What Is The IB Programme? (Parents, This One’s For You)
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (IBDP) is an alternative to the GCE ‘A’ Levels Programme at Junior College Level. It is recognized for admission by all Singapore universities and leading universities globally. The IB Programme is valued for its holistic education which encourages independent learning and critical thinking, and prepares students for university, work, and a fulfilling life. Students sit for their IB examinations at the end of the 2 year programme. In local Singapore schools (e.g ACSI, SJI, SJII, ASCII, HCIS), the papers are sat for in November whereas in international schools (e.g CIS, Dulwich, SAIS, GIIS, UWCSEA), students sit for the papers in May.
What’s so Special About the IB Programme?
Students in the IB Programme are required to complete the core IB requirements (CAS, EE, TOK) and pass in order to receive their diploma. The core requirements of the IB programme ensure holistic education and encourage students to develop interests and hobbies outside of traditional academic subjects.
CAS = Creativity, Activity and Service (equivalent to CCA in an A Level programme),
EE = Extended Essay (a 4000 word research essay on any chosen topic and subject),
TOK = Theory of Knowledge (Equivalent to Knowledge Inquiry in A Level programme)
In addition to CAS, EE and TOK, students are also required to complete an Internal Assessment (IA) for each subject they take. An IA comes in varying forms for different subjects. For example, a Biology IA would be to research, design and carry out a lab experiment to explore the correlation between 2 factors and write a report about it. Whereas an Economics IA would be to choose 3 newspaper articles about economic policies implemented around the world and analyze the efficacy of the policies. For Language and Literature, the IA consists of various components (including a spoken literary commentary and a creative written piece). These Internal assessments are completed and submitted before the start of the written papers in May or November. IAs are marked by school teachers and some are picked out for moderation by IBO. IAs usually make up 20% of the students' grades for most subjects, with the other 80% coming from the written papers.
Subject Combination and Why it Matters
Subject combination at the pre-university level must be chosen carefully. This is because most universities have prerequisites for specific courses (e.g to study Medicine you must have studied HL Chemistry and HL Biology/Physics) whereas Engineering requires that the student has taken and scored well for HL Mathematics.
Students in the IBDP Programme take 6 subjects: 3 at Higher Level (HL) and 3 at Standard Level (SL).
While not completely equivalent, these are comparable to the GCE A Levels ‘H2/H3’ and ‘H1’ subjects respectively.
Students must choose 6 subjects, one from each group of subjects in the table below.
Subjects in group 6 can be replaced with one subject from group 3 or 4 (i.e taking 2 Sciences or 2 Humanities subjects instead of Music or Visual Arts)
For example: Students may take
HL Biology
HL Chemistry
HL Economics
SL Chinese B
SL Mathematics Analysis and Approaches
SL Language and Literature
MOE Bilingual Policy Requirements
Under MOE’s Bilingual Policy,
Higher MT students who obtained at least a D7 for GCE ‘O’ Level Higher MT need not pursue MT language at ‘A’ level/IB level
MT students must continue to study GCE ‘A’ Level H1 MT and take the exams at JC1 or JC2
MT Syllabus B students must continue to study GCE ‘A’ Level MT Syllabus B and take the exam at JC1or JC2.
Singaporeans and PRs are required to take Mother Tongue Language till Pre-University level and attain at least a pass in order to be enrolled into a local university. Mother tongue languages fall under group 2 of the IB Programme. Students who have taken Higher Mother Tongue (HMT) at O level (and have obtained at least D7) are not allowed to pursue Language B at IB Level and are required to take either a 2nd Language A subject or an ‘ab initio’ subject.
The IB Scoring System
IB scoring system is from grades 1-7 (with 1 being the lowest and 7 being the highest). The grade that the student receives is based on a grade boundary.
Check out the rest of the grade boundaries for November 2022 sitting here
The grade boundary for each subject and level (SL/HL) differs every year and is dependent on how difficult the paper is perceived by IBO. In Nov 2022, the grade boundary for a 6 for HL chemistry was 60%. Students with scores between (and including) 60% to 71% would score a grade 6 out of 7 for HL Chemistry. Students with 72% and above would score a grade 7 out of 7 for HL Chemistry. The Total score for 6 subjects taken is thus out of a maximum of 42 points (6 x 7 points). The total IB score is out of 45 points with the 3 additional points (42+3) determined based on the student’s EE and TOK score. The bonus points are determined by the matrix table:
