Reasons for IB
It depends on how intellectually stimulated you want to be and how diverse your skill set is. If you are a student who enjoys a lot of different subjects then the IB could be a good choice for you. When you’re unsure as to what specific direction you want to go in the program keeps your options open. This is also true because the IB is holistic: in-built in the programme is sports, creativity, volunteering, and critical thinking, as well as many different types of learning and assessment.
Whilst the courses are challenging they are simultaneously intellectual stimulating covering interesting topics that push your critical thinking and vastly improve your skill sets. It is also incredibly gratifying to be able to overcome challenges and complete difficult tasks. This means the IB is a very respected qualification for higher education – especially true if you are looking to go to university in a different country. Having studied with a relatively global outlook for 2 years in the IB is an advantage for this. Although it is not perfect in this respect, practical examples of the global approach are:
• You have to take a different language.
• History courses aren’t influenced so much by the country you’re studying it in.
• You do texts in translation in English Literature.
Reasons against IB
However, if you find time management and independent learning challenging, then I would not recommend choosing the IB over other courses. Or, if you are in the UK and know already exactly what you want to study at university and want to specialise, the IB is not necessarily a better choice than A-Levels. But, you should not shy away from the challenge. Pushing yourself shows you what you are capable of and gets the best out of you. It definitely brought the best out of me.
• Aarya’s thoughts on the IB workload is here
• Imogen’s post on what she felt she would have done differently is here