IB or A-levels

In terms of the difference in opportunities, there's practically none. No matter if you go into IB or do your A Levels, there is no difference in the type of universities you'll get into (unless you're targeting some very specific European universities). All major universities recognize both qualifications.

Thus, the difference comes down to personal choice and your personal ability.

A big difference between IB and A Levels is the fact that IB requires you to be well rounded and for you to a bunch of other stuff in addition to academics. With the IB, you need to study English, Mathematics, a Science, a Humanities Subject and a Second Language up to the very end of high school (you have to do 7 subjects total). And you'll need to do well in all of them in order to get a general good grade on the IB. In addition to that, you have to do service activities called CAS (which involves participating in sports, doing volunteeering activities, etc) and a philosophy assignment (TOK) and a research project (EE). With IB, its **CRUCIAL** you do well in all, otherwise you won't get an overall good grade. Also, your internal assignments in all 7 subjects also contribute to your final grade.

A Levels on the other hand is much more liberal and allows you to focus on your specialty. If you're considering medicine, you can take Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics. All that matters now is succeeding the final year exams for those 3 subjects (you can resit it too which is great as you can maximize your score). You don''t have to worry about your research project not being good enough or how you messed up that one History assessment which knocked down your final grade or how you have to do a volunteering event this weekend instead of studying.

Also, important note. IB allows you to take 4 Higher Level Subjects (equivalent to A Levels) while the rest have to be at Standard Level (equivalent to AS). The problem is, only 2 out of those 4 Higher Level Subjects can be in sciences. So if say you wanted to do a triple science at A Level (Chem, Bio, Physics), that's impossible in IB.

So it truly depends. Are you better at studying 3 subjects in depth and not having to worry about random stuff... or do you prefer a well rounded approach?