A levels or IB

[Socialaddict]

What do people think of the IB diploma and would you choose it over A levels? If anyone can give me more info on the IB diploma and any experience with doing it would be much appreciated. My DD15 is deliberating between the two and I really have no experience with it, so not sure what to advise her. Which are the best states schools in the London area to do this? Is IB well received with the good universities in UK and abroad?

That's rubbish antique.

To boaty. offers from Warwick, Bristol, Notts, KCL, Dirham that I am aware of have been 34-36 points with a 6 for subject of study.

Your argument therefore of 7, 7, 7, 5, 5 and even a 2, adding in 3 CAS points is flawed. If a dc was such a no hoped in a particular subject one would hope parents and staff would have pushed fir A'Levels.

? You're saying that I'm lying. The maths teacher does not in fact have to teach A level maths at the IB school. Ok then.

Antique, as a Maths teacher in an IB school I am not aware of such problems.

I know of students who have got to interviews at Oxford for Maths and Computing with Higher Level maths. LSE are happy with Higher Level Maths.

So is Oxford. Cambridge not so.

Um - from the Cambridge webpage - entry requirements for Maths are :

Required by all Colleges: A Level/IB Higher Level Mathematics, STEP
Required by some Colleges: AS or A Level/IB Higher Level Further Mathematics, A Level/IB Higher Level Physics, A Level/IB Higher Level in a second or three science/mathematics subjects.

Am I missing something secretly coded in the above which says that IB is in fact not acceptable?

Hi marco, no I wasn't aware, either.

He said they didn't advertise it but ran an A level class as they felt the IB didn't go into the required depth.

That's the advice we were given by ds's school. Top results in country. I think that info is a bit like the stuff that says 3 A grade A's needed for medicine. And when 1000 applicants are after 70 places reality ramps it up a bit.

The research seems to suggest that when comparing IB to A Level in Maths, a level 4-5 is roughly equivalent to an A grade, with a level 6 equalling an A*.

Ah - school advice rather than something that has come from the universities themselves. I see.

Yes, but you will find onlyliving that the school (s) see the actual offers (or not) rather than what is on the university website.

Having seen friends kids go through IB in parallel with mine doing A levels I don't think it gives an advantage re uni applications but is hugely more time consuming. They work through the holiday between yrs 12-13 - this totally expected. They don't go on family holidays that summer etc. Thry don't maintain high level music / sport etc.

I don't yet have any comparisons how they cope at uni but the feeling is the offers with IB might be higher than with equivalent a levels ( hugely difficult to tell though)

endofsummer - maybe the school you teach in has a different experience to ours then - the one I teach in has never had problems with IB students not getting offers for Maths courses.

University offers used to be higher for IB than A Level but the universities seem to have sorted themselves out now with regard to that.

Endofsummer I only mentioned Oxford because that is where he applied. We have not had anyone apply to Cambridge for Maths. We are a small school overseas where most students go to the USA. I didn't mention the one who got to Stamford because he did further and got a 7.

helenluvsrob. That's nonsense. All the IB families we know went on holiday between lower and upper 6th. My DS didn't do a hand's turn in that holiday either. He also skied Feb half term, and played 1st XI cricket and football and 1st XV rugby so 2 x training, 1 x match every week.

Might explain why he dropped a point and only got 44 .

Oh, OnlyLiving, sorry to disappoint but I don't work at a school.

Ian

Wow endofsummer - your Ds must be very bright - my experience is that my DC had to work bloody hard during the holidays to get the long essay thingy done. (Final grade 39 - but that was tough to get - so congrats to your DS that is brilliant !)

Sorry - I assumed you did when you were talking about the offers the school sees.

endOfSummer. That's an amazing result. Was your DC at a boarding school? I'm betting he was at a private school but I'm curious whether it was boarding. I don't think you get 44 points without working very hard and having a supportive clued up school. I've actually known 3 students who got 45 points - all were at boarding schools (different ones) and all worked really hard.

My DC didn't get that high but self taught two subjects including higher maths and was at a non selective state school which no longer offers the IB. . He had time to do other things in the holidays but worked very hard during term time. He maintained a part time job plus medicine 'work experience' throughout year 12 and most of year 13.

When looking round 6th forms it's worth asking if they offer the extended project. Two of my dds did it alongside A-levels and found it useful prep for uni.

endofsummer. I just reread my post and I didn't mean to sound dismissive of your sons incredible achievement - however good the school it's the student that does the work and sits the exams.

It was an independent London day school. He was nowhere near the top for most of his time there but pulled his finger out in the U6.

Fantastic school though.

I should have said thank you for your lovely comments. He is very bright but it was supported by a fantastic school. In his year I think something like 45 boys got 44 or 45 points.

He did find it very hard work and his sport was a release. He continued to socialise on Saturday nights and had a girlfriend from early in L6 so they can have a life too.

He thoroughly enjoyed his extended essay and I think that helped. He loved his four main subjects and grumbled about maths and biology. We genuinely thought he'd be lucky to scrape a 5 in maths but he had an inspirational teacher in his last year who got a 7 out of him.

The oddity was that he dropped a point in the subject he had powered ahead at, coming top in every exam throughout 6th form and starting to regret doing it as a standard level. You can't always anticipate I suppose. He thought the exam had gone well and would definitely be a 7 but in fact it only scraped into a 6.

It is really important to pick an EE subject and then topic you enjoy. It is hard work if you are not passionate about it.

I'm sorry for my earlier post, I've only just realised I'd commented when I saw this on TIO. It was my ds, he had my phone yesterday and it wasn't locked. He's only 11 months old so it's impressive he actually spelt the word 'Ian'

Alexthekid - he's clearly IB material!