IB and A level

EstherDggs

IB vs A level
Is in really that hard? It’s 7-8 subjects (same as GCSEs) but much harder content ? Is it worth it

Reply 1

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

Are you asking if you can do both?

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by EstherDggs

IB vs A level
Is in really that hard? It’s 7-8 subjects (same as GCSEs) but much harder content ? Is it worth it

It's really more like 6 subjects plus some extracurricular stuff. Hard is relative - I think over the years some changes to syllabuses have made some of the more notoriously difficult IB HLs a bit less nasty (HL Maths I gather these days isn't much worse than A-level Maths, whereas in my day it was much harder than A-level Maths and sort of between A-level Maths and maths + FM; I heard also HL Chemistry was much harder than A-level Chemistry).

In principle A-levels will have somewhat more breadth and a similar depth to HL subjects. The difficulty with IB is more organising your workload and balancing the different deadlines you have for your 6 different subjects, and also in "switching gear" between your different ways of thinking for different subjects.

Whether one is better than the other depends maybe on your goals as well as your personal inclinations. I'm generally inclined to believe if you're aiming for a STEM subject then A-levels are usually better as you can take A-level FM and otherwise have a more focused combination. For courses including elements of the sciences with the humanities (e.g. human sciences, archaeology, physical/biological anthropology, psychology, many social sciences besides) I think IB has a lot to offer. I've heard it's also useful for medics as a friend of my sister's who did medicine at Cambridge remarked that compared to all the A-level students on her course, she was the only one who knew how to construct a good essay and had to help her A-level colleagues learn how to do that.

For humanities fields it might depend on the exact field and what's involved; some might benefit from the IB structured, others may benefit from the greater flexibility in combinations afforded by A-level (e.g. stacking languages or similar).

Reply 3

EstherDggs

Original post

by DerDracologe

Are you asking if you can do both?

No difference between, and difficulty

Reply 4

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

Original post

by EstherDggs

No difference between, and difficulty

A levels are 3 subjects, ib is 6 and you have to choose one of each of a language, English, maths, a science, a humanity and one other. For ib you have to do some other stuff like an essay but my knowledge of ib isn't great tbh

Reply 5

iL1L

Original post

by EstherDggs

IB vs A level
Is in really that hard? It’s 7-8 subjects (same as GCSEs) but much harder content ? Is it worth it

What do you plan to do afterwards? Yes, the IB is tough, but also a qualification to be proud of. Yes, it very likely is harder on the whole but what subjects do you intend to take?