DD is considering doing IB instead of A-levels

I do 1.5 hours commute for work, and it is awful, would not recommend for school-age pupil tbh, however good the course. A-levels can be broad too.

I would say IB is not for the lazy. I slacked and got 3 As at A-level, DH wouldn't have been allowed to slack that much (my MIL is fearsome) and did comparatively less well. I agree that it's sink or swim, you need to have a lot of internal motivation to do it along with a hefty dose of natural intelligence.

It's not my family who are clever (although we're not thick ), just DH's. It's like wandering into a parallel universe where achievement is utterly standard and you're expected to have intellectual discussions over breakfast. I spend most of my time feeling utterly inadequate.

The IB programme is quite 'sink or swim'. If successful, your DD will transform into a self-motivated independent learner who values her own personal achievments above the grades given to her by a teacher. She will develop a rounded view of the notion of 'knowledge' and its implications. She will understand what is meant by intellectual property and how to properly cite what is not her's.

Briefly, she will be streets ahead of her A' level peers during the first years of her degree.

I teach Higher Level maths, it's not an option to be taken by the nervous, but it is recognised around the world as a gateway into all mathematical, scientific, engineering or any other respected courses

trying to make the same decision at the moment ...

ds very keen on IB - his school offers both A-levels and IB and is doing a very 'hard sell' on IB at the moment

he is very bright, but very lazy, which makes me wonder if it's the right route for him, however he's also a real all-rounder and actively wants to keep maths, a science and a language going even though he doesn't want to study any of them at university

Crossed posts. If she is considering Cambridge then yes, they do ask for very high IB scores which is terrifying pressure at exam time compared to A level students who have high module scores already achieved. Good luck.

My 2 sons did IB, their school did not offer anything else. My nieces and friends' children do/did A levels. Honestly, if we could choose again I would probably go for A levels.

IB seems to have a much greater workload and requires a great ability to be organised. Certainly in schools which offer both, the contact hours for IB are longer and the homework possibly more (a bit subject dependent). The depth that A levels offer is very similar to the standard of the Higher Level subjects (again subject dependent, some IB HLs are reckoned to be more challenging) so the often used explanation that IB offers more breadth while A levels more depth is arguable.

There is coursework that takes a huge amount of time but most of the marks (most subjects) come from the exams. These take place in one block over 2 and half weeks at the end. There is nothing stopping an exam schedule (it varies each year) being morning and afternoon for a week solid. You don't want to be below par that week! The way exam questions are set means they really do need to have all 2 years work in their heads right then.

There are very many ways to fail an IB Diploma. It is a scary reality that the whole thing is endangered by one slip.

The other biggie which makes me lean towards A levels is university admissions in the UK. Most of the better regarded ones ignore the tariff as suggested by UCAS and do imo give more challenging conditions for IB takers. There are exceptions so doing some research regarding specific subjects at specific universities might throw up a pleasant surprise. Anecdotal evidence suggests a near-miss at IB is more likely to get you accepted onto the course anyway if the university has any 'spare' places (a dropped IB point looking like a smaller miss than a whole A level grade).

On the other hand IB is a really great programme imo. It gave my kids loads of confidence and I'd say it did make them well set to start uni because they were used to organising their study and well used to giving presentations etc (poss more so than some of their A level peers). However this difference would be negligible by second year and universities are geared to supporting A level students through this anyway.

Having typed that all out (and thought of a few other things)I've convinced myself I'd choose A levels for myself! Er, which I actually did do way back when.

42 is hard. 7 is like A*. Count 2 points as a given from the 3 supplemental and you still need to get 7s in 4 subjects and 6s in the other 2. I would not be encouraged by those results. That's 5s (so B equivalent) across the board. That says to me the teachers don't have the knowledge of the system to boost up to 7s but ask them for results.

It is an amazing programme but you need to be looking at universities and being honest abour which will accept it. If you want to study oversees for Uni it is much better than A-levels and employers regard it favourably but universities often make their offers high and that is something to consider. My DH got 38 (clever but lacked application), my dedicated and brainy BIL got 42 (he does astrophysics as a hobby) and my so far out of this world genius does nothing but work SIL got 45. They are all bilingual so the 2 languages were 7s on a plate but it is still hard work. Those were done at specialist schools which have offered the IB for donkeys years and they are all very clever people, who were in the top 10 for their year. Incidentally DH got an Oxford offer but studied abroad, SIL got rejected, so grades aren't everything - your DD will need a (related) extracurricular activity.

It's no more workload than teens in other countries are expected to do - A-levels are lightweight in comparison.

You need to look carefully at the options. Will she cope with (for example) the maths level they're offering? If she's not a natural mathematician and they don't offer maths studies it may not be a good idea.

Have the school been offering it for a long time? Are the teachers experienced in IB schools? What study support do they offer for the EP? What about the CAS component? What is their TOK teaching like?

Does your DD have any idea of where she wants to go? If she wants medicine or science I wouldn't do IB but for law, languages, social sciences etc it's perfect.

I have also heard that the IB scores universities offer far exceed the equivalent in A level points

We recently attended an open evening at a school that does both IB and A levels. Although they have had the IB there for many years, there were still twice as many opting for A levels.

With regards to university offers, we were told that it was mainly Oxbridge that were asking for points equivalent to more than the typical 3 A level grades offer, and Cambridge more so than Oxford. But they did not see this as an issue, as the majority of Oxbridge appicants well exceed their offers anyway.
Most universitie would quote a total number of points, possibly specifying a 6 or 7 in the higher for the relevant subject(s) to the degree course.

The year 13 students we spoke to that were taking the IB were very enthusiastic about it, and they were not all straight A students.

Although DD wants to take a cross section of subjects for AS, and does huge amounts of extra curricular, she has still decided the IB is not for her. In her case, all her AS subjects and more could be included but generally there are more subjects available at AS.

The school in question is also at least an hour away for us, although DD is still considering it for A levels.