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In this column, I will address some questions I often get from parents and students considering taking the International Baccalaureate program.
How does the subject selection system in the IB curriculum work?
In the IB curriculum, students are required to study a total of six subjects.
These include two compulsory language or literature subjects, one mathematics subject, one humanities subject, one science subject, and the final subject can be freely chosen from humanities, sciences, or other arts categories.
What factors should students consider when choosing subjects?
Many university courses require students to have studied relevant subjects in the IB.
For example, students interested in pursuing mathematics naturally need to study higher-level mathematics, most commonly AA instead of AI at the higher level in the IB; those aiming for a history degree should have a solid foundation in history from their IB studies.
Students aspiring to enter medical school should choose subjects like chemistry and biology at higher levels. Therefore, future university course preferences are one of the key factors to consider when selecting IB subjects.
Besides university preferences, students' interests in subjects and the subjects offered by the school also influence their choices during subject selection.
Some courses may not be offered at the school, and students would have to self-study them. This is generally not recommended unless students are very interested in the subject and confident that they could do well.
With many IB subjects available, can the same effort in each subject yield the same results?
The IB offers a variety of subjects within each category, allowing students to choose freely.
However, even within the same category, the distribution of grades varies, making it relatively more challenging to achieve high scores in some subjects, which undoubtedly affects future educational opportunities.
For example, suppose an IB school offers four humanities subjects: business and management; economics; history; and psychology. If a student is equally interested in all four subjects, and the university of choice does not specify required subjects, how should the student decide?
To answer this question, we can refer to the May 2023 IB examination data. According to the data, the percentage of students achieving a perfect score of 7 in higher-level history, psychology, and business and management are respectively 2.6 percent, 5.1 percent, and 8.3 percent, while in higher-level economics, as many as 14 percent of students achieved a full score.
As for the scores (a 6) just below the perfect score 7, similar trends are observed.
In higher-level economics, 26.1 percent of students achieved this excellent score, while business and management and psychology had 27.3 percent and 25.8 percent respectively, but only 13 percent of history students reached this level.
From the data mentioned, it is evident that even within the same category of humanities subjects, there is a significant variation in grade distribution. While students taking economics have a 40 percent chance of scoring the highest marks of 6-7, those studying history only have a 15.6 percent chance of achieving similar successes.
It is worth noting that such a stark difference in grade distribution is not just a phenomenon of last year but has been a consistent trend in recent years, and should serve as a reference for students when choosing their subjects.
Lastly, for students aiming for UK universities, schools typically issue conditional offers based on the final IBDP grade, including grades for higher-level subjects, such as 666 in all higher-level subjects. Therefore, it's advisable to choose subjects for your higher levels in which you are confident of achieving high scores.
