IP, IB vs A Levels

[doodbug]

Your last point is a good one, would be nice if there're statistics to substantiate if IB students perform better/worse/on-par as compared to their A-Level peers in the same uni course? e.g. based on uni GPA, % move on to postgrad... etc

Generally speaking, I think the population of IB students, particularly at the course level, is simply not sufficient to really conduct meaningful studies. This applies to any UK universities or Singapore universities.

[carcar]

Generally speaking, I think the population of IB students, particularly at the course level, is simply not sufficient to really conduct meaningful studies. This applies to any UK universities or Singapore universities.

yeah, probably in the context of local u.
Came across this, but can't open the full report though. Also, it's from IBO site, not sure if there's any bias...
https://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the ... niversity/

[doodbug]

yeah, probably in the context of local u.
Came across this, but can't open the full report though
https://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the ... niversity/

Yes, the IBDP has a strong international (and arguably, local) reputation.

[Nebbermind]

yeah, probably in the context of local u.
Came across this, but can't open the full report though. Also, it's from IBO site, not sure if there's any bias...
https://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the ... niversity/

https://www.acs-schools.com/sites/defau ... 2017_0.pdf

[Nebbermind]

Yes, the IBDP has a strong international (and arguably, local) reputation.

I remember being told many years ago that IB better prepares the kids for applications while A level has more hardcore knowledge.

But I think the local IP schools kinda fill the gaps in the application part.

[lee_yl]

I can’t understand why is there perceivingly no equivalence in the local university admission? This is surely something within MOE control. I can’t imagine less than half of RI/HCI who already mugged so hard is not comparable to 82% of ACSI. And why can’t MOE be transparent about releasing the IB admission criteria. For us whose kids work so hard in the A level system often sacrificing personal and ‘volunteering’ time to ‘pad up’ their portfolios, at the end of the day, it’s lesser than a 42IB points.

There shouldn’t be an issue for local universities to publish the IB admission applicants. No point claiming that there may be no discernible statistical trend even before we start.

The public doesn’t need to know whether discretionary admission is given to whose son or daughter. I am only keen to know 10th to 90th percentile of those who used IB to gain admission to local Universities, like the A-level results.

Lest we forget, even for Hwa Chong International, their average IB score is 39.8, which means very likely close to half could have scored 40 and above! Enough to gain entry to many competitive course in the local universities.

[Nebbermind]

OT

With the retirement/re-employment age pushing towards 70, why are we still in such a rush to get the kids to graduate?
I think a 3-year A/IB would be more enjoyable instead of chiong-ing the course in less than 2 yrs. But, of course, the smarter ones may not agree

[Nebbermind]

My younger girl had the choice, but after talking about it extensively with her, she chose A levels. Although I'm sure, like for most high achievers, she would done well at IB, she preferred the exam system rather than the more "continual assessment" system.

Need some clarification from IB parents - the IB is still a final exams system, ya?

[lee_yl]

whereas at SOTA, ACS(I) and SJII, the COP tends to favour the top 10% of population…

Can someone tell me, for the students who DSAed into SOTA, does the majority of them (definitely can’t be all) have a Tscore of 250 and above, to qualify to be top 10% of the cohort?

I just realized, not sure if it’s just a coincidence, more than 70% of SOTA graduates do not go on to pursue Arts related degree. Why? Perhaps because more than half of them score 42-45 in IB and they can apply to do Med, Law, Comp Sc in local universities or Oxford/Cambridge!

[SG_KP1]

This is an interesting discussion. Let's take breadth as the horizontals, and depth as verticals. There is no disagreement that you will need to develop 1 or more peaks of excellences eventually, not just to stand out, but as a career direction.

Some educators are of the view that you need a very strong base, i.e. horizontal, and spend many years cultivating and building a strong horizontal, as this will help you to develop greater peaks of excellences, when you eventually choose one, because you are also in a better position to choose one (having chosen one later). The time spent on the developing the horizontals, is also useful in developing skills in integration of knowledge and applications. This is largely how the US education works. And in this fast changing world, we need to pivot quickly, and our kids will probably have to develop multiple (sometimes different) peaks of excellences across their career lifespans. The broad horizontals become even more important in this regard.

There will be those who favour the British type of system, where the specialisation starts at a much younger age. You do achieve a peak of excellence earlier in life. But how able are you to pivot? This is also the model which SIngapore had adopted, though things are changing and the government is stressing nonstop about continuing education.

By making one maths and one science compulsory at the IB, even if it does nothing, it will give people the confidence they are able to pick up STEM areas should they need to pivot to do so, in future, compared to someone who has done no maths or science at the A levels (this is an extreme but there are kids who are not doing any Math or Science at A levels).

In Singapore, my view is that our education system from P1 to Sec 4 is generally too narrow and STEM-bent. Hence, I appreciate a broader system. (Kids in Western countries do Geog, History from Pri School.) But is this important for my kids specifically? I don't think so because my kids have broad interests and pursuits through family upbringing and exposure - they are much more well read than I am on global and current affairs etc and they can hold more intelligent conversations than I can. Some parents here have kids who have lived abroad and had far wider exposure than the typical Singaporean kid through the public school system. So much as I am not a fan of the content depth of the A levels (also many parts can be removed without much harm or implication to future learning), I can accept they have to go through it.

Choosing later does have its advantages, both on levels of exposure and maturity. One positive of the US system (in general) is that the kids have a relatively stress-free life and one can wake up at 18-20 yrs old after a night of drinking beers and ordering pizza and then decide what they he/she wants to do with their life (although I do not believe this is true for those targeting competitive universities/first jobs). Is this universally or even on average producing "better" or more "flexible" people? I'm not sure there. I could even argue that such type of system has resulted in a large class of mediocracy.

To me, one is still going to start in job that focuses on some subset of skills, and one should try to do it extremely well. If I need or want to change in the future, the specifics of what I learnt elsewhere in the past is only going to be so useful. Much of it will either be forgotten or obsolete. Instead, I think it is the general language and critical thinking skills that come with some variety of subjects are what can be used forever (along with the mindset that one can continue to learn and adapt).

So what we are really talking about here is different shades of gray (or is it grey ). And as you've pointed out, both the UK and US have a bit different way of doing things in university, yet it would be hard to refute that both are producing widely successful people.

I guess one does need to be cognizant not to become too siloed or ignore subjects/skills that are deemed secondary. I think more and more people are aware of that today. At the same time, it may be an accurate assessment to say that on the whole one system does more of that than the other.