I'm one of the recipients of the KPM Bursary and I have shortlisted my options to do either A-levels or International Baccalaureate(IB). Recently I have been having sleepless nights contemplating between these two Pre-U programmes. One moment I'm interested in A-levels and the next, I find myself drawn to IB. Actually, I have already decided to take IB earlier on but now I am having second thoughts. One of my main concerns is the extensive workload in IB. I can honestly admit that I am a lazy person and am the 'last-minute' type of student, so I am worried that I can't cope with the huge amount of assignments. I know A-leves has its fair share of assignments as well but compared to IB, it doesn't seem that taxing. Also, I am quite a shy person, so there is a high possibility that I might screw up the oral presentations in IB. I understand that both the A-levels and IB have the same recognition. So is it worth all the extra stress and pressure by taking IB?

Yesterday, I went to Taylor's in Subang and was told that the number of students they have accepted for A-levels is overloaded. So either way, I have to do my Pre-U programme in Sri Hartamas. My mum prefers the atmosphere in Sri Hartamas whereas I like Subang for its convenience. I mean, they are plenty of food outlets in Subang. And at reasonable price too. But if I were to take IB, then I would have no choice. If I choose A-levels, I can still appeal to be transferred to Subang. Any Taylor's students here who are willing to share their experience?

Thank you. =)

Oral presentation is not something you can avoid. You can avoid it for pre-u level, but when you go to the next stage or when you have begun to work, presentation is almost a part of your life. You should overcome your shyness and face it, instead of bypassing it by choosing another route.

If I were you, I'll opt for A-Level simply because it is cheaper. IB can be very expensive. If you can afford both you should consider very carefully but both seem to be good choices for me. Recognition wise, both are recognised internationally.

True. I have considered that and my mum is encouraging me to take IB to train me in various soft skills. But somehow I am still reluctant because of my fear. =/

The cost is covered by the Ministry of Education, so money is not the problem here. =)

Actually assignments are only relevant to IB since for A Levels only your written exams (in and out of the labs for science) count. However, in terms of workload, while you may not be required to work periodically, you may find yourself doing exactly that (before exams) to prepare for your AS or A2 exams. You can expect that to be intense and taxing, considering the difficulty of A Level exams (which I believe to be at least in a few ways more difficult than IB exams).

At university you the style you face depends on many things, such as the school itself, and the subject. For some people it is mostly large essays, and smaller or fewer open-book final exams. For others it is intensive, long assignments/reports with even more intensive finals, or purely finals, or a mixture of small or large quizzes, assignments, and killer exams/finals.

So to say that the IB way of having assignments in addition to exams is more beneficial (than A Levels) may not be entirely true for everyone... almost surely you will have at least a few classes with sizeable assignments while at university, but many people (especially non Arts/Law) will have to face huge final exams (e.g. 50 or 60% up to 85 or 90%). The A level (without coursework boards/subjects) style, which is a couple papers totaling 50%, and then a couple papers totaling the remaining 50%, comes close to this, and so has merit in this aspect.

So you are quite right that you should pick the one which would give you the best results since they are equally recognised, and probably with fair trade-offs in terms of preparation for undergraduate (IB people develop writing, research skills, while A Level people develop exam skills, both of which are relevant to most any degree).

Hartamas has many affordable food options too.

Personally, I would prefer IB because I think that it is more holistic. It will train you up in doing assignment and oral presentation which are very important during your degree when you will need to do a lot of past literature studies.

Good luck in making decision^^

I'm currently doing IB, and I think the most compelling reason as to why I chose IB is the skills that IB teaches. A levels is mainly content based. 10 years later, I believe much of the content I have learned will be irrelevant. However, the skills such as writing skills will still be needed as I draft letters, proposals and so on. IB is not so much about the content, but the analytical and thinking skills. A level math questions are meant to have long workings (for Singapore A levels; I'm not sure about the ones in Malaysia) but IB questions require that you complete the questions in the shortest steps possible, otherwise there's not enough time to do the whole paper. So the whole approach is totally different. IB stretches horizontally but A levels stretch vertically.

A very important thing is that to do well in IB, you really really need competent teachers who know what's expected by IBO, and who knows how to guide and pace you well.

I think both IB and A levels are both very good Pre-u courses that are internationally recognized and provide training (albeit in different ways). I believe that IB is the better course.However, I personally would pick A-levels.

This is because I think A levels is more suited towards the type of student that prefers 100% assessment by one exam (me ) and also more 'booksmart' in the sense that all we have to do is read the syllabus with less hands-on skill compared with IB holders who are all rounders as IB trains them to present things well, to think and analyse a situation properly etc.

Sorta depends on what kind of person you are, IMO.

You don't get a lot of time in A Level Maths, and they certainly do not require "long workings" as you say. In fact, it is more like what you've described for IB - the shortest way possible to the correct answer. They give you marks for workings that are absolutely necessary to reach the right answer... and if you don't write that down (if you are brilliant enough to do it all in your head) but still get the right answer, they will not purposefully cut marks. I'm talking about the CIE GCE A Levels (more relevant to the discussion here) and while the Singapore Cambridge GCEs are different, I imagine they are not as tragic as you describe. The purpose of such marking is to award you partial marks in the event you fail to reach the precise answer or a correct answer due to rounding errors, calculation errors and mistakes. Not to force you to perform long workings... although the questions are quite hard and some working is needed to reach the right answer, and there is no emphasis (in the syllabus) on the "quickest way". Any way is fine as long as it is right.


For some Science A Levels you have practical exams, I would call that "hands-on". It's true that research and most writing skills are not assessed and therefore not taught, and this is perhaps one of the greatest weaknesses of A Level exams (without research-based coursework), but that's not to say you cannot pick up writing and presentation skills from A Levels. Also, you're doing Pre-U to get to uni, and not everything you learn in uni is useful down the line, so A Levels make sense because the exam style prepares you for uni.

Haha sorry I really have no idea how Malaysia's A levels is like, but Singapore's questions really require long workings to reach the solution. Of course long is relative to IB's long, and not like 2 or 3 pages. Another thing is none of IB's paper 1 allow the use of calculator. This applies for group 4 and group 5 subjects. Which is why the questions in IB are designed to have relatively nice answers most of the times and can be done in very few steps.

Well clearly they're very different then. Unless you have to explain Maths answers in abstract notation and words, then any other "Maths" will involve heavy calculation, and nice answers without a calculator are never intentional.

I did the IB Diploma from August 2008 to May 2010 and I agree with what people above said. I didn't really have a choice back then but thinking back I'd say I never regretted it because I'm one of those students who just can't do exams, so A-levels definitely wasn't for me. As long as you score higher marks in your Internal Assessments which is about 30% of your subject (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been too long that I can barely remember) and get a decent grade in exams, you can easily get a Level 6. Level 7 might be easy for many smart people out there but perfection is definitely not something I strive anyway Make sure you do well in your extended essay and satisfy the CAS hours requirement. Of course, your teachers must be competent enough to know the syllabus and I'm glad that I had some really good teachers who knew all the technique when answering exam questions and IA. It's tough because all the constant hard work you have to put in and there'll be time you start to regret it in the middle of your course (at least I did), but it was all worth it by the end of the course.

This post has been edited by vcj1992: May 5 2012, 09:54 PM

Thank you for all the inputs guys!

Personally, I think A-levels suits me better just because I, just like any other Malaysian students who took SPM, have been in the same exam-oriented education system for 11 years now. The sense of familiarity might help one do better? Okay, that is just a mere assumption but still an assumption nonetheless. However, after listening and reading many comments on IB, my interest in the programme slowly begins to grow. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the same concern; the workload and the question whether I can cope with it.

By the way, how hard is it to get a score of 7 in IB? Is it harder than scoring an A* in A-levels? I know this is a subjective question but is there a scale or something to determine the difficulty? =S

You definitely should pick whichever suits you best in your opinion.

Some IB students will of course admit the shortcomings (A Level is believed to have more depth) when they get to uni.

Of course, some uni classes will be a hybrid of IB and A Level... a lot of constant work (whether assignments, or just to keep up with smaller assessments like quizzes and large exams) plus heavy final exams. And whichever you take will not matter if you can do well, by the end of it.

I do think in certain sense, IB is easier to score as you are literally "in charge' of your results pathway...ie doing coursework industriously, building up passion by presentations/research i personally think IB is really useful compared to a levels although im from a level...A-Level is actually in another way, rote learning ala UK style...even Uk govt and eucators now have some controversial over the syllabus of a levels and things might be shaking up quite soon...CIE has also already 2 years ago came up with thier versio of IB namely Cambridge pre-uni . A* can be harder even to attain sometimes bcos it solely depends on yor exams and if you don't do well, that's it, whereas in IB, final exams only boils down to a small part of your course compared to the other components ie. EE,TOK, comm service

True, true. Based solely on the fact that I'm somewhat accustomed to the 100% exam system, I might as well train up my soft skills in IB, right? In a way, I can get the best of both world?


From what I've been reading, it is possible to resit for some subjects in A-levels to improve your grades. Does this mean A-levels students have the same power to be 'in charge' of their results as well?

yup2, but as u c, the fate is stil in CIE's hand,lol.. you cant really expect what type of questions they will just throw at you, whereas i think in IB, you will be well aware of your assingment topic, and you can research as far as the heavens...but depending on stress level, i think IB is definitely much more strenous, especially when there are lots of assignments and tight deadlines to drive you crazy.

At least you have the chance resit the exams in A-levels whereas you can't do the same for the written examination for IB. Right?

Yes, exactly! The stress level in IB is too high! At least that's what I observed. This is my main concern right now.

You CAN always resit for written examination for IB like A-levels.

To be honest, the stress level in IB is indeed quite high especially you have to take 6 subjects plus TOK, and also at the same time you have to complete the Extended Essay and do lots of activities outside of school to satisfy the CAS hours requirement. Also you need to balance between science and humanities subjects, so for people like me, I struggled a lot in Physics because I have always been a student who prefers humanities. Whereas in A-levels, you can just take what you actually like, especially if you already know what you wanna do in the future. Since you came from a rather exam-based background, then you might as well take what is best for you because ultimately your aim is to score as high as possible in your final grades. I won't say it is difficult to score a Level 7 in IB as long as you do well in your coursework. That's why it is important that the school has teachers who are competent enough to know the subject and tips to score coursework. Both A-levels and IB have its own stress but as an IB alumni, I certainly didn't regret taking it. But again, ultimately it is up to you to decide.

This post has been edited by vcj1992: May 7 2012, 07:33 PM

You can? Since you're an IB alumni, I'm gonna take your word for it!

Oh yes! I am aware of the stress! It has been bothering me a lot, which is strange because I haven't even started the programme yet.

I prefer humanities as well! Taylor's only offer Economics and Business Management for Group 3. Is it wise to take both? Coz I heard some chapters of the two subjects overlap(or is that only true for A-levels?). Or should I opt for another Science subject to open up more opportunities in the future though I'm not interested in Science? I'm still unsure on what my ideal career would be, by the way.
Decisions, decisions...

This post has been edited by Aefioz: May 7 2012, 09:28 PM

You can resit but if I'm not wrong the resit can only be taken half a year later. (Ie: If your exam is on May then you can only wait until the next exam time which is November). But hey, don't even think about resit! haha.

I did Business Management and History so I'm not too sure about whether they will overlap. But I would advise you to take only subjects that you are interested in because afterall you wanna get the highest points possible at the end of your 2-year course. Plus you've got to do Internal Assessments (coursework) which you should take it as a chance to boost your final grades if you do well on it, so you definitely wanna ace it and taking subjects that you dislike certainly won't help. Back then I knew I was definitely not gonna do any science-based courses like medicine or engineering in university so I only took one science subject. I know you are still unsure of what ideal career you wanna do, but if you have a rough idea whether it's gonna science-based or humanities-based, that should be able to help you in your decisions.

This post has been edited by vcj1992: May 8 2012, 05:37 AM