A-Levels vs. International Baccalaureate vs. French Baccalaureate

.ACS.

Discuss.

Personally I've only experienced the French Baccalaureate and A-Levels, and to be honest, comparing the two, I feel the French Baccalaureate is more rigorous, more challenging, and a better preparation for university. Previously, I always thought A-Levels were better, but I had never experienced them, although in August I decided to quite 1er S (French Bac.) to do A-Levels so I could attend an English university - everything I had previously argued about A-Levels was wrong, and now I view the French education system as better (for secondary and further education at least).

So, how do you lot compare the three? Which is better? Should England change to a different system? The reason I ask this is that yet again a report has come out that England, despite massive increases in A* and A grades, is below it's European counterparts in secondary and further education.

So, what do you all say?

Reply 1

lol_wut

Personally I've only experienced the French Baccalaureate and A-Levels, and to be honest, comparing the two, I feel the French Baccalaureate is more rigorous, more challenging, and a better preparation for university. Previously, I always thought A-Levels were better, but I had never experienced them, although in August I decided to quite 1er S (French Bac.) to do A-Levels so I could attend an English university - everything I had previously argued about A-Levels was wrong, and now I view the French education system as better (for secondary and further education at least).

care to elaborate?

very few people on here are going to know anything about the French education system. All I know is that their higher education is, generally speaking, a bit of a mess.

Reply 2

lunarallycat

Myself and my brother have and are doing a-levels at the moment while my sister recently completed the international baccalaureate. I have to say that if I was to pick now I would want to do the International Bac as it is a more rounded course although is not for everyone and is well respected. To my knowledge I believed that the french bac was/is similiar to te international bac. In regards to the A-levels I am an education student at present and will say that the a-levels do not meet the standard that they should. As although on paper it says that people's grades are inproving in fact the bands to which a specific grade is given changes on a yearly basis depending on the marks of the students so there is no way of knowing whether they are getting better or worse.
Is one better than another not essentially, however due to the competiveness of exam companies and the government wanting results Britains education system has become a shambles in comparison to the French education system where there is more support.

Reply 3

Kingster

I recently finished my french baccalaureate in the Science (S) series. I have not experienced A-levels, nor have I experienced Ib. However, I know many people who have taken IB and they say it was not quite as rigorous as many make it appear. When comparing the french baccalaureate and their own IB program they often say that the french baccalaureate appears more difficult. Furthermore, when I compare the work that I had to complete with the IB work, I must agree that french baccalaureate seems more difficult.

Cheers.

Reply 4

Kingster

To elaborate, the french baccalaureate is split into three sections or Series: S (sciences), ES (social sciences and humanities) and L (litterature).
No matter what series the student decides to choose, they are marked out of 20 possible points. Generally speaking the sciences series is considered to be the most rigorous and difficult, followed by ES and the L.

Reply 5

Fatimalamr

Good morning,I took the french baccalauréate the Scientific one, all I can say It's though really. I'm generally working from 8 am to 10 pm at least 4 times a week. I've friends who left the french system for the American system and they all saying the same the french baccalaureate is hard especially the S.In the french system it's rigorous and there is a program to finish in a short amount of time per trimester, you gotta learn quick and revise for your multiples tests. During 11th and 12th grade I had a maths teacher that I will never forget he was forcing us to study and to not accumulate work, he all the time giving us surprises tests while doing a chapter or when we already finished it. Plus the school every week was giving us tests too. You can have more than 3 tests per week sometimes. The maths teacher use to sometimes telling to revise a chapter but give us another haha I will never forget that he was telling us you gotta know everything doesn't wait for a test to revise. I thank him cuz I was literally learning chapter asap just to not fail tests. In 12th I've chosen physics chemistry as a specialty it was 31 chapters that I had to study , sciences a lot of chapters too. Plus there is other subjects like philosophy history and geographical, I've chosen Spanish and English as languages as a student that had chosen sciences those subjects do not really interest them but we have to compromise and study them even if we do not want to. Personally I do not regret choosing this pathway I've learned a lot .

(edited 4 years ago)

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