Many people face difficulties choosing between IB Diploma and A-Levels for their two years before university. This text is to help such students to make the right choice. If you don’t know much about IB and A levels yet please get some information about both of them first. If you have already decided which university you want to join you should also read the admission requirements of the university you want to go to. Here are some questions you should answer before making your choice.

Do you know what you want to be? If you are unsure what profession you want to take up, in IB you study one subject from each of the six groups, which gives you an all rounded education. If you don’t know what I mean check out www.ibo.org for the details of IB diploma. If you are pretty sure what you want to become and you don’t want to go though the burden of studying extra subjects that you don’t like then go for A-levels.

Are you a hardworking student? Do you just want to get through this part of you life without much hard work and spending a lot of time with your friends or are you a hardworking student who is willing to put in a lot of effort in studies. IB requires you to spend a lot more time on studies than A-levels.

Do you enjoy activities such as sports, community service and creative work? You have to complete at least 150 hours of CAS (Creativity Action Service) in IB, and without it you won’t get a diploma. Although taking out 3-4 hours from a week for CAS may not look like much but it is hard. We go to a village for community work and the total 5 hour transportation required is not counted in our CAS hours.

Some people fret a lot about Extended Essay but many think it’s not much. Although I have not done my extended essay. I think the most difficult part would be selecting your topic. Four thousand words of research are not much.

I chose IB and it has been only a little more than a month since the start of classes, and I have thought a hundred times why didn’t I simply go for A levels, because there are times when you don’t get a break even on Sundays, I have regular classes on Saturdays. Would you be able to cope with working two weeks or more without getting a single day break? In other places this may be different.

It is however nice to know that at the end of two years I would look back at this as the best part of my life. Even though I am no expert on this but a normal student like all of you, I hope this text will help you make your decision.

Ibrahim Mohammad
ibrahim.mohammad@gmail.com
http://whistler.thetechvision.com

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