IB Chinese A SL vs NSS Chinese

kids-kingdom

Background
My son is studying in F3 (NSS curriculum) at St Stephen College and will need to decide within the next 2 months whether he will be taking the NSS or IB route next year.

Our major concern is his Chinese ability. English has been his major medium of learning and he is relatively handicapped in Chinese (bottom 25% among all F3 students). Unfortunately the school will not be providing Chinese B courses, so the only choices of an IB student will be Chinese A SL or HL.

Questions:

Can anyone share their experience with regard to the difficulty in studying Chinese A SL vs NSS Chinese? We have obtained some IB past papers but have no clue (no marking scheme) regarding how to answer those papers and how will it be graded.

Do you think a student with the said background can handle Chinese A SL and what grade should be expected?

I know this is not an easy question? Please share whatever view you have.
  

annie40

Do you think a student with the said background can handle Chinese A SL and what grade should be expected?

It is not easy to classify who can handle Chinese A SL easily.  I would suggest you to study the pass paper on your own, and then evaluate the possibility.  Apart from student's current level, it is important to have a Chinese teacher to guide him/her on studying classic literature.   In case you have very good responsible Chinese teacher at school, it would help a lot.  

poonseelai

Does the school offer IB chi language and literature or only literature? If a student really loves reading books, literature will be more suitable. Lang and lit covers different text type  and some students find this more interesting. As annie40 mentioned, teachers' guidance is very important.  Does your child target universities in HK? If a student cannot get a three in chi in DSE, basically it will be a No for universities in HK. Any suggestions from teachers?

武航

I copy you the Mark scheme of IB Chinese for you below and I'm afraid you will find that Markscheme won't help in your case.  

散文
1.
滿意－較好的答案应：找出作品的主题；分析讨论作品中对人、事、物的描述或感想如何围绕这一主题组成一个整体。
很好－优秀的答案应：对以上的讨论更深入详尽。
2.
滿意－較好的答案应：通过对例子的细读，找出“我”在作品中出现的具体情况；分析“我”介入内容或情感的表达的深浅程度。
很好－优秀的答案应：对上述问题的分析更深入详尽；应能讨论作者对“我”的具体 处理合理与否，有效与否，如何影响了作品的感染力。
3.
滿意－較好的答案应：找出作品中带有“含蓄”与“直白”这两种不同倾向的具体例子；分析讨论这两种不同倾向如何影响作品意义的传达。
很好－优秀的答案应：更深入详尽地作上述分析；例证更具体准确。

I suggest you should discuss with the Chinese teacher and ask him to evaluate your son's standard.

kids-kingdom

poonseelai 發表於 15-1-22 16:14
Does the school offer IB chi language and literature or only literature? If a student really loves r ...

The school provides both Chinese subjects (LL and L). However my son doesn't read Chinese books despite repeated attempts. In this case, which one is easier ?

I have no preference  for universities and will apply for UK/US and local universities.

We are more inclined to IB as I understand some UK universities offer conditions that included the DSE Chinese.

Thanks for the other members who have responded. There will be a teacher meeting next week and I will try to discuss with the teacher. I have raised the question regarding the DSE Chinese versus IB Chinese A SL during the school IB briefing a few months back but the teacher refused to give a direct comparison.

Can anyone comment on this (DSE Chinese vs IB Chinese A SL) ?

joyjoyparent

DSE Chinese is effectively a subject on Chinese language AND culture, and the coverage last for three years; IB course is a two year course only. If you don't mind to apply for UK universities, you might even take Spanish ab initio course at school instead of Chinese A.

himmamme

kids-kingdom 發表於 15-1-22 18:27
Can anyone comment on this (DSE Chinese vs IB Chinese A SL) ?

I'd like to know more on this too.

kids-kingdom

joyjoyparent 發表於 15-1-22 18:50
DSE Chinese is effectively a subject on Chinese language AND culture, and the coverage last for thre ...

Given that the student in this school are local Chinese, I doubt whether they have the resources to run a Spanish or French class.

Also, from the past paper that I have seen, the Chinese A Examination only have few questions. All questions ask the student to comment on a given passage. It is very much different from DSE or convention Chinese Exam in NSS.

Lamtau

回覆 kids-kingdom 的帖子

Even if the school offers Chinese B, you have to be careful in picking that option.  I assume your kid has Chinese as the mother tongue.  IBO's philosophy is that the student should take 'A' for the mother-tongue language.  (Given that most of the students in SSC are local Chinese, itmay be the reason why the school is not offering Chinese B.)  Also, a student with a Chinese mother-tongue studying Chinese B will be viewed unfavorably by the college admission officers.

Lamtau

回覆 kids-kingdom 的帖子

One more point that you should consider in choosing between DSE and IB.  It depends on how much he/she wants to study in HK universities and how confident he is in getting a '3' in DSE Chinese.  He may still be able to apply to HK's universities if he gets a '4' in IB Chinese A, which is not so difficult given that only less than 1% of candidates got a 3 or below in IB Chinese A.  However, he will not be qualified to apply under JUPAS if he does not get at least '3' in DSE Chinese

poonseelai

Is it a bit risky to assume that getting a 4 in chi A is not too difficult as only 1% gets a 3 or below, bearing in mind that students taking chi A are already quite strong at Chi.

kids-kingdom

Lamtau 發表於 15-1-23 10:38
回覆 kids-kingdom 的帖子

One more point that you should consider in choosing between DSE and IB.  I ...

Yes, the school said they are not allowed to offer Chinese B, a restriction imposed by IBO.

ANChan59

原帖由 kids-kingdom 於 15-01-23 發表
Yes, the school said they are not allowed to offer Chinese B, a restriction imposed by IBO.

lBO 沒有話不可以，把關應該在學校，我識人因為某直資 lB 不准選中文 B，過去某著名 lS，lS 又准選擇中文 B，你話幾吊詭。

不少 lB 學校打緊擦邊球，特別在中、英，數方面。單純計入大學，識得搵，都唔錯架！

你如果問我，我會建議選lB中文A SL，雖然係深d，但我覺得合格會比DSE有把握，因為題目及答案較正路，不會死咗都唔知點解！

Artie

kids-kingdom 發表於 15-1-23 11:19
Yes, the school said they are not allowed to offer Chinese B, a restriction imposed by IBO.

I think not that they are not "allowed", but they do not have enough students that "qualify" to take Chinese B. Even if the school offers Chinese B, you son cannot be considered qualify to take Chinese B. His mother tongue is Chinese, he has always studied Chinese language in a local school.   

Artie

Lamtau 發表於 15-1-23 10:38
回覆 kids-kingdom 的帖子

One more point that you should consider in choosing between DSE and IB.  I ...

" IB Chinese A, which is not so difficult given that only less than 1% of candidates got a 3 or below in IB Chinese A. "


The high percentage of IB students that pass Chinese A can be easily explained. Even ethnic Chinese students, many of them do not take Chinese A. Most students that chose to take Chinese A are those that have very high chinese language level. Those that are not really that strong would have chosen to take either Chinese B or other languages .


On the other hand, Chinese language is taken by almost all students in local school.

Artie

kids-kingdom 發表於 15-1-22 12:46
Background
My son is studying in F3 (NSS curriculum) at St Stephen College and will need to decide w ...

I am not exactly familiar with NSS Chinese. But I agree with anchan59 that IB exam questions are 題目及答案較正路.  My children are both taken Chinese B. However with my experience with English A, I can provide some comments. (As far as I know, the internal and external assessments all Language A are quite similar.)


IB Language A exam papers are all essay questions. No multiple choice. The marking scheme of the papers are extremely fair. Students can have their own stands, views and opinions. Students can focus on demonstrating their language skills, and do not have to worry about whether their opinions is the same as the examiner's or the "model answer".


I suggest that you ask the teacher provide you with the curriculum outline and assessment outline of Chinese A Lit and Lang&Lit, HL and SL. Then you can compare which curriculum is more suitable. Lit curriculum is 100% literature. Lang&Lit is 50% literature and 50% language. Lit is only suitable for students that enjoy reading literature of different types of genre.

kids-kingdom

Is it correct to say that Chinese Language and Literature (LL) is more suitable for students if their language skill is not that strong compared to Chinese Language (L) ?

Simply speaking, is LL easier that L or easier to achieve a better score ?

poonseelai

我無聽過老師和同學説邊科易D，只聽學生説喜歡邊科多D。如你兒子英文也選A，就選同一科，運用技巧應該近似。

poonseelai

你兒子點睇？如果讀個他喜歡多D的科目會動力大D。話時話lBDP是兩年課程，不是中五才選科？中四是否lB預備班，已經要選定？

webeheld

It's a bit like considering the variance and returns of both. For DSE Chinese a higher return could be expected (assuming you go to those star tutor classes, in fact to get a 3/4 is not THAT hard and it won't hurt too much on university applications as compared to IB), but at the same time has a slightly higher variance (we all know numerous cases of 'surprising' 2s). For IB Chinese, it is really rather difficult and even if you get a tutor I don't think it is too much of a guarantee. However with adequate support from the school I don't think it is too hard either to get a 4 (although that would be terrible when applying to universities, bear in mind…) - so low return with low variance here.