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Reply 80
Original post by Calllu-m
The IB don't compile a list of results by country, at least one that they don't release, but if you look at the results from most British schools you'll notice the %s of 7s for the supposedly hardest subjects to get 7s in are higher than the world average.



could that be because you're looking at private schools that are trying to advertise?
i think if a school releases it's IB stats, they are most certainly higher than average. they wouldnt be released otherwise.

just some critical thinking, i dont know with certainty. but neither could you..

as for my school, results are pretty with average. if my predicted grades hold true, i would only be the second person to achieve a 7 english - after IB has been offered for 4 years. that certainly constitutes 2%. i know this because i asked for the stats - they dont provide them on a website because it wouldnt be great PR seeing as tuition here is an arm and a leg.
Original post by zettel
could that be because you're looking at private schools that are trying to advertise?
i think if a school releases it's IB stats, they are most certainly higher than average. they wouldnt be released otherwise.

just some critical thinking, i dont know with certainty. but neither could you..

as for my school, results are pretty with average. if my predicted grades hold true, i would only be the second person to achieve a 7 english - after IB has been offered for 4 years. that certainly constitutes 2%. i know this because i asked for the stats - they dont provide them on a website because it wouldnt be great PR seeing as tuition here is an arm and a leg.


Yes maybe it is true for private schools too. Although some fantastic state schools offer IB and get amazing results (Dartford Grammar and Dane Court). Yes it constitutes as 2% if you've had 100 people do the IB in 4 years
Reply 82
Original post by Calllu-m
Yes maybe it is true for private schools too. Although some fantastic state schools offer IB and get amazing results (Dartford Grammar and Dane Court). Yes it constitutes as 2% if you've had 100 people do the IB in 4 years


yes, i was indeed implying that 100 people took IB in the 4 years. astutely spotted!
Original post by zettel
yes, i was indeed implying that 100 people took IB in the 4 years. astutely spotted!


Thats a big cohort then, unusually so. We have about 20 people a year do it. Sarcasm isn't appreciated btw.
Reply 84
Original post by Calllu-m
Sarcasm isn't appreciated btw.


I'm so sorry... it's just.... you've just been hurting my feelings so much with your imperious arguments.:bawling:

Original post by Calllu-m
That's utter crap
Reply 85
Original post by Calllu-m
Thats a big cohort then, unusually so. We have about 20 people a year do it. Sarcasm isn't appreciated btw.


This is a little off-topic but is it usual that the amount of ib students in a school is this little? I mean we have 30 students doing ib annually, and I thought it's because ib is not well known around here since the language is different and stuff. In my opinion even 30 people is wayyy too little for the school to be able to offer a good variety of subjects, so i really don't know how you can manage with only 20.
Reply 86
Original post by eaw
This is a little off-topic but is it usual that the amount of ib students in a school is this little? I mean we have 30 students doing ib annually, and I thought it's because ib is not well known around here since the language is different and stuff. In my opinion even 30 people is wayyy too little for the school to be able to offer a good variety of subjects, so i really don't know how you can manage with only 20.


I think it really depends. At my school (intl school in Hong Kong) it's compulsory to do IB, so we have like 230 people, whereas in the local schools that offer IB, only the top end of the cohort are allowed, so the size is much smaller, probably like 20-40 people.

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Original post by eaw
This is a little off-topic but is it usual that the amount of ib students in a school is this little? I mean we have 30 students doing ib annually, and I thought it's because ib is not well known around here since the language is different and stuff. In my opinion even 30 people is wayyy too little for the school to be able to offer a good variety of subjects, so i really don't know how you can manage with only 20.


My year only had 120 and we offered A levels too. We offered 6 languages and 4 were taken in my year (Latin and Ancient Greek were the two that weren't) 3 Group 3s (Econ, History, Geography) taken at both levels, 3 Group 4s (Bio chem and phys) all were taken at both levels. It obviously depended. One year I think we had a cohort of 55. Other years it goes down to 20.
Original post by zettel
I'm so sorry... it's just.... you've just been hurting my feelings so much with your imperious arguments.:bawling:


You're hugely arrogant for someone who doesn't have the qualifications to back it up. You may have a better insight when you've actually finished the IB.
Reply 89
Original post by Calllu-m
You're hugely arrogant for someone who doesn't have the qualifications to back it up. You may have a better insight when you've actually finished the IB.



for the most part of the conversation i used words such as "could" "might" "i dont know with certainty". when i talked about my grades i stated that they were predicted, and said that "if my predicted hold true". in no way did i assume arrogance.
apart from that, i dont see how "qualifications" would determine validity of my claims. how do 4 more months of IB work give you superior opinion on university recognition and IB statistics?
in contrast, your replies were all self assured. you mostly replied "No." and then resumed to tell me how I was wrong. The fact that you started off our conversation with the words "that's utter crap" has much to say about arrogance, setting the tone of this 'argument'.
Reply 90
Original post by Calllu-m
My year only had 120 and we offered A levels too. We offered 6 languages and 4 were taken in my year (Latin and Ancient Greek were the two that weren't) 3 Group 3s (Econ, History, Geography) taken at both levels, 3 Group 4s (Bio chem and phys) all were taken at both levels. It obviously depended. One year I think we had a cohort of 55. Other years it goes down to 20.


Our school offers 3 humanities and 3 sciences out of which 2 subjects, philosophy and physics, are only taken at sl. Physics hl is something I definetely would have wanted to take, and even many unis require it, so I was ready to kill someone for it. Plus, the amount of people choosing history hl was too little in the beginning, so they partly forced people to change their choices so that there would be enough people taking it (don't ask me why... having 6 people in history hl and 14 people in chemistry hl shouldn't be any worse than having 10 in both, at least in my opinion). If there had been no one willing to change their choices, then the only humanity available at hl would have been psychology.

And then the languages: our school offers two A languages, and the exact same languages as Group 2 B languages, which means that the only choice to make is whether you would like to have 2 As or 1 A and 1 B language, but the languages are the same anyway.

Oh right, and then there is this interesting restriction that you can't have both psychology and philosophy. Choice seems like an illusion.
Original post by ThatPrickImran
I'm currently doing the IB. And I regret picking it over A-Levels so much.


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Why?
Hi,
I've applied to the IB but ever since have been having second thoughts- do I really want to do maths, English and biology?
It's difficult to be definite, causing a mixture of anxiety and stress to manifest itself.

What I really want to know is: is it worth it?
I'm just caught in a conflict of: 'oh but I might regret it' and 'but I want to have fun and enjoy myself!' It's maddening. Send help.
If you are applying to the UK, I suggest that you do not take the IB. It is severely underrated by universities (especially when it comes to HL Maths), and is significantly more difficult than A Levels in most cases. The only exception to this would be applications to Oxbridge, where the IB will likely do a better job of preparing you for interviews and getting you a conditional offer.

I did the IB (39 Overall) with Maths(5), Physics(7) and Chemistry(6) at Higher Level, but was not able to get into either Imperial, UCL or Manchester for Chemical Engineering. I received a rejection from the latter two even though I had the required IB (Diploma, not predicted) grades stated on their website and confirmed by email. Had I done A Level, I would have required AAB (Mathematics and Physics + any other subject) to be accepted instead of the somewhat uncertain 36-39 with "17-19 points in three higher level subjects to include Mathematics, plus Chemistry and/or Physics, with no score lower than 5".

In hindsight, I would have certainly taken A Level or AP, and that is what I would suggest for anyone considering applying to UK universities to do.
Hi yall! I am an IB student from a world school college, and for the last year of my life IB wqs really fun for me. It teaches you how to incorporate life and knowledge together through its extensive workload. Yes its hard, i agree i stumble many times, i complain a lot, i tend to run away from work, and many excuses to just be free for sometime. In my country, and in my college, we have both IB and A-Level students and to be honest, they aren't that different. You would different struggles of course between the two but certainly it wouldn't be the same. If you were just to compare workloads i do believe both of these education systems don't focus on their workloads only. In IB, you have your problems to solve and A-Levels you have your own too. Im just gonna give some insight, not sure how it would help but hey at least it gives you something to consider about.

(By the way, I think its really good to take a closer look and an in depth investigation of the education systems before you compare, sometimes things just get biased)

In a nutshell, IB requires you to take 6 subjects, 3 higher levels and 3 standard levels (there are occasions where students take 4 HL but that depends on you). Higher levels are more in depth and standard levels are just standard. Each subject is also different in terms of their scope of subject (just look at their website), so what IB targeting to develop a well-rounded knower that understands each component of education instead of just knowing a lot. It emphasizes on the quality of yourself as a knower, before you go in depth.

While in A-Levels its easier. Learn a LOT about a certain topic, gain deeper insights on a topic, know better about something. Only 3/4 subjects and you are good to go. Really simple, but doesn't mean its easy.

Both has its own strengths and weaknesses. IB looks like you have loads of work, but they are very flexible on most terms. Expensive yes because they touch on a ton of things that you wouldn't see on A Levels (doesn't mean that its unnecessary). A Levels are cheaper, simple, like literally just study and answer papers. You might think thats easy, but one wrong step there's no coming back. One paper determines your future. IB, you have cumulative system of marks, you have Internal Assessments (IA) , Extended Essays (EE) and CAS (which people say its not important but ever since Covid, people who cannot take exams aren't graded through their exams but instead through the IAs and EEs instead). Im not sure about A Levels on how they manage to get students to answer their papers but hey thats where the bias comes in.

I have one of my friends who are an absolute bookworm, study 24 hours like his life depended on it. So he took A Levels and it was perfect for him. But for me, Im more of a realistic and a mess, i like seeing things work and be a bit adventurous sometimes, so even my friends told me that i would be a better fit for IB than A Levels. Like i said both has its own pros and cons, none is better than the other, its just what works for you.

Imo, IB is definitely better because it forces me to do things I wouldn't be able to do myself. I know more aspects of a basic human knowledge like the ethics, values, long terms effects, mindfulness, like a well rounded human being. For me, i dont think i could be able to think like a human if i were be taking A Levels, i think i would be thinking like a book. But IB challenges you more to make you think more, hence the perception of a much bigger workload is hard is just in your mind; you wouldn't think that its hard if you actually enjoy doing it. I enjoyed most parts of IB, being a part of a community, knowing a lot of that is really crucial when im making decisions when researching. Like i said well rounded. Necessity or not, that is up to you to decide.

Do lots of research. Just know in the end both have its own strengths and weaknesses. Its up to you to find out which one is a better fit. Ask yourself who you are really like on the inside and choose your options mindfully.

All the best!
Wan

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