Switching from A Levels to IB

WYmom

The schools should prepare their students for the change.  My kid's school prepare them for GCSE and IBD since Year 7.  They have to do both types of work.  I believe your kid's school will also train the students well ahead.  So, no worries.

arielle.w

I am a student studying at an IB school in Hong Kong. Prior to that, I took IGCSEs.

I would say the big change of switching from IGCSEs to IB is the workload and time management. IGCSEs aren't that hard. Honestly I didn't put 100% effort in it but I still managed to get a pretty good result. All I had to do was just to complete every coursework given by the teachers, do well in assessments that count towards the final grades and revise! I got lots of spare time pursuing my own interest despite the IGCSEs courses.

However, after commencing my IB studies, I got so much more work to do compare to Year 10/11's time. Besides, the coursework isn't like easy ones. All of them require time and effort. ( I am not saying that IGCSEs coursework doesn't require time and effort, but IB stuff just require so much more) It is quite hard for me to manage my ECAs in or outside of school because I am really busy as an IB student. And the same happens to my fellow schoolmates and friends who are also taking IB.

I guess it would be so much easier for a student to transit from IB MYP to IBD. Yet for students who take other curriculums in prior to IB, I guess the only thing to do at the moment is to get the best grades you can as IB is really hard. Even if you got A* in every IGCSEs subject, you may only get average result in those subjects in IB. IB also requires a student to THINK all the time, but I guess students can do nothing about it if the curriculum they're taking currently doesn't teach this specifically.

原帖由 thankful 於 10-6-9 12:22 發表
Quite a few schools are switching or planning to switch from A Levels to IB.  For students of these schools, they have no choice but to adjust to the change.  Could any parents or students share their ...

[ 本帖最後由 arielle.w 於 10-6-9 16:01 編輯 ]

friendlyguy

Hi arielle.w,

Thanks for your invaluable comments and advices. Could you tell us what your teachers say about the IB curriculum? Especially those have experience in teaching both IB and GCE AL. Thanks again.

原帖由 arielle.w 於 10-6-9 13:55 發表
I am a student studying at an IB school in Hong Kong. Prior to that, I took IGCSEs.

I would say the big change of switching from IGCSEs to IB is the workload and time management. IGCSEs aren't that  ...

arielle.w

My teachers never really discussed about the difference between IB and GCE A levels with us in class. But I remember talking to one of my subject teachers about this friend who wants to self-study GCE A levels in addition to IB, my teacher said she would have no problem in GCE and she would definitely ace it because the difficulty of IB is higher than GCE (and AP also).

原帖由 friendlyguy 於 10-6-9 15:17 發表
Hi arielle.w,

Thanks for your invaluable comments and advices. Could you tell us what your teachers say about the IB curriculum? Especially those have experience in teaching both IB and GCE AL. Thank ...

WYmom

原帖由 arielle.w 於 10-6-9 15:54 發表
My teachers never really discussed about the difference between IB and GCE A levels with us in class. But I remember talking to one of my subject teachers about this friend who wants to self-study GCE ...

As I know, schools switch to IBD as GCE AL is now considered to be too easy and the results is not good enough for screening students, especially in top tier or Ivey League schools, isn't it?

Is IBD becoming a more competitive qualification than GCE AL in applying Universities now?  Please advise. Thanks.

arielle.w

My school has actually adapted to IB for many years. It is just that we do IGCSEs before that, instead of IB MYP. There are a number of people who go to top tier US schools from my school every year, but US universities aren't popular choices between students in my school. We usually apply to UK/ Canada.

Class of 2010 of CDNIS is the first group of students taking IB in their school history. I don't know about their result as the result hasn't been released. But I doubt if it is 'too easy' as my friends from CDNIS all say that they're dying for IB :S And as one of the international curriculum, I am sure that there is a standard for IB. I don't think difference between schools will be too big or anything. (If this is what you are asking)

But yes, IB is becoming a more competitive qualification than GCE A level in applying universities. I think it is mainly because of EE and TOK. My friend visited a top UK university(his dream school) and the admission officer told him that they love IB students because they know how to write essays! (which is really important in university life)

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-6-9 16:14 發表


As I know, schools switch to IBD as GCE AL is now considered to be too easy and the results is not good enough for screening students, especially in top tier or Ivey League schools, isn't it?

Is IB ...

WYmom

原帖由 arielle.w 於 10-6-9 16:29 發表
My school has actually adapted to IB for many years. It is just that we do IGCSEs before that, instead of IB MYP. There are a number of people who go to top tier US schools from my school every year,  ...

Thanks a lot for your reply.  As you mention CDNIS, do you know if the students can select not to take IBD and just graduate with Canadian Diploma?  Do you think Canadian Diploma is good enough for applying U worldwide?

arielle.w

No, I don't think they can. At least this year, none of the students take only OSSD. Actually, as I know from my friends who study at CDNIS, they focus on IB much more than OSSD because IB is so much more difficult than OSSD and IB is more important. Many of them handed in OSSD assessment at last minute because apparently, they are really busy with IB and don't bother about OSSD anymore.

And I think OSSD is not that good for university applications as amongst UK, US and Canada (or ever other countries) as the academic level of Canada is actually pretty low in comparison. One should take GCE A level or US high school diploma over canadian qualification if s/he has a chance. Of course OSSD is recognized amongst Canadian universities, but universities on other parts of the world may be a bit harsh on it.

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-6-9 19:09 發表


Thanks a lot for your reply.  As you mention CDNIS, do you know if the students can select not to take IBD and just graduate with Canadian Diploma?  Do you think Canadian Diploma is good enough for  ...

[ 本帖最後由 arielle.w 於 10-6-9 19:51 編輯 ]

WYmom

原帖由 arielle.w 於 10-6-9 15:54 發表
My teachers never really discussed about the difference between IB and GCE A levels with us in class. But I remember talking to one of my subject teachers about this friend who wants to self-study GCE ...

Hi, arielle.w,

You mention that your friend self-studied GCE AL and took IBD as well.  Is it common among Y12/13 IB students?  Can they study at the same time for the 2 exams?   Is it only those very brilliant ones can do so?  Do you recommend doing so?

Thanks.

[ 本帖最後由 WYmom 於 10-6-10 09:28 編輯 ]

WYmom

原帖由 jediknight 於 10-6-10 11:20 發表
Hi thankful,

I think you have no need to take too serious on what arielle.w's view on IBD. I even doubt whether arielle.w is really a student who would spend time on BK. Even though arielle.w is a st ...

Yes, ESF trains students to cater for IB and GCSE at the same time, even starting from primary schools now.  I believe GSIS and other IS with both systems will provide same training, so I don't worry about it.

Yet as now most IS adopt IBD, do you think that students should also take GCE AL together with IBD as back up?

Thanks, jediknight

P.S. I think arielle.w is sincerely sharing with us more about his or her experience as a student.  It is natural that students concern about workload and difficulty of exams more.  I believe they can handle it well.

[ 本帖最後由 WYmom 於 10-6-10 11:54 編輯 ]

delusionist

I value arielle.w's participation and doesn't really whether he/she is a parent or a student.

arielle.w

I think we develop the critical thinking skills all by TOK. TOK is really useful. We have all kinds of discussion in class and it's never boring. Since the start of the IB program, we have started this habit of thinking deeply about everything. Like even when we hang out now, we'd just bring up a casual topic and discuss about it with our reasoning and logic. This is the difference between IB and other students. We all agree that we have started to think a lot about everything since we became an IB student.

I have never done IB MYP before so I can't tell how much it helps. But I guess students can only try their best to adapt to IB mode. Some of my friends did some pre-IB courses during the summer to get them ready for IBD as they are really scared of it. I didn't do any course like that so I don't know how effective it is. But being an IB student, hard work is essential. We gotta be ready to sacrifice our time for IB. I think IGCSEs students may need to have this in mind beforehand.

原帖由 thankful 於 10-6-10 00:03 發表
Thanks for your input and sharing!  

I am a bit apprehensive about your comment that "IB requires a student to THINK all the time".  I suppose by that you mean one needs to think critically and be in ...

arielle.w

It really isn't common for IB students to take other curriculum's exams. She is just an exception because she actually is moving to somewhere else so she kind of has to do that. She brought us some past papers to read. My friends said those GCE past papers were really easy. I can't tell because I'm not taking that subject. But I guess she doesn't need to devote much time on revising GCE syllabus for its difficulty? I wouldn't recommend anyone to do that though as IB already takes up much of our time. It's not easy to manage both IB and GCE exams. And another thing is that we actually don't need results from two curriculums. It is kind of unnecessary. I have heard an US IB student wanting to self study AP and he was asking for others' opinion. People just told him he didn't have to do so as it is quite pointless. IB is already enough to get him into good universities provided that he got a decent score.

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-6-10 09:21 發表


Hi, arielle.w,

You mention that your friend self-studied GCE AL and took IBD as well.  Is it common among Y12/13 IB students?  Can they study at the same time for the 2 exams?   Is it only those ve ...

WYmom

原帖由 arielle.w 於 10-6-10 12:16 發表
It really isn't common for IB students to take other curriculum's exams. She is just an exception because she actually is moving to somewhere else so she kind of has to do that. She brought us some pa ...

Yes, of course it is a waste of time and affort if the student is very confident to get a decent score in IBD... So the critical thing is whether one can get a decent score (which is like 35 or above, I believe).   The score of TOK is especially difficult to be predicted.  How do you predict your IB results for applying Universities and how to increase the successful rate?

Really appreciate your valuable input.

almom

原帖由 delusionist 於 10-6-10 12:07 發表
I value arielle.w's participation and doesn't really whether he/she is a parent or a student.

I do too.

I believe that everyone's messages should be treated with respect (and doubt too) equally.

Everyone is using web name here claiming to be who he/she is. I do not see why I would doubt particularly whether arielle.w is a parent or student or teacher (or may be he/she is not any of these.... who knows), but not doubt other people too.  Any person leaving a message here can be lying about his/her identity with a purpose (or without a purpose even, because the person is just a bored sicko... ) Who can tell for sure?

In any case, this is all I am going to say. I have no intention to talk with or about anyone in particular. Just do not believe it fair when some people do not allow other opinions to be shared.

arielle.w

We get our predicted scores from school grades. So the total would be 42 instead of 45 as the extended essay score is treated as 'bonus'. We just add up all our exam/test scores and that would be the predicted IB score we send to university. If one wants to take other curriculum's exam (and get good grades) so his/her college app looks 'better', it is useless because our IB predicted score is what we will send to the university through school. Any other grades will just be a supplement.

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-6-10 12:36 發表


Yes, of course it is a waste of time and affort if the student is very confident to get a decent score in IBD... So the critical thing is whether one can get a decent score (which is like 35 or abov ...

[ 本帖最後由 arielle.w 於 10-6-10 12:54 編輯 ]

almom

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-6-10 12:36 發表


Yes, of course it is a waste of time and affort if the student is very confident to get a decent score in IBD... So the critical thing is whether one can get a decent score (which is like 35 or abov ...

Can you share how you believe a "decent" score should be?
I have been reading/googleing about how people view the score of IBD. There seem to be so different comments/views (whatever we call it).