Should I do IB

I've started the school year with A-Levels but am considering to change to IB. My school offers both so its not problem but I have to decide soon.
My A-level choices are Math Physics Economics History and German (I'm fluent so its not hard work for me)
For IB I would do English A SL German B HL Math SL Physics HL History HL and Economics SL.
I'm also doing the Duke of Edinburgh Gold certificate so I don't care about CAS at all and in my opinion Theory of knowledge is bull****.
I sort of enjoy English but I'm not sure if IB English is right for me I got 2 As for my IGCSE English exams my strong coursework was the only thing saving me from getting 2 Bs as I'm not very good at writing good quality English essays under time pressure. I got A* for physics, math (+ c in FPM) history and German and an A in economics.
Another reason for taking A-levels is that its more academic and i can focus more deeply on my best and favorite subjects, which is my sort of thing.
The high uni requirements for IB seem very annoying so it might be easier to get in with a strong set of A-levels?
One bad thing is that the Teachers Teaching A-levels are not as good as the IB ones as most of the good teachers have now taken courses to be able to teach the IB and are now teaching this. Also most of my friends are doing IB Hardly anyone is doing A-level which results in tiny classes which is great. For example in my history class we are 3 people in math we are 5 economics 6 and physics 11.
I honestly have no idea which course to pick as each has its own disadvantages and advantages. I want the best for my future.
From what I've gathered there are two types of people those who hate IB and those who love IB, I prefer the A-level system as it is simply academics you learn do the exam easy!! IB is more like thinking outside the box and being creative lots of reflection and stuff but i can also see the benefits of the IB. I've heard of some people getting really disappointing results in their IB for example the brother of a friend of mine got predicted a 6-7 for physics HL and only ended up getting a 4. I've also Heard of students pouring their Heart into their Extended essays and getting high predicted grades only to get something like a D.
anyway I've been rambling on what are your thoughts on whether I should do IB or A levels. I'm hoping someone can enlighten me as i have literally no idea which one to take.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

Shadesofgrey

I'm not sure how much "thinking out of the box" actually gets done at IB -- it rather varies with the school. I've been to a number of IB schools and I got the very strong impression (and experience) that there is a lot of step-by-step and procedures to "success" which translates to standard formats. Not much creativity or thinking there. And a lot of teachers seem to be pretty standard too. That's not particular to the IB, only to the crowds that have been around me.

Having said that, there is plenty to recommend an IB education and especially the TOK and CAS if you take these seriously. These are the closest to what you call "outside the box" thinking.

All depends on the teachers and whether the programme is small (and therefore wishes to attract students, so not likely to do anything challenging or out of the box). Larger schools, or better established programmes can afford to be a bit more daring. Again, my experience is perhaps limited, restricted to 5 different IB schools (1 attended, observed 4).

So you are quite right to look carefully at the quality of the teachers. Do the same at uni -- don't just choose your courses based on subject but on the quality and charisma of the teacher. I'm no Physics major, but I regret not ever studying in any of Feynman's classes!

Reply 2

seaholme

I went to a small IB school where what you describe for your A Level classes (hardly any of you!) was true for most of my lessons. Perhaps it does depend on the size of the school as the user above mentioned, but I have to say there wasn't any thinking outside of the box. The IB sells itself as some kind of global minded creative thinking mumbo jumbo but this is purely marketing spiel that they justify by pointing to TOK which, as you correctly pointed out, is a load of rubbish. And ironically supremely structured in itself, to pass TOK is just to know which hoops to jump through.

Teachers do make a big difference though, I agree. Some of mine were truly awful and it did matter a lot. Plenty of mine seemed deluded into thinking they could just teach us the A Level syllabus from A Level books x__X That is the level of awful though, anything where they're at least trying to teach you the correct course, actually turn up to teach you, and seem vaguely competent is probably alright.

If you want to focus on your best subjects and so on, I honestly would just stick with A Levels. I'm still friends with loads of my A Level friends and vice versa, if you go to the same school you'll still stick together. As you mentioned, the IB is at a disadvantage with University applications and some subjects (although not all) are harder for IB and you can end up massively crapping up things like the EE because it depends on really 'getting' the criteria. And having a supervisor who also understands it. Basically the whole thing is a massive pain in the behind for no real reason and no real advantage so unless you've got some exceptional reason for picking IB, I'd say A Levels every time.