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IB

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I'm considering studying for the IB next year and was just wondering what thoughts/experiences any of you guys have on it. Any views most appreciated!

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    OMG, someone who knows the IB exists!! Everyone else I've talked to on this site hasn't known about it...a great pity, because in my opinion it is superb for a final school course.

    I don't know how much you know about it, but for the benefit of other people, this is a basic outline:

    You get to choose 6 subjects. Of these, one must be a maths course, one must be a language course, one must be a humanity, one must be a science, one must be english and the last one if a free choice. For all of these, there is a combination of internal and external assesment. The internal is either a piece of coursework, an ongoing portfolio of small pieces or what have you. the external assessment is an exam at the end of the two year course. The 6 subjects you choose are marked out of 7 points, 7 being the highest.

    Aside from the subjects, there are a number of other activities you must undertake: C.A.S, T.O.K and Extended Essay being the main three.

    Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) is, in my opinion, superb. It pushes you to do things you might not otherwise do - something creative (I do photography, for example) something active (snowboarding for me) and something that is a service to the greater community - helping at a refugee centre, teaching kids something etc. Throughout the year, you keep a diary of what you do, and at the end of the course that is reviewed. If satisfactory, you are eligble for the IB Diploma. If not satisfactory, you're not eligble.

    Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is impossible to describe. It is a course that teaches you to analyse what you know, to doubt things and be able to qualify that doubting. If not all that fun, but it does make you think.

    Extended Essay is easy: 4000 word research essay on a topic of your choice. Fun as well.

    My personal opinions...well, i've already said that CAS is a great idea. It allows students to broaden their minds, to attempt activites they might not otherwise try. Very good. The broad range of subjects which are forced into appealed to me, since I had (and still don't have) a very clear direction in life. So not having to narrow my options down is good. I have taken physics, history, economics, lower maths, german and english higher...nothing there that shows a preference to any one area. oh well, but also good.

    the extra subjects are not bad. The EE means that you have some experience at large research projects. The EE is 90% about the reasearch..it only counts for 1 of 45 marks, but it is something you want to be very good at going into uni.

    What else can i say...not a lot. Hope this hasn't bored you, been my first long post in a while.

    DM

    I've not lost my mind it's inserted elsewhere - hence the limp.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks Turtle!
    I did know most of that stuff but its good to hear from someone's who doing it and that you're finding it worth doing. (That's the impression I got from what you said anyway!)

    From what you said about the others not knowing anything about it, this probably wasn't the best place to ask but I thought I'd try anyway! Ah well. The school I'd go to to do the course have only been running it a year but they seem to be getting on ok with it so I'm pretty confident about that.

    If I do it I'll probably do English, French, Sociology or Economics, Physics, one of the maths choices and I'm not sure about the other subject. It does sound good though, and I think the fact that it doesn't specialise too much in any one subject area is good cos I'm not 100% sure what I want to do afterwards so it'll be good to keep my options open.

    How do you find the work load? Sorry if that sounds like a wimpy question but I just want to know how possible it is! btw, I do things that would count towards the C&S parts already so that wouldn't be too much of a problem.

    curly <IMG alt="image" SRC="http://www.thesite.org/ubb/smile.gif"&gt;
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Work load...work load...hmmm....what work???? lol...um...no.

    Seriously...there is a fair amount of work, and you have to keep on top of it. There is always coursework or portfolios or summin to be handed in...between economics (9*400 words) and physics (1 lab report per week, 1 lab takes approx 2h), english essays, history chapter summaries, german grammar work, maths excersises etc...plus CAS, plus EE, plus TOK stuff (two majoy 1000 word essays to be completed during the two years)...it is a fair bit, no denying it. at first, i had a bit of troubel adapting. But I think you do adapt in the end. Sometimes it can feel like you're being overwhelemd with work. At times like this, go and see your form teacher/tutor whatever and ask if they can ask the teachers of your subjects to lay off a bit on unnecessary homework.

    But between all that, i still seem to have time to post a lot of shit on these boards, so it's not tooooo bad. :P

    Any other qs?

    I've not lost my mind it's inserted elsewhere - hence the limp.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Umm...no I don't think I have any more questions at the moment but I might think of some another time! Thanks for your help.
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