School and the IB

I've always intended to make a post to explain a bit about school - what subjects I'm studying, what qualification I'm working towards... I really thought I'd made it, but after some questions following my last post about school, I checked back and realised I'd never actually written this post. So I'm writing it now in the hope that it'll make some of the school stuff I mention easier to understand :)

I'mn currently in year 13 (my second and final year of sixth form). Before I started sixth form I'd missed a lot of school due to being ill, so didn't know what career I wanted (and still don't, lol). Because of this I didn't want to narrow my options too much, so A Levels didn't appeal to me. Then a friend's mum mentioned the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB), which sounded ideal. It is a 2 year qualification that is an alternative to A Levels. You take 7 subjects (including maths, a science, your native language, a foreign language, a humanities subject, Theory of Knowledge (which is like philosophy) and one more subject). So you don't specialise like you would if you took A Levels. And universities like the IB.

I really liked the sound of the IB so looked into which schools offered it. The nearest school to me was 22 miles away, but near to where my dad worked. I applied in summer 2007 and started there in September 2007. My dad takes me in on his way to work in the mornings and picks me up when he finishes in the evening. I've tried to do the journey on the buses occasionally, when I've finished school early, but it's 3 different buses and takes 2 hours!

When I started sixth form I decided to take the following subjects:

• English Literature
• Maths
• Biology
• Environmental Systems
• Psychology
• Japanese
  
• Theory of Knowledge

This was a lot of work, but I coped fine in year 12. However when I returned to school in September 2008 after my reversal operation in the summer I was feeling very tired and struggling to keep up with all the work. So in December 2008 I made the decision to drop down from the International Baccalaureate Diploma (all 7 subjects) to the International Baccalaureate Certificates (just some of the 7 subjects). The International Baccalaureate Certificates aren't accepted by top universities (like Oxbridge), but other universities are usually ok with it if you have a valid reason for not being able to complete the whole Diploma. I wasn't too worried as I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to university and I knew if I did I wouldn't be applying to Oxbridge. Also my head of sixth form said if I did apply to university then she would be happy to write a letter explaining why I was doing the certificates.

So from last December I dropped Theory of Knowledge and maths, leaving just 5 subjects:

• English Literature
• Biology
• Environmental Systems
• Psychology
• Japanese

I found this easier to manage, though it's still a lot of work!

At the moment lots of oral exams are occuring. I've just had my English individual oral commentary, but I've got Japanese orals over the next 3 weeks (2 group orals next week and then my indivdual oral a fortnight after that). The final coursework deadlines are also around at the moment.

My final exams will be in the first 3 weeks of May. I've not started revision yet, but know I really ought to very soon. The coursework and exams we do in the IB are not graded from A* to E like in A Levels. Instead all our work is graded on a scale from 7 to 1 (7 is the best grade and 1 is a fail) I'm predicted 6s in all my final exams :) If you do the full diploma then your final grades for your 7 subjects are added together and you can get up to 3 bonus points, giving you a total out of 45 for your diploma. Some of my friends who are applying to Oxbridge need 40 out of 45 points. But as I'm just doing certificates I will get a score out of 7 for each subject.

I'm sorry this post is so long, but I hope you find it interesting. If you've any questions please ask.