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Any International Baccalaureate recieved a Conditional Offer for Oxbridge?

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Reply 40

Dutcho89

Yo,

I meant dutch A1 SL
Thanks for the advice btw
I am a student at Pearson college in Canada.

Reply 41

Peter The Magnificient

Of course you got a chance! I got an offer with lower predictions than that. i think its more about that creative spark rather than grades when everyone got high predictions though

Reply 42

coffeehead

Sorry this may be a bit out of joint with this thread, but this is something intriguing to consider with regards to the whole IB v A-level debate:

According to the UCAS Tariff, 45 IB points is worth 768 tariff points - equivalent to over 6 A grade A-levels (worth 120 each). So, according to the tariff, an IBer with 28 points is in fact superior to someone with AAA at A-level.

Hmm... What do you guys think? I'll withhold any incredulous comments for a sec!

Reply 43

UglyDuckling

i don't think they calculate it that way .. probably AAA is unequal to 28 points ... AAA is at least 37 points.

anyway, considering this is an oxbridge forum, we should use oxbridge rules .. AAA is approximately equal to 38 points.

Reply 44

Nutter

AAA = 28 points

Surely not?! :rofl:

(It's that amusing, yes.)

The debate's perennial but that's a first I've heard, for someone to suggest such a benchmark/comparison.

Reply 45

asar

I don't think AAA is as high as 38 points. It gets closer to 34, because we must remember the huge extra workload we IB students get with the Extended Essay, CAS, and ToK. And six subjects increase the difficulty a lot, since you can't just choose what you're good at. No matter how much you suck in science, you still must take one. Comparing A levels with IB isn't just seeing how much people get AAA vs top IB grades.

Reply 46

Peter The Magnificient

well in deciding the UCAS tariff the comission consisited of teachers that have taught both ib and a levels, and the report was smth like 50 pages long elaborating why.

Reply 47

UglyDuckling

angelsarmiento

I understand and I totally agree with you. But the oxbridge admission are making typical offer as AAA or 38 points .. and 3 students from my college who received conditional offers are all 40 points and above .. so who are we to said it's unfair ? we just have to accept it .. :frown:

if i'm not mistaken, cambridge did wrote the equivelent points for IB and A-level in the 2006 entry prospectus .. but i can't remember how they make the equivalence of it ..

Reply 48

asar

I guess that no matter how hard they're trying to avoid it, it's still hard to completely wipe out the 'local advantage'. It's easier for the tutours to understand if they went through a similar system when they studied their secondary education. Then again, we're quite lucky with IB because it's getting important so fastly; if I had taken the Mexican system, along with 95% of the rest of the people here, I'd have no chances at Oxford no matter my grades.

Reply 49

harrietrf

The reason Oxbridge offers are so much higher for IB is because they don't take everyone who gets three As at A-level. Say for simplicity that 3 As is the best A-level grades you can get. Oxbridge will reject many who have three As (I think around 5,000 a year) and these are people who, had they done IB, would have perhaps got 28-37 points. Oxbridge wants people who in theory could get 38 points plus, so they take these IB students and from the A level people they pick the top ones with 3 A grades who perhaps could have got that score doing A-levels. The grades at other universities where they are not taking the very top fraction of students do not seem so wildly off Ucas's tariff (although still higher for IB than they 'should' be)

Reply 50

IBSweeper

What coffeehead said is correct - aaa is equated to around 30 points, which I think is complete nonsense, 30 point students could not get aaa.

I also think that IB students need to get off their high horse (and I did IB) - it is not that much harder work than a level. Science subjects at IB are easier, CAS hours should come pretty naturally unless your a one trick (academic) pony, and its not advertised but some A-Level Boards require physics students to write a 5,000 (thats 1000 more than the EE) word essay.

And getting 45 does not mean having no life, 2 of our '45' students rowed, one of them internationally, and the other combined this with running at a national level and being in a school band.

Reply 51

harrietrf

There's also the question of how the two qualifications measure how clever you are as opposed to how qualified you are. Someone with 3 As at A-level may well be more intelligent (whatever that means) than someone with 28points on the IB, but because the IB curriculum is so broad and there is a compulsory philosophy course and extended essay etc, they may well be better qualified.

Reply 52

Nutter

Quite simply said, I do believe that Oxbridge value depth in the relevant field far more than breadth.

And that's where the A Levels/AEAs can make a difference, especially when combined with additional extra-currics.

Reply 53

hic_et_ubique

Nutter

I don't think the A levels are "broader" than the IB. We do different stuff. For example IB Economics contains a lot of development issues whereas A level contains none. In subjects like economics, it is crucial to be broad and be able to apply concepts in a range of situation whether it's Sweden's public transport or Rwanda marketing policy. From the little I have seen of A level economics books (I used them to revise), they were mainly UK based with UK housing problem shortage etc etc. It's not the same. IB Econ is much more broader, and as a result much harder.

Anyway, about 25% of people got awarded A's this year. In the IB it is NEVER this high. A 7 in the IB is granted to at the most 10%. In subjects like English A1 HL, it can be as little as 3%.

I'm not saying that people who do the IB are more intelligent than A levelers, hardly so. But it is clear the IB is a very challenging course and meant for motivated people who are willing to fill in a gazillion forms for CAS, worm their way for a supervisor in EE and do the internal assessment when we aren't even sure how we did (teachers aren't strictly supposed to reveal our grades) So you see, the IB is a hassle.

Reply 54

UglyDuckling

I think you misunderstood the nutter ..

what nutter was saying is that IB is less depth compared to A-level ..

anyway, other than this, the rest i totally agree with you .. i took economics too .. :smile:

the reason is IB encourages international understanding .. (refer to the policy and aim of IB)

Reply 55

hic_et_ubique

Oh okay oops! But the same can be said for depth too wouldn't it? Just because the IB has a broader syllabus doesn't mean it covers each topic in the syllabus with less depth.

For example, I know IB Chem (core) has less organic chemistry than A level chemistry but all other topics, like kinetics, acids etc we do in the same depth as A level chem. But then the IB is better because we get a choice if we want to do further organic chemistry (which would mean you do the same things as A level) BUT you could choose other options, the one you are more interested in. That's what I like about the IB - because it is so broad, you really understand where everything fits in, piece by piece.

Reply 56

UglyDuckling

what i like about the IB is the system that encourage students to take up literature - the language A1 .. I'm sure if you're doing other qualification, science students can hardly get in touch with literature .. and also the component of the second language, which encourages international understanding .. and most importantly the theory of knowledge component, which is part of the philosophy course ..
yay !! IB !! way to go !!

Reply 57

hic_et_ubique

psycho

lol! much as i hate to say it - the IB is the best!

Reply 58

arod

Oxford biochem 40 pts, 7 chem, 7 biology, 6 math plus bonus points

Reply 59

pianofingers

I don't think it's wise to think of a score of 30 being equivalent to AAAa or so forth. Consider:

30 points = 419 UCAS points
AAAa = 420 UCAS points

... so on the tariff, they're roughly equivalent.

Having said that, it'd probably be better to consider 30 points as being CCCCCe at A-level, as opposed to AAAa.

Gaining solid knowledge in Chemistry, Biology and Maths at a full A-level standard and Physics at an AS standard is not the same as half-knowledge in Chemistry, Biology, Maths, English, French and Psychology, for example. A score of 30 in the IB generally shows that you have a "satisfactory" understanding of all six subjects, and isn't the same as an "excellent" understanding in three or four subjects.

A score of 45 (768 points) however does show "excellent" understanding in six subjects, and can be equated to six full A-levels at grade A (which is 720 points on the tariff), obviously taking into account TOK and EE.

PS: We could spend decades arguing which is the better system, but I think once you get into university and get yourself a degree, it really does become obsolete.