IB vs GCSE exam

matthewdad

University only takes good GCSE or IB result. In US, they will also consider SAT, GRE ..etc

matthewdad

Some comments from my experience

1. In terms of the development of kids. I think both systems are working as they have been survive for long time. In US, Canada and Australia (those english speaking countries) use other systems.
2. In term of getting into university, IB has the advantage of get in the universities in most of the countries (in US, UK, HK, ..etc).
3. 10 years ago only few "very high quality" secondary school offers IB, it is relatively easy to get in top rank university. As more and more schools offer IB, the university will also consider the standard of the school. (ie. don't try the new IB school as they have no historical record - I don't mean they are  bad but it is difficult for univerity to give a fair judgement).
4. Again it is the same for A level stream. According to my expereince, it is easier to get offers from UK universities if you are doing A-Level in those "famous" school as there are historical records. You can check the entry to Oxbriege, they will pick up kids from "famous" school in general. Of course, there are exception.eg. get "straight 10A"

Conclusions:
1. Good to follow IB scheme with good schools ONLY
2. Good to follow A Level scheme with "good" and "famous" international or local schools.
3. Personally, I don't perfer those new IB, DSS or private schools becasue there are NO HISTORICAL RECORD and it is not worth to take the RISK if you have choice.

原文章由 warrrren 於 08-5-11 23:19 發表


Sounds like you really knows it. Perfect. I always stand to be educated and love to learn something new. Care to enlighten us further and give us some examples? Which universities and which particul ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-12 18:04 編輯 ]

matthewdad

It is difficult to understand the report.
Can you give us some example ...
How much points will get if get AAB or BBC  (says)in GCE A Level Exam?

原文章由 warrrren 於 08-5-13 10:21 發表
The Tariff published by UCAS not long ago may be of interest to the readers here.  See http://www.ucas.com/students/ucas_tariff/tarifftables/ for details.

matthewdad

Thanks a lot for your explanation.

原文章由 warrrren 於 08-5-13 15:40 發表


I am no expert but here are some pointers.

First, see also this page: http://www.ucas.com/students/ucas_tariff/

In your examples, the student who gets AAB scores 360, and the other student who get ...

matthewdad

Down to the bottom line, please advise which school is recommeded (local, IS or whatever..)

原文章由 christf 於 08-5-13 23:02 發表
My point is that IBD is not flexible enough to take care of various type of people.  Besides, I have already said that in order to gain a board knowledge in various aspects, GSCE is good enough as you ...

matthewdad

Let vote for the order of preference of primary schools:

1. German Swiss/ESF  (have IBD only)
2. Victoria/Kingston/RC with PYP (primary school)
3. DBSPD/DGS/SPCC - local DSS
4. LS/MCS/MSS - no school fee

原文章由 xenonlit 於 08-5-14 09:55 發表


Many people, if not all, know that the Diploma Program of IB is an all rounded curriculum. So the result of DP can reflect the quality of a student and help universities to make judgement. I guess t ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-14 12:06 編輯 ]

matthewdad

If three students, two from a renowned secondary school with decades of excellent history, and one from a two year old new school, all three of them sit for the same subjects in the same public exam a with same result. Now they all apply for the same subject in the same university and only two place left. Which two will be accepted ?

In additonal, who want to take risk if you have choice.

原文章由 hysterical 於 08-5-14 11:54 發表
Yew Chung is not a PYP authorised school. They only offer IB Diploma. RC, Victoria, Hong Kong Academy & Kingston offer PYP. For complete list of IB authorised school, pls see IB website.

matthewdad

After all, which is the choice for your kid

1. German Swiss/ESF  (have IBD only)
2. Victoria/Kingston/RC with PYP (primary school)
3. DBSPD/DGS/SPCC - local DSS
4. LS/MCS/MSS - no school fee

原文章由 hysterical 於 08-5-14 22:29 發表
In that case, with three students having the exact same scores on the same public exam, then the admissions committee (from an US university) will look at the other achievements such as sports, music, ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-14 23:25 編輯 ]

matthewdad

My consideration are :
1. capability (speaking and writing)  in both English & Chinese.
2. balanced development
3. Good chance to get in top tier university worldwide

1st choices : Top Tier Local Schools (DBSPD, La Salle, St Paul Coed..etc)
2st choices : IS : CIS/HKIS/GSIS/CKY
3rd choices : IS: ESF/RC/DC/KCIS
4th choices : Local IB school VSA

原文章由 Yau_Cheung 於 08-5-17 17:01 發表


hi lawlinhy,

Please check pm.

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-17 20:32 編輯 ]

matthewdad

CKY is run by non-profit making organization and Victoria is run by fund manager. The measurement is different.
In additonal, I am not very concern on IB for primary school but IBD is important for entering into university.

原文章由 Yau_Cheung 於 08-5-17 20:58 發表


hi mattewdad,

Would you mind to share why you put CKY on 2nd and VSA on 4th as both of them are new, IB schools and no track record.  Thank you for your kind sharing.

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-18 09:03 編輯 ]

matthewdad

For those local IB school such as V, do you expect they can speak fluent english ? I doubt if there are Englaih native speaking classmate to communicate..
For your information, DBS, SPSS ..etc is consider to have IBD in the future. However it is much more difficult to secure a place than local IB school.

原文章由 christf 於 08-5-19 18:02 發表
I think top tier local schools can only meet your first criterion but not the rest.

Even for your first criterion, it depends on your expectation and I don't think top tier local schools can help bu ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-19 20:19 編輯 ]

matthewdad

I agreed with your thinking and there should be most choice for broading school overseas. Do you think it is better at year 7 or year 9 ?

原文章由 阿胡 於 08-5-20 14:27 發表


有幾種方式可以試一下, 但無一種可以保證成功: 包括

(1) CIS Year 7 會多開一班而對外招生;

(2) 先讀較容易進入的國際學校, 以後再轉學. HKIS和CIS都有不少學生會去美國讀4年boarding schools再讀大學, 到時會有 ...

matthewdad

阿胡

Any comment on my plan
1. Kinder (N, K1, K2) at true international kinder (eg ESF)
2. K3 - local Kinder, P1-F2 Local top tier school
3. Year 9 or 10 (top-tier local IS or broading school in UK)
4. Undergradte in England top tier Uni
5. Postgraduate in US top tier Uni

原文章由 阿胡 於 08-5-21 02:09 發表


美國學校是grade K-12, 英國學校是year 1-13. 美國好的boarding schools通常是高中4年, 即是大學之前的最後4年.

如果有錢,  如果可以進入美國top boarding schools之一, 基本上讀美國最好的大學是不成問題的. 但 ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-21 12:04 編輯 ]

matthewdad

Hi


This is why I put the kid in 80% -100%english environment from Nusery, K1 and K2 to develop english as the 1st language. This will be a challenge to change to local K3.

HKU have some good course such as architect, medicine and Law.

原文章由 阿胡 於 08-5-21 11:55 發表


哈哈, 都不錯.

純粹個人看法:

Year 9 or 10 才轉英文第一語言, 可能會晚了一,兩年, 有可能對孩子語言發展有影響. 孩子個個不同, 但14歲左右轉語言(其實不光是語言的問題, 更多的是學習方法完全不同了), 對大部分 ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-21 13:48 編輯 ]

matthewdad

This is new to me. Any article can tell more on this ?
It is nice if  you have the statistic from IS school in hk on the percentage of kids who have got passed in either group 1 and /or group 2. (good for us to choice the IS)

原文章由 mattsmum 於 08-5-21 12:55 發表
on IB again:

for bilingual certificate, you need group 1 - chinese A1( = mother tongue with literature component) and group 2- english B ( = second language, no literature)/ or both as AI level.

top ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-21 13:50 編輯 ]

matthewdad

Almon,
Good write up...

Correct me if I am wrong,
IB is similar to what we are doing in university.. more thinking , projects and essays while tradiitonal education use "exam" as a qualification process and make all the kids focus on how to tackle the exam.
But all the kids will do the same thing in university and it depends how you plan for development of your kids.

In terms of language skills development (1st & 2nd), will the kids are better in IS, IS (IB) or Local (IB) or Local DSS or Local Local.

原文章由 almom 於 08-5-21 21:17 發表
There is no single curriculum or no single school that would meet the needs of everyone. It is good that we are living in a place where there are so many choices. Local government subsidised schools,  ...

matthewdad

The curriculum is not my concern in the early stage of education as long as getting to a school with good reputation rather then trying new school (it may turn up to be better but I cannot afford to take risk). My preference will be IBD in the later stage as it is a global qualification (this is the only reason).

原文章由 hysterical 於 08-5-22 20:42 發表
Those are very good points indeed. IS would be better for these children because the less rigorous style might give room to foster some area of interest. Everyone has areas of strength and weakness, a ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-5-22 23:32 編輯 ]

matthewdad

I do not quite agreed with you.  All the good grammer schools in England and Australia use exam to qualify the standard of kids.
In Hong Kong, SiS use Singaporoan system, AIS use Australian system, GSIS use german- Swiss system, ESF use English system and so on.

Local school use the English system but they speak more chinese.

Exam is still the system which is the most popular in the world. (in US, it is important to have hig score in SAT, ..etc)

原文章由 almom 於 08-5-29 18:52 發表
I totally understand your concern.

You have described the exact picture of the education under the local education system.

There are many reasons why the local system is "not working" (or at least,  ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-6-2 21:36 編輯 ]

matthewdad

I cannot find those top private broading schools in england such as Eaton, Chartered house..etc. something is missing ?

原文章由 Twolovelyboys 於 08-6-6 17:25 發表
This may be true for OXbridge because these universities have lots of money with long queues of students waiting to get in, therefore they are able to choose who they accept.  Also the reports general ...

[ 本文章最後由 matthewdad 於 08-6-6 20:19 編輯 ]