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IB in America vs. UK:What's the Deal?

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Nahdrav

IB exams are in general much easier than A level exams(in terms of how they are marked and what sort of questions you get, theres a lot fewer retarded Seal and Cowpat questions on IB from my limited knowledge of the subject).

During AS our eco teacher had marked HL IB Eco papers over the holidays and said that there was no way in hell any of us in his class would get lower than a 6 due to how generous the IB mark schemes were. In fairness I think only one person got less than a B in that class so it is somewhat biased.

However, the fact that you have so many subjects and so much extra work(TOK, EE) as well as the lack of resits means that IB is way more intense than A- levels.

APs are still the biggest joke, I cant believe they even count as a real qualification, our Bio teacher gave us all AP bio papers just to prove how retarded the US system was and most people in the class just kind of burst out laughing after the first few pages.

IB >> A-level >>>>>>>>> AP

100% agreed, I helped out some IB students doing HL Chemistry before and was thinking... this really isn't hard at all.. It's the massive workload I'd say that makes it really difficult.

Reply 21

Captain Nebula

tanzeel

Dead serious.

I get the feeling you dislike this country and it's people.

Reply 22

grape:)

I despise the IB in every possible way, if it were a person I'd shoot it, and if it were a disease it would probably have killed me a long time ago.

I HATE doing Film, that has NO relation to Psychology, and I feel from a personal point of view that it has not developed ANY useful academic skills in me whatsoever. Half the time we bum around watching film, when we'd be better off doing coursework; when we do coursework the teacher only bothers to present us with the criteria about a week before the deadline.

I HATE that lack of understanding from the teachers about the IB, and what they're actually teaching us.

I HATE that the predicted grades are based on basically NO EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING (not that my prediction is bad :p:

)

I HATE the fact that A Level students get so many frees

I HATE the fact that there is no consistence between universities on ucas points recognition.

The only thing I LOVE about it is that it will be over soon, and I can see that back of it.

It really is a pile of ****.

:rant:

Christ do I feel mad :confused:

EDIT: Disclaimer: some people might like the IB, don't take my post as fact :blah:

etc etc.

Reply 23

colorization

Nahdrav

An official IB examiner would be useful in determining the actual mark of the paper responses, since in general IB mark schemes for essay-intensive subjects are quite vague.
That's why the "predicted grades" are sometimes quite different from the actual grades.

Reply 24

Max Hinks

Nahdrav

I Agree, but everyone on IB knows that IB ecosystems is the easiest science, bio, chem and phys far exceed the A levels, in terms of content and difficulty.

Reply 25

ECullen

BATTLE of the brains, eh?

Reply 26

Nahdrav

Max Hinks

I Agree, but everyone on IB knows that IB ecosystems is the easiest science, bio, chem and phys far exceed the A levels, in terms of content and difficulty.

Sorry, Eco = Economics
Dont even think there is an A level in ecosystems :s-smilie:

Reply 27

xSkyFire

Max Hinks

I Agree, but everyone on IB knows that IB ecosystems is the easiest science, bio, chem and phys far exceed the A levels, in terms of content and difficulty.

Have you actually compared the syllabus for IB chem and phys to A level chem and phys? They're nearly exactly the same, A level chem actually has more organics in it, however with IB having more physical chemistry from what I've seen.

Reply 28

Max Hinks

xSkyFire

I was talking with regard to the general consensus I have heard from my teachers, who, with all due respect to you, probably are more qualified to offer an opinion about the difficulty of the course.

Reply 29

Stella476

opaltiger

The problem's mostly with the US school system, I think. You did IB, so you'll fit right in. 8)

Yay! I am so excited.

Reply 30

xSkyFire

Slightly offtopic but bar the IB since it's a swiss/french qualification, do American students who studied AP and went on to do a degree in say Psychology. Would that degree be considered just as highly as one attained from a top UK school ? I'm wondering since I know you don't even need to declare your major for atleast 2 years :confused:

Reply 31

K9Tinkerbelle

I don't really get what you guys are talking about with A levels and such, but yeah, seems like there is an equal amount of suicidal feeling towards this lovely program.
What the cow? What does that even mean!!! You guys you so many funny little acronyms.
I'm not sure IB is as intense for as it is for you though. I mean it's hard don't get me wrong, but I do do stuff with my life. I'm a junior PS, so I guess I have three more semesters, but i'll probably live.
The funny thing is is that we are probably not that stupid, we just get generalized with 'all American students' which are of course, on the whole, retarded. But I just feel like there is kind of a stigma here, that we're going to have such a hard time competing with foreign kids because other countries get so much better educations. it sucks. Maybe if more countries could rework their school systems to be socialist dictatorships like ours, we wouldn't feel so dumb.
Perfect

Reply 32

K9Tinkerbelle

I didn't mean to say that 'cow' is an acronym, even though that's how it sounds. I gather it is probably not. Unless your trying to say like 'what the clearly opened windows' or 'what the cool orange wings' which I guess could possible be legit there but it's whatev.