A levels vs IB

Which subjects would you want to do? Maths studies (which I'm doing now) is somewhere between the difficulty of GCSE maths and AS maths, but you have 2 years to study it, so unless you are failing Maths GCSE, it will be fine And thanks!

As said, CAS will definitely take 150 hours minimum. You just have to continuously do activities throuhjout the two years. If you have any hobbies like playing an instrument or train for basketball, then you've pretty much sorted at least a third of it. It's quite fun to learn new thinfs and participate in new activities.

I am in Year 2 right now, and I'm acutally from Hong Kong . Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking? Anyway, definitely do thorough research of both IB and potential colleges you want to go to. You wouldn't waste your two last years of secondary school because you couldn't be bothered to use Google. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or PM me.

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So CAS is kind of a form of co-curricular activities in high school but you do get marks from it?
Oh great! I'm from Malaysia well actually I did apply for the St Paul's Co educational college's scholarship to do the IB prep year last year, but parents were worried about me going overseas all of a sudden. So I did not continue with the interview for the application. By the way thank you so much for your help!


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None of the universities I've applied to do this, and any that do simply don't understand the IB. It's quite easy to find the ones that do understand the IB, and then you can simply apply there.

If i plan to got to the US or Canada for university which would it be better to do? Ib or a level (currently doing IGCSE)? Keep in mind that the a level are CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) which are much harder than the British GCE A levels. I also intend to do the ACT several times to score high enough as well as 2 SAT II subject tests (requirement for us unis :/).

Here are the subjects i'd choose:

A Level Subjects
-Maths (Its compulsory to do M1 in my school which is a major turn off for me as i haven't done physics for IGCSE)
-Economics
-Chemistry
-Computer Science/ICT

IB Subjects:
-HL Maths
-HL ITGS
-HL Economics
-SL English Language & Literature
-SL Ab initio Spanish/Arabic B
-SL Environmental Systems & societies

Oxbridge, LSE, King's, Bristol, and Soas are universities that "dont understand IB" then. They see AAA as 766 and A*AA as 776.

...And the above universities are only the ones that I took the time to mention. There are many more like this.

But no worries, I can "easily" find other universities that understand IB.


I dont mean to come off bitchy, but it's true that IB students are disadvantaged when it comes to top tier universities.

(All for Law)
Oxford- 38 with 6,6,6
Bristol- 37 (35 if from 'disadvantaged' school) with 6,6,6
King's- 7,6,6, true but only 35 overall, so can focus on highers
LSE- 38 with 6,6,6
Cambridge- They are the bitches of the bunch, asking for 40 ish with 7,7,6. (Hence I applied for Oxford instead..)

I certainly don't want to seem bitchy, but as an IB student going through this now, I've done a lot of research

Oxbridge, LSE, King's, Bristol, and Soas are universities that "dont understand IB" then. They see AAA as 766 and A*AA as 776.

...And the above universities are only the ones that I took the time to mention. There are many more like this.

But no worries, I can "easily" find other universities that understand IB.


I dont mean to come off bitchy, but it's true that IB students are disadvantaged when it comes to top tier universities.

That's utter crap, Kings just adjusted their offer to mean that ALL IB offers are 35 but A*AA course are 766 AAA courses are 666 AAB courses are 665

If i plan to got to the US or Canada for university which would it be better to do? Ib or a level (currently doing IGCSE)? Keep in mind that the a level are CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) which are much harder than the British GCE A levels. I also intend to do the ACT several times to score high enough as well as 2 SAT II subject tests (requirement for us unis :/).

thanks for letting me know that they adjusted it since last september...
but since they just did that, i guess the problem wasnt there before was it?

still, like 2 percent get a 7 in some IB subjects so it's still pretty tough.

Firstly, it means universities are recognising the difficulty of the IB
It really isn't that tough. I got a 7 in English Lit A and History HL, statistically the two hardest to get a 7 in, i just put in a lot of work, which is exactly how you get an A* in A levels

If i plan to got to the US or Canada for university which would it be better to do? Ib or a level (currently doing IGCSE)? Keep in mind that the a level are CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) which are much harder than the British GCE A levels. I also intend to do the ACT several times to score high enough as well as 2 SAT II subject tests (requirement for us unis :/).

Here are the subjects i'd choose:

A Level Subjects
-Maths (Its compulsory to do M1 in my school which is a major turn off for me as i haven't done physics for IGCSE)
-Economics
-Chemistry
-Computer Science/ICT

IB Subjects:
-HL Maths
-HL ITGS
-HL Economics
-SL English Language & Literature
-SL Ab initio Spanish/Arabic B
-SL Environmental Systems & societies

I'm currently doing the IB. And I regret picking it over A-Levels so much.


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Oxbridge, LSE, King's, Bristol, and Soas are universities that "dont understand IB" then. They see AAA as 766 and A*AA as 776.

...And the above universities are only the ones that I took the time to mention. There are many more like this.

But no worries, I can "easily" find other universities that understand IB.


I dont mean to come off bitchy, but it's true that IB students are disadvantaged when it comes to top tier universities.

I'm sure King's doesnt represent all universities. Congrats to King's. But there are still unis that arent recognizing it, which is what i was addressing.

I'm also a predicted 7 in english lit A and a high 6 for History HL... but surely statistics are a more reliable factor of 'difficulty'?

Will keep your advice for working hard in mind

No, English and History HL are the most popular iB subjects and are compulsory in most American state schools, who bring down the averages massively, as the IB is an elective course for them and doesn't really affect their uni entrance. If you look at stats for 7%s in the UK it'd be higher

For comparison's sake, nearly 50% of Maths A level students got A or A*, whereas maybe maximum of 25% of Maths HL students got 6 or 7; and this is because the IB system is to change the grade boundaries depending on the how well a year has done on average.

Furthermore the IB changes the grade boundaries year on year so that the amount of people who get a 6 and a 7 is fixed.

8% of history A level students get A*, only 2% of IB history students get 7; YET british universities put more value on an A* than on a 7 for the IB.

And this is without even taking into account that the average IB student is more intelligent than the average A level student because IB students are mainly from wealthy and middle class international families

it might have been helpful to read the previous discussion. But you're welcome to show me the stats, as well as public/private school comparisons.