Written by: Hajnalka Balázs
Many are doing it, but most of us don’t know the exact definition of it or the process. So before choosing between the National or the International Program at the end of 10th grade, we suggest you examine this article closely, so you gain a better understanding.
The IBDP (short for International Baccalaureate Diploma Program), according to the official website of the International Baccalaureate, is “an academically challenging and balanced programme of education with final examinations that prepares students, aged 16 to 19, for success at university and life beyond” which has been designed to address the intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being of the students. The program prepares students for the life after high school by making them able to become an active part of the global society as they learn their subjects, chosen from 6 subject groups. All IBDP students are able to study two languages, a mother tongue, and a foreign language, and the cultural backgrounds of them, individuals and societies, experimental sciences and maths at several different levels. Also there is an optional group, the arts, which (if provided by the school) a student can choose a subject from, or else he or she has to choose the sixth subject from the previously mentioned 5 groups.
The two year program models the first year of university, by making students able to behave more like adults, making their own decisions, doing research on an area of their interest to gain a more in-depth knowledge about their chosen topic, which they have to reflect about in the Extended Essay, and studying without being pushed too much by their teachers, by developing skills and the positive attitude towards learning. Besides studying in the program the students have to complete 150 hours of creative, active and service activities (also known as CAS), to become more caring and to learn to do volunteer work without getting anything in return, not including the improvement of creative, social and active skills. IBDP requires students to take the uniquely designed Theory of Knowledge class, which helps to improve the thinking skills of all students making them able to make connections between their subject areas, while gaining a deeper understanding of knowledge as a human construction. In addition, there is a 4 000 word essay to be completed, called the Extended Essay, which expects students to research a topic of their interest, while making them able to explain their in-depth knowledge about the chosen subject area.
As mentioned before there are five-plus-one subject areas which the student must choose a subject from. The first group is Studies in Language and Literature, which can be taken on either Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL), and the students can choose to study either Literature only or Language and Literature. This language is usually the native language of the pupil, or the language which he or she can speak and understand the best. Group two is called Language Acquisition, which is an additional language, taken as either Language B, which can be either SL or HL, or as Language ab initio, as a new language. As in the third group students can study about Individuals and Societies, including subjects, which can be all taken at SL and HL, such as Economics, History, Philosophy, Psychology, and Social or Cultural Anthropology. This group may also contain Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS), but this subject can only be taken on SL. The fourth group contains all experimental sciences, provided on both SL and HL, such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Design Technology (DT) and Computer Sciences, and may contain ESS. Group five is the Mathematics group, providing maths on several different difficulty levels, like Mathematical Studies, Mathematics (SL or HL) and Further Mathematics (SL or HL). As for the plus subject group, Arts, students might choose from courses both offered on SL and HL, as Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and Film, but if they decide not to choose a subject they can choose another subject from one of the first five groups.
The variety of subjects offered differs in all schools, depending on which the school can provide teachers for. Some school might provide all subjects in all six groups, while some might not even have any subjects from arts, or might not provide some from the different groups. For instance our school provides many Language A and B subjects, but only has Economics and History in Group Three, and Biology, ESS and Physics in Group Four, and is now working on reintroducing Arts in the form of Visual Arts subject, starting from the class of May 2016.
All subjects have internally and externally assessed parts. The internal assessments can be oral presentations (mostly in languages), practical work (in experimental sciences) or written assignments. These usually take up 20-50% of the final mark. Internal assessments are usually moderated and re-checked by an external moderator, who supervises the grade given by the teacher, grading internally. The external assessment is the final exam taken at the end of the two year program, from all subjects, Theory on Knowledge not included. All of these are graded in a grading system of 1 to 7, 1 being the worst and 7 being the best mark receivable, making up to 42 points. To receive the total of 45 points, the student must complete his or her TOK course, and hand in the4 000 word Extended Essay. To pass the Diploma Program the pupil has to receive a minimum 12 points from HL subjects, 9 from SL subjects and complete the Extended Essay, TOK and CAS requirements.
Now off to the life after the IBDP. The diploma is accepted in more than 75 countries by more than 2 000 universities, including the highest ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, Oxbridge, University College of London (UCL), Stanford and Yale, just to name some of the TOP 10 from the QS University World Rankings. Of course, students have to fill in the requirements of the different countries and institutes, such as do the SAT for applications to the USA or apply through the UCAS system to Britain, but having participated in the IBDP gives a great advantage to all, as most universities will appreciate the hard work put into completing the IB requirements. Also IBDP gives a benefit to students, besides the appreciation of their work, by making them able to adapt to the university lifestyle easier. The program itself will make the students more caring and knowledgeable, more of an inquirer, more open-minden, a better risk-taker and communicator, more balanced and principled and reflective, which all help the students establish a new life, outside the protected world of high school, where most decisions are made with the help of adults.
So at the end is it worth it to take the IBDP? My answer is, that it depends. It all depends on the type of the person considering to start the program. If you are lazy, you tend not to get work done on date or simply are unmotivated by learning, then the program isn’t for you. But for instance if you are someone who is interested in learning new things in a significantly different way from what you are used to, if you want to understand the connections between different subject areas, or you feel like you could work all day and night, and research on your own to understand the topics better, then the program was invented for you.
The IBDP (short for International Baccalaureate Diploma Program), according to the official website of the International Baccalaureate, is “an academically challenging and balanced programme of education with final examinations that prepares students, aged 16 to 19, for success at university and life beyond” which has been designed to address the intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being of the students. The program prepares students for the life after high school by making them able to become an active part of the global society as they learn their subjects, chosen from 6 subject groups. All IBDP students are able to study two languages, a mother tongue, and a foreign language, and the cultural backgrounds of them, individuals and societies, experimental sciences and maths at several different levels. Also there is an optional group, the arts, which (if provided by the school) a student can choose a subject from, or else he or she has to choose the sixth subject from the previously mentioned 5 groups.
The two year program models the first year of university, by making students able to behave more like adults, making their own decisions, doing research on an area of their interest to gain a more in-depth knowledge about their chosen topic, which they have to reflect about in the Extended Essay, and studying without being pushed too much by their teachers, by developing skills and the positive attitude towards learning. Besides studying in the program the students have to complete 150 hours of creative, active and service activities (also known as CAS), to become more caring and to learn to do volunteer work without getting anything in return, not including the improvement of creative, social and active skills. IBDP requires students to take the uniquely designed Theory of Knowledge class, which helps to improve the thinking skills of all students making them able to make connections between their subject areas, while gaining a deeper understanding of knowledge as a human construction. In addition, there is a 4 000 word essay to be completed, called the Extended Essay, which expects students to research a topic of their interest, while making them able to explain their in-depth knowledge about the chosen subject area.
As mentioned before there are five-plus-one subject areas which the student must choose a subject from. The first group is Studies in Language and Literature, which can be taken on either Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL), and the students can choose to study either Literature only or Language and Literature. This language is usually the native language of the pupil, or the language which he or she can speak and understand the best. Group two is called Language Acquisition, which is an additional language, taken as either Language B, which can be either SL or HL, or as Language ab initio, as a new language. As in the third group students can study about Individuals and Societies, including subjects, which can be all taken at SL and HL, such as Economics, History, Philosophy, Psychology, and Social or Cultural Anthropology. This group may also contain Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS), but this subject can only be taken on SL. The fourth group contains all experimental sciences, provided on both SL and HL, such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Design Technology (DT) and Computer Sciences, and may contain ESS. Group five is the Mathematics group, providing maths on several different difficulty levels, like Mathematical Studies, Mathematics (SL or HL) and Further Mathematics (SL or HL). As for the plus subject group, Arts, students might choose from courses both offered on SL and HL, as Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and Film, but if they decide not to choose a subject they can choose another subject from one of the first five groups.
The variety of subjects offered differs in all schools, depending on which the school can provide teachers for. Some school might provide all subjects in all six groups, while some might not even have any subjects from arts, or might not provide some from the different groups. For instance our school provides many Language A and B subjects, but only has Economics and History in Group Three, and Biology, ESS and Physics in Group Four, and is now working on reintroducing Arts in the form of Visual Arts subject, starting from the class of May 2016.
All subjects have internally and externally assessed parts. The internal assessments can be oral presentations (mostly in languages), practical work (in experimental sciences) or written assignments. These usually take up 20-50% of the final mark. Internal assessments are usually moderated and re-checked by an external moderator, who supervises the grade given by the teacher, grading internally. The external assessment is the final exam taken at the end of the two year program, from all subjects, Theory on Knowledge not included. All of these are graded in a grading system of 1 to 7, 1 being the worst and 7 being the best mark receivable, making up to 42 points. To receive the total of 45 points, the student must complete his or her TOK course, and hand in the4 000 word Extended Essay. To pass the Diploma Program the pupil has to receive a minimum 12 points from HL subjects, 9 from SL subjects and complete the Extended Essay, TOK and CAS requirements.
Now off to the life after the IBDP. The diploma is accepted in more than 75 countries by more than 2 000 universities, including the highest ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, Oxbridge, University College of London (UCL), Stanford and Yale, just to name some of the TOP 10 from the QS University World Rankings. Of course, students have to fill in the requirements of the different countries and institutes, such as do the SAT for applications to the USA or apply through the UCAS system to Britain, but having participated in the IBDP gives a great advantage to all, as most universities will appreciate the hard work put into completing the IB requirements. Also IBDP gives a benefit to students, besides the appreciation of their work, by making them able to adapt to the university lifestyle easier. The program itself will make the students more caring and knowledgeable, more of an inquirer, more open-minden, a better risk-taker and communicator, more balanced and principled and reflective, which all help the students establish a new life, outside the protected world of high school, where most decisions are made with the help of adults.
So at the end is it worth it to take the IBDP? My answer is, that it depends. It all depends on the type of the person considering to start the program. If you are lazy, you tend not to get work done on date or simply are unmotivated by learning, then the program isn’t for you. But for instance if you are someone who is interested in learning new things in a significantly different way from what you are used to, if you want to understand the connections between different subject areas, or you feel like you could work all day and night, and research on your own to understand the topics better, then the program was invented for you.