Any IB Students?

All of my friends did IB last year; now I'm wondering why I did A Levels instead.
But it's a really great program - my friends have done amazingly with it. I'd recommend it to anyone who's pre-IB.

 

I graduated in 2008 with an International Baccalaureate Diploma with Bilingual distinction.

 

Oh, there's no such need for a pre-IB track at the school I went to, but then again it was an elitist, exclusive 14+ school for the top % of students. I know it's different here than most other places - it might be international, but it's not universal!

 

You would! Probably better than I did; after all, you're doing IB.

 

From what I've heard, they have a very holistic approach to it. There is less specific choosing of subjects and instead you get to do a bit of everything. It sounds like a good thing to do if you're worried about not doing the right subjects if you don't know what career to pursue in the future. Most people at my school who do it say it's good or that it isn't much better than the usual NCEA that people do here in NZ.

 

I was in pre-IB. I decided not to do full IB, even all my friends did.

 

Huh?

 

Unfortunately I was too stupid for IB so I was always a traditional student.

 

I'm graduating in November this year.

I take HL math, physics and chemistry, and SL chinese, langlit and econs, and I did an EE in physics.

It's actually quite a fun program, because of the small class sizes and how they like to bring up TOK in just about every other subject. It's quite holistic, I think, compared to the A levels but that's just imo.

Tips: (which you might be able to find online or that you likely know anyway but imma be nice anyway)
- If you're going to do IB, think of your EE topic and IAs super early because the earlier you get ready, the easier you can prep come the time to actually do IAs/EE.
- No one actually understands TOK, not even the teacher. Don't worry when it comes to the essay or presentation. You can copy abt 90% from the textbook.
- HL math is hard. It requires creative thinking, algebra and adept usage of a graphing calculator. If you aren't comfortable with this, you might want to reconsider taking HL math.
- You should probably be able to work on multiple long term projects at the same time, because that's what IB is. Like, at one time you might be preparing your extended essay, IA and further oral activity.
- it's not "all those acronyms". The name's Mount Caseetokia.

If you want to know more/get notes for the IB, feel free to PM me!

 

I did the IB. Though it wasn't really for me. .__. I' interested in academics, though I have quite specific interests, and when I'm forced to do things I'm not interested in I just can't perform. I met a lot of really cool people, though, not to mention I came in contact with Amnesty (as a CAS project).

 

To be frankly honest, IB is just a heap of extra work, for little pay off, unless you are 100% interested in each of the subjects, are good at exams and feel like not having a life for 2 years, go ahead. Ive just streamed off into a lot of "arguments" against it here, its a little sporadic but eh, im tired.

I go to a school that offers IB, and our own state program called SACE(South Australian Certificate of Education) , both give the exact same results, people always try to use the excuse of "Oh well you can go study wherever you want with IB" and in a lot of areas,
Our "state" program is being run overseas in Malaysia, so it would have to be some bit decent if another country wanted to pick it up. Also the scaling isn't perfect everywhere you go, unless you get a solid score above 40, otherwise it drops In a lot of places.
This may be generalising a lot to my course, SACE a lot, but I am assuming a lot of other yr 11-12 courses are like this. You see, in IB, your stuck with the subjects you choose for 2 years. So have fun with those, in case you happen to change your mind on something.

In SACE, we can essentially do whatever subjects that we want, the only limitation we have is on Chemistry, which you have to do it for the full year in yr 11 to do it in yr 12. Otherwise, if I really want, at the end of the first semester in yr 11 (that's eqivilant to 2 terms or 2 10 week blocks), I can go swap to another subject. So I can mix around with a few different subjects, and see what I like before picking something in yr 12. I find that is so much more reliable than being locked into subjects.

TOK is basically the most boring lesson youll go to (trust me, I hear about it most days from my IB friends) you cant do your EE on whatever you want it has to be something to do with the subjects your doing, and with the changes they have recently made, you have to constantly be doing stuff for CAS, unlike when they used to just say "oh 50 hrs for each component"

If you have a passion in Music, DONT DO IB MUSIC. I was stuck in a IB High level music class for about 6 weeks, and myy gooooodddd its soo crap. You dont do any music theory, and just learn how to write essays. Now im pretty sure if you wanted to go into a music degree they aren't going to sit you down and say "ok can you write me an essay please". Just a terrible setup for actually going off into music. The other components are a joke as well, seriously, 20 mins of performance, and only 3 compositions/arrangements over the 2 years??? In SACE music, you have to do at least 4 compositions, 25 mins of performance and thats just yr 11 music, yr 12 is a huge stretch, but it sets you up really well for the industry, and for Uni and such.

Also another thing that most forget to consider as well, even though you can allegedly "go study anywhere", where are you gonna get the money for that? you can argue, "im going to have a part time job to save money", with what time? you have work that you always have to be doing. You may also argue, oh well I may get a scholarship somewhere, thats not going to pay for your other living expenses though.

Oh but a quick tip, Unless your basically fluent in the language you plan to study, don't take it high level... Not even joking, our school advises against people doing HL languages if they aren't already fluent, and while this is only from the HL Chinese course, its that hard that even my friend, a fluent speaker had to drop it to SL early on.


So that's basically my rant on it, a part of it is skewed from the fact that I have to listen to my friends complain about doing it when if anything they really didn't have to do that to themselves in the first place, and the fact that people try to make it look like such an elite course, when in reality, its just the same as most courses these days.

 

makes me wish i went to private skool becuz i loooove learning but went to private skool; thus, ended up getting fuked up everyday drunk or on drugs, ditched all the time and didnt care becuz i hated being around normal people...(i tested above average on my exit exam and i never was at skool, let alone pay attention in class) it was just natural to me...im in college now but i dont give it my all when i have to socialize or public speak/share my ideas...this is when i dont care and want to seclude...i dislike being social, but really really love learning..

---------- Post added 4th Jun 2016 at 10:34 AM ----------

went to public skool*