each individual one. However, you are only going to be studying one subject at uni, which is probably at the most relevant to three of your IB modules. Therefore, to ensure you are good enough to catch up on anything you missed from the A level syllabus, they increase the offer slightly.

Another thing is probably the lack of AS equivalent, as I believe there are no first year exams for IB. Therefore, they only have GCSEs to go on, which tend to be pretty easy and since you study such a variety of subjects at GCSE most of which aren't related at all to your uni course it is hard to differentiate between candidates fairly based upon their GCSE results. By giving a higher offer, unis cut out some of this uncertainty by ensuring only those definitely good enough for the course get through.
Having been doing my A-Levels as my best friend did IB, I can definitely say IB is harder and the HL subjects do, for the most part, cover the same amount of content as A-Level and then some. Non-IB chemistry teachers didn't teach some topics at A-Level at all and had only seen some of it at degree level.

The offer comparisons for particular unis/subjects are unfair. My friend applied for pharmacy and the offers for IB were so much higher than what they asked for at A-Level. I can't remember the specifics but I can find them in a sec (on phone, one tab at a time...). :smile:

IB prepares you so much more for university than A-Levels, but that said, it is harder and not doing IB was the best decision I ever made (even more so when the school messed up big time resulting in some students dropping by as many as 10 points below their predicted score).
Original post by Paralove
The offer comparisons for particular unis/subjects are unfair. My friend applied for pharmacy and the offers for IB were so much higher than what they asked for at A-Level. I can't remember the specifics but I can find them in a sec (on phone, one tab at a time...). :smile:

IB prepares you so much more for university than A-Levels, but that said, it is harder and not doing IB was the best decision I ever made (even more so when the school messed up big time resulting in some students dropping by as many as 10 points below their predicted score).


How does it? At university, you do not have to spend hours of your time volunteering if you don't want to, just to pass. You don't have to study subjects you don't like (yes there will probably be little bits of the degree you don't like, but you're not forced to learn about irrelevant subjects), and referencing is taught from the beginning; you don't need TOK and EE to do well at university essays.

The offer comparisons are not unfair; if you don't want a higher offer, don't take the IB. Surely before committing yourself to the two year programme (which is not the normal route), you'd so some research into what universities ask for and where you'd like to see yourself when you finish? IB students knew (or should have known) what they were letting themselves in for when they started, in terms of what universities think of the IB and what the offers are like.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by dragonkeeper999

Another thing is probably the lack of AS equivalent, as I believe there are no first year exams for IB. Therefore, they only have GCSEs to go on, which tend to be pretty easy and since you study such a variety of subjects at GCSE most of which aren't related at all to your uni course it is hard to differentiate between candidates fairly based upon their GCSE results. By giving a higher offer, unis cut out some of this uncertainty by ensuring only those definitely good enough for the course get through.


I think this hits the nail on the head.
This isn't true.

At all.

IB HLs go into more depth than A Level. Not only do we go into more depth in class, but we also have to read massively around our subjects. I mean, ffs, in English we study FIFTEEN texts word for word, consider contextually etc. In A-Level you do four I believe. In history I have to know pretty much everything that happened in the world during the 20th Century. Not modular things like A-Level. We do literature in French as well as speaking, listening and reading papers. I do SL geography and my teacher said that she thinks the IB course goes into more depth than A Level. I can't really talk for sciences, as I'm humanities.

As well as this, we have to do CAS, TOK and the EE. Offers are basically "hai, pls get A*A*AAA and do 150 hours of extracurriculars and two extra essays thnx" (this is Cambridge - offer of 41 points with 776 at HL, but A*AA for same course).
Original post by Pectorac
How does it? At university, you do not have to spend hours of your time volunteering if you don't want to, just to pass. You don't have to study subjects you don't like (yes there will probably be little bits of the degree you don't like, but you're not forced to learn about irrelevant subjects), and referencing is taught from the beginning; you don't need TOK to do well at university essays.

The offer comparisons are not unfair; if you don't want a higher offer, don't take the IB. Surely before committing yourself to the two year programme (which is not the normal route), you'd so some research into what universities ask for and where you'd like to see yourself when you finish? You and the other IB students knew (or should have known) what they were letting themselves in for when they started, in terms of what universities think of the IB and what the offers are like.


The extended essay prepares you for the longer dissertations you may do at university. The heavier workload helps with time management which is essential in life regardless. There are also a lot of opportunities offered through IB that aren't for those doing A-Levels, at least at my sixth form, hence making it more enticing. My friend said she loved it and is glad she did that rather than A-Levels, she just wished she had been at a different school to do it.

A lot of people don't necessarily want to limit the subjects they take. I didn't do IB, if you had read my post correctly, and I'm glad I didn't. But I guarantee that the average IB student would do a lot better in A-Levels than your average A-Level student would in the IB.

Also, as mentioned above, I agree that they get higher offers due to a lack of evidence of any academic ability or progress between GCSE and applying to university, but sometimes the greater difficulty does need a bit more consideration.

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