Which Int. School is better?

arielle.w

I am pretty sure that UK medical schools do accept IB scores from international students although the competition in UK is already very high. I mean there are quotas in every university for international students. You should get ready to get into a much more competitive pool of applicants as an international student, yet college admission is fair. No matter what curriculum you're taking, you can get in if you truly deserve it. Local competition of UK medical schools undoubtedly is high but it shouldn't be a reason for anyone not applying.

原帖由 jediknight 於 10-6-4 15:49 發表
I know GSIS will have the first IB exam in 2015. However, the kids of most of the parents in this forum are either in Kinder, primary or at most junior secondary and therefore whether GSIS is still ta ...

seec

glorian,

Thank you very much for your comments. It's new to me that HKIS 's curriculum stresses on intellectual more then academic. it's a very useful info to me. You said there are lots of interesting courses for selection. Is that like electives in university? Aimed at eye opening and critical thinking but not in deepth study ??

Do you mind comment more on IB which I'm not familiar with?Are students only can choose 3 subjects except 2 languages? Is the curriculum is much easier than IGCES?

For GSIS,IB is newly introduced. Do u think the school is well-prepared for it?

I'm quite interested in the case the CIS student got full marks in IB. Do you know the details?

Thank!!

Thanks!

原帖由 glorian 於 10-6-3 17:48 發表


I am glad to see there is finally some rational discussionon BK :)

To be able to get into medical majors in university, I suppose the student must have very strong academic result. I guess the school isn't a big deal because a smart kid can always excel in his/her school no matter what school s/he is from. And personally I don't know which IS is particularly good at Biology(or subject that's related to medicine). I know that history in CIS is pretty strong as they got some really good teachers and history curriculum. It is hardly to find students who don't like History in CIS. But honestly, I really have no clue about science subjects in any IS.

..

arielle.w

I don't specifically know about UK medical schools, but as I know, most of the universities have a certain quota for international students. I heard it from some US college admission officers. Apparently there is a quota of admitted students for every country in this world. Say like if they only have 20 quotas for Hong Kong, then they can only admit 20 students from Hong Kong, and the remaining places for international students will be reserved for students from other parts of the world.

Undoubtedly international students face a much intense competition no matter what academic field they wish to attend, let alone medical schools. I guess the only thing your child can do is to study hard and try his best to get into his ideal school.

原帖由 jediknight 於 10-6-4 22:29 發表
No, it is not what I meant. I remember that I have read some kinds of regulations or requirements about studying university in UK that unlike any other curriculum, there is in fact a quota of admittin ...

glorian

Seec,

Yes, the academic programs at HKIS are more like university ones, of course they don't offer as much courses as universities do. In order to graduate, students have to get enough credit for different area of study. And there are a number of courses in each area of study. Basically, HKIS students need credits from:

4 English
2.5 Social Studies
3 Maths
2 Science
2 3/4 Physical Education & Health
1 or 1.5 Fine Arts
1 Religion
0.5 Information Technology
0.5 Asian Studies
and Interim is a must

You can find some interesting courses within the choices of academic programs, like Musical Theatre and Music Production, Career Exploration, Learning Stategies/Study Skills, Public Speaking, Self Defense, etc. As HKIS follows American curriculum, you can find lots of 'unusual' programs that other schools don't offer. Their programs do aim at eye opening and critical thinking, but I don't mean that their courses are not in depth. The difficulty of their programs is just not as hard comparing to IB or the HK local system (HKAL, HKCEE).

And for IB, it is definitely much harder than UK/American curriculum. IB requires students to be committed to their work and be hard-working. Many IB students complain that IB program occupies most of their time and they don't have spare time to do things they want to do. I believe it's just a matter of self and time management. IB is worth to take as students actually have advantage in the college admission process. Students choose subjects from 6 groups and have to take TOK(Theory of Knowledge), write an extended essay(EE) and take part in services and activities(Creativity, action, service)

Group 1: Language A1 (Native Language)
Group 2: Second Language (A2, B or initial)
Group 3: Individuals and societies (e.g. economics, geography, history, etc)
Group 4 Experimental Sciences (all science subjects u can imagine)
Group 5: Mathematics and computer science
Group 6: The arts (Music/ Theatre/ Visual arts/ Film)

You can see that IB students receive a well-rounded education and what makes them special is actually the TOK. This is a class where they discuss about things they won't usually discuss in real life. Teachers and students can raise some really 'unimportant' questions that people don't usually notice in real life and have a nice discussion. IB students think differently. They are curious in everything. That probably is why universities love taking IB students (of course experience in writing an extended essay is also a plus)

It is quite hard to tell if GSIS is prepared for it. I don't know if GSIS students can adapt to IB easily because they are following GCE right now, which does not require too much thinking, but in depth studying. I am pretty sure it takes time for students to get used to it. Just like when CDNIS started IB program last year, students kept complaining about it because apparently the thing is much harder than what they used to study. I think the teachers of the school should be prepared for the change as the school would probably provide training but I'm not sure if GSIS students can take the change in such a short time.

The IB result of this year hasn't been released but there is one( at least) student in CIS who got full predicted scores. (and some got almost full predicted scores) He is the head boy of Class of 2010 and he is just brilliant. He doesn't solely get good grades, but shows exceptional leadership, excellent achievement in sports and is a confident young man. He got admitted by many US ivy schools and he accepted the offer from Princeton University.

原帖由 seec 於 10-6-5 10:27 發表
glorian,

Thank you very much for your comments. It's new to me that HKIS 's curriculum stresses on intellectual more then academic. it's a very useful info to me. You said there are lots of interesti ...

glorian

In my opinion, the two year post year 11 education is to prepare students for university. Students have the responsibility to choose the right subjects that suit their future needs. One definitely is not going to apply for every study field in university, so why bother to fit into the entry requirements of all the study fields an university provides, including those you aren't even interested? So why would not qualifying for some specific requirements of majors in universities be the drawback of IBD? Any curriculum that prepares students for university studies(e.g. GCE, HKAL, IBD, etc) is a chance for students to think about what they want in the future and make a right choice. This is just a process of learning. Of course some people/educational institutes would criticize a certain curriculum as everyone thinks in a different way. I understand why those European universities(as you mentioned) said that IBD is too broad, but it definitely isn't 'general' or 'not in-depth'. I am pretty sure that the difficulty of IBD is higher than most of the curriculums in the world, of course, including the UK one.

Yes, one can have 9-10 subjects in GCE O-level but the problem is who would actually do that and whether the school allows it. I heard that some brilliant students at some schools(overseas) requested to take more than 4 subjects in GCE A-level but got turned down from the school simply because the school doesn't allow it. I guess it's more or less the same as HKCEE. One can take 10 subjects at most but some takes 8 or even less. Some schools don't allow students to take 10 subjects because they need to devote a large amount of time in each subject, taking one more subject (e.g. to make it ten) could be a burden and might affect the students' result. It is not about being allowed to take these many subjects in this curriculum or showing your width and depth in studies, it is about your grades, your scores at the end. If a student could focus on their interested field and get better result by studying less subjects, why should s/he take more than that to show that s/he has the ability to or something? It is somehow stupid to do so.

And I think you need to clear your logic first. At the first paragraph, you just said that students may take two humanity subjects or two science subjects. However, some curriculum of some univeristies would not accept to have only 2 science subjects. But then in the next paragraph, you said that 'one can have more focus on science subjects or humanity subjects at A level in order to be better prepare for university study. ' (because one can choose 9-10 subjects and choose to focus on either science or humanities) Isn't it the same thing as 'the drawback of IBD'? :S

Besides, I strongly disagree with what you said in the last paragraph -- "only the teachers need to adjust the switching from A-level to IBD but not the students. Good quality students like GSIS have no problem to take any curriculum" I can tell you here that THIS IS NOT TRUE.

IBD is not just about studying, it is about how a person thinks. Honestly, GCSE is a completely different thing from IBD. It focuses on academics more than critical thinking. IBD students think differently, as I mentioned. I don't think one can have a sudden change in thinking just because s/he switches the curriculum. It requires time and training. It is a process, not a step. And by saying 'good quality students like GSIS('s students) have no problem to take any curriculum', do you mean that other students(e.g. CDNIS Class of '10) who find it difficult to switch to IBD aren't 'good quality students'? Your statement is pretty bold!

I guess the writing practice in GCSE do help GSIS students to do well in IBD's EE, yet it doesn't mean that they can easily adapt to the difficulty of IBD and how IBD works (mostly in intellectual way). I do know that some excellent local schools students switch to Li Po Chun to take IBD. But years ago, I read this news article about Li Po Chun's IBD program. Some transferred students enjoyed the program very much but some didn't and dropped out of the school because they were not use to IBD's thinking method. It proves that taking IBD isn't just about academic results, it also is about a person's intellectual ability.

原帖由 jediknight 於 10-6-7 16:18 發表
No, for the Group 6 of the IBD (i.e. the last subject), you may choose another subject in Group 3 or 4, i.e. then you may have two humanity subjects or two science subjects. However, some curriculum o ...

wan628

樓主,除左IB school之外,其實仲有一個選擇,就係耀中!
唔係賣廣告,雖然我係應屆耀中畢業生,但係耀中辦IB真係有經驗,而家仲改到中學讀六年,就返香港而家個334制度.

delusionist

I am not a YC parent but notice that, despite what some YC haters love to believe, YC students did well in IB exam (in fact, better than a number of so called "real" international schools).

Darth

原帖由 delusionist 於 10-6-8 09:03 發表
I am not a YC parent but notice that, despite what some YC haters love to believe, YC students did well in IB exam (in fact, better than a number of so called "real" international schools).

Any clues why people do not like YC and put it almost at the bottom of the list of international schools, even thought they are as good as you claimed?

delusionist

Just guessing - worshiping English on one hand, a few of those parents who have decided to send their kids to a "real" international school fear that they have wronged their children in the Chinese department.  Criticizing YC (and RC too) for being not "international" enough is self-comforting. In fact, those who love to pretend to have an "international" mind are in fact very "local".  Ask them what they are reading and what sports they are playing will immediately reveal how "international" they are.

delusionist

By the way, I tend to agree with ruth-esther that this is totally pointless.  Only those "too local" parents love to argue which international school is the best.

My 2 cents worth to the one who started this thread: schools with a lot of parents who are keen to come out and argue that their kids' schools are better or the best can't be too "international". (I am not talking about GSIS. The GSIS parents I know are not like that gentleman whose name I dare not mention).

[ 本帖最後由 delusionist 於 10-6-8 10:01 編輯 ]

Darth

原帖由 delusionist 於 10-6-8 09:59 發表
Only those "too local" parents love to argue which international school is the best.

I agree with you on this point.

[ 本帖最後由 Darth 於 10-6-8 10:28 編輯 ]

delusionist

It all sounds ordinary.  Ordinary stuff; ordinary thought.

delusionist

When a kid faces something that he can't understand or a hurdle that seems insurmountable, he stamps on their feet, yells, calls people around him naive and crazy and becomes a brat...

Young Jedi, be patient. It may take you a bit longer to understand what you can't now understand. But, be patient. You will (hopefully) be there one day.

May the force be with you.