IB parents , please share your view on IB!

newmama0724

IB is a trend on inter'l sch ,private and DSS sch, but I was told that IB students have to study six subjects including science and mat. If someone is not good at science, like me, it is hard to pass not to mention high grades. And students really need to get very high marks in IB exam to get into a famous U overseas.
Is it the truth? Please share!

WYmom

原帖由 newmama0724 於 10-12-16 16:20 發表
IB is a trend on inter'l sch ,private and DSS sch, but I was told that IB students have to study six subjects including science and mat. If someone is not good at science, like me, it is hard to pass  ...

IBD appears to be the trend, it is also known to be tough, more difficult than AL and SAT.   Students must choose both Science and Art subjects.  For DBS and SPCC, the schools choose the more capable students to take IBD.
In IS, most students have to take IBD, some less capable students may take IB certificate instead of IB Diploma.  But universities normally only consider IBD.  For good universities, of course they require higher score, 35 to above 40, depending on which faculty.
I think if students do not want to take IBD exam in the last 2 years of secondary, they can go to UK to take AL, or go to US to take SAT.  A lot of IS students go overseas to study high schools at 14-16 years old.

[ 本帖最後由 WYmom 於 10-12-16 17:00 編輯 ]

newmama0724

Thanks WYmom!
How about the U in Hong kong ? Do they accept the IBD students?
If students normally learning in the IB way and go to the  uk and the usa to take AL and SAT , would it be difficult for them as the learning style is totally different?

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-12-16 16:55 發表


IBD appears to be the trend, it is also known to be tough, more difficult than AL and SAT.   Students must choose both Science and Art subjects.  For DBS and SPCC, the schools choose the more capabl ...

[ 本帖最後由 newmama0724 於 10-12-16 21:02 編輯 ]

nintendo

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-12-16 16:55 發表


IBD appears to be the trend, it is also known to be tough, more difficult than AL and SAT.   Students must choose both Science and Art subjects.  For DBS and SPCC, the schools choose the more capabl ...

SAT is not a curriculum and it is not a public exam like AL or HKCEE.
It is just an aptitude exam. If students target universities in the USA then they have to take this exam. Universities do not merely look at SAT scores but also school results. As such all students from all curriculum (including IBDP students) have to take the SAT.

[ 本帖最後由 nintendo 於 10-12-17 01:30 編輯 ]

WYmom

原帖由 newmama0724 於 10-12-16 20:57 發表
Thanks WYmom!
How about the U in Hong kong ? Do they accept the IBD students?
If students normally learning in the IB way and go to the  uk and the usa to take AL and SAT , would it be difficult for t ...

Don't think that there is difficulties for IS students to study in UK and USA/ Canada for high schools.  So far from my kids, I feel that learning IB is more difficult than the other curriculums as they require more inquiries and thinking across different subjects in boarder and deeper aspects.
As said by nintendo, SAT is an aptitude exam for applying US Us.  What I mean is that students usually go to UK and US to study high schools and take the AL and SAT exams for applying Us.  If go to Canadian high schools, then just need to finish the Canadian Diploma.
IBD students can also apply Us in HK through non-jupas.  Different Us and faculties have different requirements.  High scores are required for applying hot programs like medicine, law etc.

[ 本帖最後由 WYmom 於 10-12-17 08:10 編輯 ]

nintendo

I want to clarify that SAT is something additional to any secondary diploma. It is NOT part of the US high school curriculum/education. On the other hand AL or HKCEE is part of high school curriculum.
SAT is something totally unrelated to high school. It is an aptitude test that most US universities are asking for. In canada, you need to submit TOEFL scores for universities if you are from a non-english speaking school. You may consider SAT and TOEFL the same type of aptitude test. THe reason is that in the US there is no single curriculum that all schools follow, and since they also consider students from other countries, they need some kind of test to rank/judge students. Other aptitude tests are LSAT, GMAT, SCAT, etc, which are for different ages and for different purpose.
So it is not as if SAT is what you have to do. A lot of people who have no confidence in getting good SAT scores or high school grade points, would apply to community colleges instead and get admission to 2nd year of university.
Having said that, in my opinion, SAT is not exactly hard. If you do enough pass papers, it is not hard to find the patterns of the questions. I suggest students to start preparing for it early..

acdad

In fact, most community colleges students enter 4 years Us at junior level (3rd year)

http://www.universityofcaliforni ... -college/index.html


"The vast majority of our transfer students come to UC at the junior level from California community colleges. But there's a way for sophomore students to gain admission, too."

acdad

"learning IB is more difficult than the other curriculums as they require more inquiries and thinking across different subjects in boarder and deeper aspects."

The math that my daughter (Year 9) is taking requires more  depth than the calculus  I took in my college. And in some subjects such as science, U don't even have a text book, exercise books or printed notes to help them  to review.

Just want to share some info, one on one private tutors are now charging  $650-700 per hour for IB at year 12-13 level.

newmama0724

WYMom and nintendo,
Thanks for your detailed explanation.
nintendo, can you please help to explain more?
"In canada, you need to submit TOEFL scores for universities if you are from a non-english speaking school. You may consider SAT and TOEFL the same type of aptitude test."

Does he/she need to attend TOEFL  or another exam if someone is from the international sch in HK(of course from an english speaking one)?

newmama0724

This is what I am worry about!
If someone is not good at science ,how can he/she get good result?
$700 @hour ! It's expensive!

原帖由 acdad 於 10-12-20 21:39 發表
"learning IB is more difficult than the other curriculums as they require more inquiries and thinking across different subjects in boarder and deeper aspects."

The math that my daughter (Year 9) is t ...

acdad

Yes, way too expansive!

In local schools, students work till late evenings for mandatory assignments from their teachers.

In IB schools, students (since MYP) need to work late for "home learning" or get outside tutoring help in order to get good grades. It is not mandatory but U better do it if your child is not an elite student.

iamfine

Whilst I won't call the IBDP stuff a piece of cake, it's not remotely as hard as some people tend to think.  My elder child went through the whole IBDP thingy not too long ago and my younger one is starting IBDP in less than a year.  True that the DP curriculum is set to combine both science and humanity subjects. Yet, it is up to the students to do different subjects at different levels.  A math-challenged kid may give up math altogether and do math studies at standard level, which, to average kids, is really nothing.  Likewise, those who hate humanity subjects are only required to do one out of the many subjects in group 3, and they can do it at SL instead of HL.  How hard can that be?

The IB curriculum is more about self-discipline and self-motivation and management of one's own time, which some parents love to pay a ransom to ruin.

acdad

If the majority of the class  score less than 5 out of 8 in the test , I won't blame the students of not being self-discipline and self -motivated enough. BTW, I was talking about a rountine Math test in MYP, not even IB DP yet.

iamfine

Just curious (and I'm sincere in asking), are those who regularly score 5 or less the ones who are receiving extra tuition? Do students go to NTK because they are weak in some subjects, or NTK makes them weak by reinforcing their impression that they are not up to it?  It's really easy to mix up cause and effect.

By the way, what's wrong with the majority getting 5 or less out of 8.  By definition, average is what the average gets.