BLOODY HELL!! UKL'S full of geniuses

haha, no, i won't batter you, don't worry. I'll just assume that either you're making blatant use of sarcasm, or you have no idea what you're talking about!

I think its true to say that such comparisons cannot be made until one sits down and attempts both sets of papers.

The former rather than the latter.

Going back to the original argument, have you ever sat an A-level paper? I understand where your coming from with regards to like offers being made of 7777666666666666...to infinitum compared to our AAB offers, however our A-levels we have to revise and learn in two years, I believe in the IB you are given more time. The stuff we learn here in the UK is more thorough, and narrower, we study in depth granted some subjects are more difficult than others, I can name a few but then there would be more moaning, so lets not. Whereas in the IB cause you are studying a wider range of subjects your not really studying in greater detail compared to us.

I think its true to say that such comparisons cannot be made until one sits down and attempts both sets of papers. Nuff said.

my point. It's unjust. And i agree, i myself get pissed off when people complain about something they don't have to be reading, so i guess i could just click the wee X, so i apologise.

I guess the point i'm trying to make, in a nutshell, is BE GRATEFUL. If i could go back in time i would have JUMPED at the chance to do A Levels instead of the IB...no matter what the media says, or how it compares to other systems, it is by far the most pupil-friendly. The way it is at the moment would make it most students' ideal course...which is why i don't understand why everyone's quibbling (fair enough, of course i can understand people who missed offers or did brilliantly or much different than expected wanting to talk about it, good on them, they should be proud...it's the moaners who sparked off this whole thing ----> which brings us back to the question, why don't i just click the X)

Oh dear. It's definately 2 o' clock in the morning

No, I mean how is it possible within the constraints of possibility to make people offers that are much higher than an almost-perfect score? It ISN'T. You can't make a higher one than a perfect one... that is my point...

I see what you mean, but I do think in part it's slightly "grass is greener" (if you haven't actually done A-levels yourself, your impression of them is never going to be completely accurate, in the same way that loads of people doing A-levels think the IB is better...!). & your thing about gratitude is slightly weird..

I would like to see you down on your knees in gratitude for (well, im presuming)
not starving
not being a child slave
being literate
being able to use a computer
being able to have an education.....................

etc.

every day, mark you.

rosie

ps. i know. i should go to bed

pps. are you international or a UK IB student?

For your reference, i live in Surrey, i AM in the UK! And we have two years as well...

But anyway, i see what you're saying, i know completely what you mean, they are both difficult courses. I'm not neccessarily debating the difficulty of the two, although many people are adament that the IB is by far the most academic qualification, and many argue that A-Levels are more focused and therefore more difficult. Whatever. If there are differences in the difficulty, i'm sure they are very minor to be honest. Even if they are exactly the same, you can only compare an IB student with someone sitting 6 ALevels.

Just another note, i am not bashing A-Levels at all, not in the least, cross my heart! It's the attitude many have towards a levels.

ANYWAY, i've been very argumentative tonight, im not usually like this, many apologies for my crankiness

hahahaha!! Oh dear. I'm not in the habit of giving out rep, but you deserve some for that!

Ok, maybe i should have made myself more clear...i missed my offer because i was offered roughly 90% in every one of my six subjects...i didn't quite achieve this, although i surpassed what they asked for in english (which is what i applied to study) so they still let me in.....this is how i got a nearly perfect score, but missed my offer.

Standard A-Level offer is approximately ABB or AAB....now do you see? 80%80%70%(or whatever a B is) compared to 90%90%90%90%90%90%....that's how the university offers are messed up!

EDIT: both...i have three passports English, New Zealand and American, and i've lived in all three places

Ooops! Don't I feel like a dick.

No need to apologise, your simply airing your views, and I feel that if you had posted your views on another forum that is more IB responsive, you would have recieved a more positive reaction.

Me, myself, would actually like to see the current A-level system scrapped and the IB to be implemented in the UK, as then we can have a more educated country as more subjects are entailed, as the current system sucks. I am one of the many students who have just done maths at A-level, and I was informed that from next year onwards they are actually going to make it easier and dumb it down slightly, which to be honest is unnecessary, as core subjects should be hard, so as only the best achieve their potential. The IB would allow candidates to be judged better by potential universities as subjects would be all standardised, none of this 'he does Art so can we accept that as part of the offer' malarky.

Just one of those things, btw what did you achieve if you don't mind me asking?

Ah, I understand you. I didn't realise you "made up" extra marks in English. Yeah I do see what you mean about the offers.. i guess they must have some reason for doing it that way but who knows what (did you ever try asking them? could be interesting)

I do think that some offers are very harsh though even for A levels

one friend's offer was AAAA - the 4th subject was further maths and largely self-taught because she chose to study it towards the end of lower 6th so she had to try and catch up with the further maths group.. and she didn't even apply for maths!

one friend's was AAA + distinction in an AEA - distinctions are VERY hard to come by..,.. only (meant to be) the top 10% of candidates take the AEAs; of those 50% failed this year.. and of the 50% who passed I am not sure how many got distinctions but less than merits, i think. anyway. I thought that was fairly harsh, especially as the AEAs do seem to be slightly strangely marked

both missed their offers, although not by much.


.............i am waffling now..........

anyway Im happy you got onto the course you wanted to, & don't forget all the things you have to be grateful for now

rosie

I think a cross between the two would be good...i mean, i think it's ridiculous that in a two year english course we were given 20 texts to study in depth in Higher Level English...it's absurd. But, like Crana says, the grass is always greener.

you should have done sciences

i am losing my faith in a levels somewhat though from the results i got. i know that sounds odd because we;re all meant to deny it vehemently and say how hard we worked for them etc... but... I got some very odd results.. that I don't think really I should have got as high etc.

rosie

the reason why they make the offers different is because there's a misconception among many uk unis (excepting oxbridge and a few others) who share the misconception that a 7 is equal to an A, when actually a 6 is an A. It's understandable since it's an international course and the unis are used to dealing with A Levels.

I think the whole debate about changing A-Levels etc is just so silly. Why don't they just introduce a new grade?! If A*'s are available, say, above 90%, problem solved. No one could be accused of dumbing down, and the top unis could seperate the bright from the majorly bright.

Off the topic i know, but i had that brilliant plan just then!

sorry for the horrid construction of my posts, but i'm tired and can't be bothered to type properly!

well at least you're honest! But maybe it's a sign of natural intelligence? There are loopholes in markschemes, and i suppose if you satisfied certain criteria you could do better than expected!

No way could i have done three sciences..or even two..biology was enough for me! I would have liked to have not been FORCED to do maths, though.

#The grass is always greener on the other side.......#

Will you two stop, and let me have the last word.

Or they could just do it on points like the SAT's in the USA. That way there is no issue of mis-leading grade boundaries.

i said that

There would still be grade boundaries of a kind though - with sorting out the UMS.

Sorry, i just looked at the last couple of posts and didn't read the whole thread. How foolish of me