Medicine - IB or A level

[UniParent]

My dc is hoping to study Medicine at Uni.

Their school offers both IB and A level.

School have advised they are a suitable candidate for either.

We are just unsure which one is the best path to choose.

Current thinking is:

IB
HL Biology / Chemistry / Maths
SL English / Language (Spanish / Latin or ab inito Italian) / Economics or Geography

A Level
Biology and Chemistry
One of Economics / Geography / Music

With A level there would be EPQ

With both there would be a full extra curricular programme

Any pros or cons to either to help the decision making process would be gratefully received

The IB route is a much bigger workload than A levels OP and for medicine applications you need suitable volunteering experience as well.
HL Maths is much harder than A level Maths and yet if your dd does A levels Maths isn't on her list. Is HL Economics/Geography not an option for IB?
If your dd changed her mind about medicine she would be able to take all her choices at degree level (Economics degrees don't need the subject at A level), but taking a degree in subject only studied to SL may not be possible.
Hope that's helpful.

That’s very helpful - thank you.

If they study IB, they have to do volunteering every week, and I was hoping that most work experience could be undertaken in the holidays but that may be over optimistic.

I thought HL Maths was a necessity for medicine but if that’s not the case they’d prefer to do a different HL.

That’s good about keeping options open, as that would be the ideal whatever option is taken, because due to the competitive nature of medicine and who knows what the future holds to have multiple options would be great.

Hi @UniParent! I work with schools and my daughter just graduated out of Cambridge. Many of her friends are Medics.

Some thoughts:

A Level Maths is conveniently split into Maths and Further Maths. Maths is enough for Medical School.

Although UK Medical Schools will not mind, I would keep it simple: choose just A Levels or just IB for consistency of assessment and ease of review by Uni Admission Tutors.

IB is good for breadth and for research-writing skills. A Levels are better for a hard core knowledge base and for a specialism such as Medicine. You can't beat 'BCM' as the three A Levels, plus independently pursued super-curricular interest in something medical and internships in a care environment.

It will not matter to the brightest and the smartest learners - they will adjust either way. But my daughter's Medic friends prefer 3 A Levels.

HL Maths is only essential for engineers and is roughly equivalent to Maths plus some Further Maths.
For medicine degrees the only essential subjects are Chemistry and biology. The 3rd A level can be any subject. Obtaining the highest possible grades is essential.

Thank you both that’s very useful information.