Is anyone doing/has done the IB?

What do you think about it? And did you start doing your Extended Essay? What is it about?

I'm in my second year of IB now, graduating in around 245 days I think :intergalactic:
I honestly can't wait until I'm done... It's really hard and stressful but then again it's the whole point, if you survive the IB you survive everything

Also, will anyone say "Screw it" and buy Skyrim even though it will be 3 weeks before your mock exams?

What is it?

A school in my city, Lo-Ellen, has an IB program, didn't interest me then. :shrug:

Basically a really famous international educational program for people in relocation.

So I live in Denmark because of my dad's job, and obviously I can't go study in a Danish school 'cause I'm not Danish and I have no idea how to speak Danish, the same with any other foreign country, most of them have an International Schools (International School of _______ [insert a - most of the times - a capital city]


EDIT:
It basically lets you go to most universities in the world
UK, US, Australia are the main ones but you have many other unis from other countries

http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&q=International+Baccalaureate

That makes sense, thanks



I am aware of the Google, I was merely asking so that others wouldn't need to

There's an IB program at our school, which I decided not to enroll in because it was so restrictrive. They have to choose between some subjects (like apparently you're allowed one science, one humanitarian subject, one language, one math, etc, and then you got to choose an extra subject if you wanted? Or something like that), and I wanted to study all of them.

As an afterthought... I'm extremely glad I didn't do IB. I've talked to some of the IB students, and they're dying there. Being drowned in homework and all that.

Yea we are drowning in homework but when with an IB diploma the chances you'd be accepted to a uni are much higher!

Aum.. Yes you must have 1 from each area, but instead of choosing an art-related subject (Theatre, Music, art etc.) you can instead choose another subject (like a second science or a second humanitarian subject)

For example I'm taking Biology, Chemistry and English at Higher Level and Math, Economics and a Self-Taught language at Standard level Two sciences right there!! Although I completely regret taking those subjects because I don't want to study Medicine any more... I could have done art instead of Chemistry... :/ So yea in that sense it really restricts you..

I did the IB when I was in high school (years ago now) and though it was incredibly challenging I found I got a lot out of it. In particular the Theory of Knowledge course was excellent: a critical examination of sources for information and how to make your own judgements on the credibility of the information you gather - really opened my eyes to avoiding bias and subjectivity, and how to read between the lines. The endless essays also pushed my writing ability to incredibly high standards, to the point where later assignments at university were a breeze.

I wouldn't say it's for everyone, since it does svck up a lot of your time with all the extra-curricular stuff you have to do (not to mention the sheer workload) but if you want a really great jumpstart on university qualification it goes a long way. For example, since I took higher math, I was able to skip nearly a year and a half of uni coursework because it was all familiar ground.

I wrote my extended essay on the social implications of video games, actually. Didn't do so well with it (my conclusions were all over the place, frankly) but it was fun to research, to say the least.

Nice!

And yea I agree! Luckily for you, you probably had a good TOK teacher... mine doesn't teach us anything and expects us to know everything...
And my Chem teacher is sooo bad O: (he is a great chemist but a terrible, TERRIBLE teacher!

And yea! Lots of the stuff you study is actually university level, so it's awesome! I'm taking standard math so even if they tell me I can skip some subjects I would still go and study those subjects because my math is not that good!

My EE is for Biology, I'm checking how easily attention can be diverted from pain from cold water to simple tasks like drawing accurate lines or describing LEGO pieces... stupid stuff really... :/

The only thing that I don't like is that some of us are still not sure about what we gonna do in the future... and if you choose the classes you can't change them... It would have helped me so much if I took Art or Computer Science and not Chemistry for example... But last year I wanted to study Medicine, now I wanna go into the Film or Games industry :/

I hope you don't mind if I ask, which university did you go to and what did you study?

Well I was invited to a Cambridge high school program down here in Florida to participate in IB but I thought it wasn't worth it because it's too hard and doesn't do all the things it says it will.

What does it say it would do and did not do?

We had the program at my school. From all my friends that took it, they said that it basically strips you of your life.

The pamphlets and invite mail said stuff about scholarship programs and resumes and college planning and better futures and stuff. But I found out that the scholarship programs are useless because you need to be top notch. Me, I don't consider myself top notch at school so I don't know why I was invited, but you need to maintain like, a 5.0, yes 5. I only maintain 3.5. :3 That community service hours had to be like, 1000 and other such things

I don't know, it was last year. Now I'm in high school not doing IB or Cambridge.

No it doesn't.. Believe me I have 2 friends that sleep, work and keep a social life and they get 6s and 7s (highest scores)...

It strips me of my life because I'm a procrastinator but that's my fault, not the program's. If you know how to organize and spread your work, you're good

Ugh, I had a physics teacher who was terrible. He had some kind of personal grudge against me, so the classes tended to be awkward and hardly my favorite, though I loved the subject itself. To be fair, he did get through the prescribed material, but his contract was not renewed the following year...

On the other hand, our TOK supervisor was indeed very good - an intelligent fellow working on his PhD, and he had some great perspectives on things. I guess it goes to show that as homogeneous as the IB program tries to be, there's still a lot of differences in implementation between schools. Ours was actually the first year the IB had been offered at my high school, and there were less than a dozen of us "guinea pigs" trying to muddle our way through first edition textbooks with errors on nearly every page.


I attended the University of Kent at Canterbury (UKC) and graduated with an honours BSc in Computer Science. I wouldn't worry too much about being stuck with classes that might not exactly match your degree - my high school was rather small, and didn't offer any kind of programming course. Instead I did higher math, english, chemistry and physics (yeah, four highers, I was nuts) but only the math was really relevant to my degree, and even then the first year of uni included a math course to bring everyone up to speed (which is what I was able to skip.) Think of it as an opportunity to learn something you won't have later - though I have no practical application for the years I spent learning molecular physics, it still has provided an appreciable insight into the nature of the world.

lol, sixes and sevens.

I've often wondered about the etymology of that phrase. Any thoughts?

According to wikipedia, disagreements over 15th century livery precedence. Also I had to actually discover what livery precedence was. Those morons, it's like a frigging Discworld novel.

That does make a good deal of sense, protocol being the ultimate subject of English bickering.

I sort of did my English A2 HL for my IB. I say sort of because I overslept one of the final tests and you don't get a chance to reschedule it. You just get a partial certificate, which I'll be receiving somewhere in November, I believe.
Also, good luck.

That's what I did too. We had the option for bilingual education in our high school in The Netherlands, meaning half of my subjects were taught in English, and then you got the IB program for the English classes. It was pretty useful.

I think I ended up with a 5 or a 6, I'm not sure. It was a few years ago.

I don't think it actually took me a great amount of time or effort though. Not in a 'your social life is doomed' kind of way.

That's exactly what I did.

It doesn't take up all your time in one go, true, but having to hand in at least 3 written pieces (essays, comparative commentaries, etc) every week does have its drawbacks.
I'm not even too fussed about not getting my full IB, seeing as I have a Cambridge certificate of proficiency in English for non-native speakers, graded "A" with 82/100.

But yeah, the IB is much broader from what I've seen. Multiple subjects make this exactly like the Dutch "normal" school programme, which consumes a great deal of your time.