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標題: Switching from A Levels to IB [打印本頁]

作者: thankful 時間: 10-6-9 12:22 標題: Switching from A Levels to IB

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作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-9 13:54

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.

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-9 13:55

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 ]

作者: friendlyguy 時間: 10-6-9 15:17

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 ...

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-9 15:54

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 ...

作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-9 16:14

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.

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-9 16:29

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 ...

作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-9 19:09

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?

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-9 19:49

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 ]

作者: thankful 時間: 10-6-10 00:03

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作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-10 09:21

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 ]

作者: jediknight 時間: 10-6-10 11:20

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作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-10 11:48

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 ]

作者: delusionist 時間: 10-6-10 12:07

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

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-10 12:10

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 ...

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-10 12:16

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 ...

作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-10 12:36

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.

作者: almom 時間: 10-6-10 12:47

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.

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-10 12:52

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 ]

作者: almom 時間: 10-6-10 12:54

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).

作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-10 12:59

原帖由 arielle.w 於 10-6-10 12:52 發表
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 ...

Thanks. So when do you get the predicted IB score? By end of Y12?

Actually even the student takes AP or GCEAL, they won't be able to send the actual results to U until end of August by end of Year 13. Besides, many UK Us won't confirm acceptance until end August as they have to wait for GCEAL final results from all applicants. This is really unfavourable to IB students.

作者: WYmom 時間: 10-6-10 13:02

原帖由 almom 於 10-6-10 12:54 發表

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).

Hi, almom,

I think "decent" score is different in different people's mind. 35 or above is a"decent score" to me if a student is targeting at first to second tier of Us worldwide. I come to such thinking after reading the University placements of IS for a few years. Just my personal thoughts.

作者: almom 時間: 10-6-10 13:05

原帖由 arielle.w 於 10-6-10 12:52 發表
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 ...

Can you share how you feel about the "difficulties" to get a perfect 7 for a subject?
For MYP, it is about the time management, the writing skills (I mean, the actual quality, but not exactly how fast you can write), etc. I see that the MYP curriculum is very challenging when compared to the local curriculum or the IGCSE. But honestly, if a student is focused and determined, it it not exactly that hard to get a 6 or 7.
But when I look at the IBD curriculum (including , after understanding what they expect from a student in terms of school work and also the IBD exam), I would say that even with the background of MYP, I really am not too confident my child can get a 7 in subjects he is good at (those he gets 6s or even 7s) now in MYP.
MYP does provide very good foundations for him, but I still feel (my feelings or understanding might not be right though, and I do hope I am wrong) there is a "gap" between MYP and IBD. The "gap", I meant, would be the skills to handle the study as a whole, but not the knowledge or content itself.
However, I must say that my child is now only in Year 9. So may be things will start to tune in during the next 2 years.
Anyway, really appreciate your comments.
Thanks.

作者: almom 時間: 10-6-10 13:07

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-6-10 13:02 發表

Hi, almom,

I think "decent" score is different in different people's mind. 35 or above is a"decent score" to me if a student is targeting at first to second tier of Us worldwide. I come to such t ...

Thanks, wymom.
Nice to see you around again. :)

作者: hhy2007 時間: 10-6-10 13:11

I highly value arielle.w's inputs as well. I appreciate it so much that arialle was able to ignore the unnecessary challenge on his/her identity and keeps on answering questions and inquiries on IBD. Those answers help me a lot to know more about IBD.

Thanks a lot, arrialle.w

[ 本帖最後由 hhy2007 於 10-6-10 13:14 編輯 ]

作者: thankful 時間: 10-6-10 13:24

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作者: thankful 時間: 10-6-10 13:28

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作者: delusionist 時間: 10-6-10 13:47

It's indeed very difficult to get a 7. Take English A1(HL) for instance, according to the 2008 subject boundaries, a student need to score 81-100% (from oral assessment, paper 1 and paper 2, and world literature) to get a 7. Around 7% of the students got a 7 in English A1.

These figures are available from IBO website.

作者: delusionist 時間: 10-6-10 13:53

This IB forum is also very useful:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=10

作者: arielle.w 時間: 10-6-10 21:24

Yes we do get our official predicted score by the end of year 12. Before that, we could have a brief idea of how our predicted score would be by school tests and midterm exams.

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-6-10 12:59 發表

Thanks. So when do you get the predicted IB score? By end of Y12?

Actually even the student takes AP or GCEAL, they won't be able to send the actual results to U until end of August by end of Yea ...

作者: thankful 時間: 10-7-1 01:37

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作者: iamfine 時間: 10-7-1 09:10

Students won't get a bilingual diploma if they do one language at language A (HL or SL) and the other at language B (HL or SL) or ab initio level. Other things being equal, universities may give priority to bilingual diploma holders. But, things are seldom equal. I will say it's better to get a 7 in language B than a 5 in language A. Language A (especially at HL level) is extremely hard. Less than 1/4 of the students from the most prestigious IB schools in England choose English language A (HL). Go figure. I have had a look of the past papers for Chinese language A (HL). They really look harder than HKAL Chinese literature. The Chinese language A (SL) looks more manageable but still not easy. Language B though should be a piece of cake for most HK students.

It's not entirely up to the students to choose to study a language at A or B or ab initio level. It depends on what the schools offer. For example, very recently a famous and well established international school on the HK Island side offered scholarships to 2 students from another IB school. The scholarships were offered on one condition - they take Chinese language A. ESF schools have a different policy. Some of them do not even offer Chinese at ab inito level. I have somewhere on my shelf a booklet issued by WIS in respect of choice of language courses. Will post here if I can find it.

[ 本帖最後由 iamfine 於 10-7-1 09:15 編輯 ]

作者: mattsmum 時間: 10-7-1 10:03 標題: 回覆 1# iamfine 的文章

i once heard in an IB talk that if they (university) know you are chinese, from a city with chinese environment, but take an earlier level chinese ( I don't remember which level for group 2 language), they would think differently of you. but i guess you are not talking about chinese but other language that this city is not familiar with such as spanish.

作者: almom 時間: 10-7-1 11:10

thankful,
The school would arrange for a student to speak with the school's counselor. This person is usually very familiar with university placements. You will be asked what you would want to do in university, which university(ies) you are interested in, etc. And from there you would be advised what courses to take. For example, you probably would not need 2 language A's if you want major in engineering, but you would need Math HL. Et cetera.
Having 2 language A's would lead you to a bilingual diploma. However, it is probably not exactly necessary for everyone, except, it may help if you are interested in studying in language/linguistics in university.
For ivy schools, for example, they are looking for a lot of other stuffs too rather than whether you have 2 language A's. So if it is not that necessary, why make it hard and thus possibly lowering your final score? I agree that I would prefer to have a 7 in language B than a 5 in language A.
Chinese A is VERY HARD. Language A is not just the learning the language but also literature. This make sense because Language A is supposed to be the first language of the student. I am not sure whether IS students can easily handle Chinese A if they were with an IS all the way from Year 1.
On the other hand Chinese B is simple reading comprehension and writing. It is much more manageable to most IS students. But I still do not think it is exactly a piece of cake for home grown IS students.
Further, I heard that they (both the school and IBO) are very strict with the language ab initio. For example, a student would not be allowed to take Chinese ab initio as Group 2 language if he has good background in Chinese langauge.

作者: iamfine 時間: 10-7-1 15:07

原帖由 mattsmum 於 10-7-1 10:03 發表
i once heard in an IB talk that if they (university) know you are chinese, from a city with chinese environment, but take an earlier level chinese ( I don't remember which level for group 2 language), ...

That's true. Some subjects are less well received. For examples, a number of universities don't quite like a second language at ab initio level (or even language B SL). Math studies and biology too are considered "soft" subjects. On the other hand, students who take chemistry, math and history at HL and a second language A are generally considered students with some real guts.

And, I understand that some top universities give very high regard for students who take music HL, which is an unbelievably difficult subject. The music investigation paper alone is considered another language A + another EE + another ToK. I have seen some music investigation papers which are awarded a 7. They are really impressive.

[ 本帖最後由 iamfine 於 10-7-1 15:15 編輯 ]

作者: thankful 時間: 10-7-1 17:30

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作者: thankful 時間: 10-8-17 13:34

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作者: mattsmum 時間: 10-8-17 13:44 標題: 回覆 1# thankful 的文章

how is the chinese B compared with the website I send to you before? do you have typical example?

作者: thankful 時間: 10-8-17 14:11

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作者: thankful 時間: 10-8-17 23:48

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作者: Share 時間: 10-8-18 15:11 標題: school

Sorry, my silly boy's silly work

[ 本帖最後由 Share 於 10-8-18 15:29 編輯 ]

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