Parents of students ACS(I) - R U Happy with the IP program

[autolycus]

Faun:

Is good to hear positive feedback about the IB. What is the minimum aggregate the boys must have to move on to Yr6 IB. Is it 38points? Are the exam papers all set by the IB office? Do they set papers specifically for Singapore or is the paper standard based on region?


I also like the broad-based curriculum the IB offers. I think it is good for the young mind to be trained holistically. I heard many British people wants to do the IB but cannot. I think it's to keep the Cambridge Exam Board wallet padded. There has been much said about the GCE being too exam oriented and causing grade escalation.

Thank you if you can answer my query.

The minimum aggregate varies from year to year. In theory, 38 points is the requirement for entry to Oxbridge, so the former principal used to set that expectation level for all students. In practice, it is around 34 points. This is because it is somewhat negotiable.

Exam papers are all set by the IB Organisation. ACS(I) students take the November papers together with most Southern hemisphere schools (mostly South American and Australian), rather than the June papers taken by most Northern hemisphere schools.

[phankao]

gleemom:

HMT boys can take 'O' level Chinese at Sec 3 (or again at Sec 4 if not happy with grade). This grade is not counted in overall IB marks but I guess it's a good cert to have. The boy still takes IB Chinese in IB year. Most do the exam in IB year 1 (similar to JC 1), so that they can concentrate on the other subjects in year 2..

Probably bc having O/A-level Chinese is a requirement of MOE? Does MOE provide for IB Chinese as an alternative ?

[autolycus]

phankao:

gleemom:

HMT boys can take 'O' level Chinese at Sec 3 (or again at Sec 4 if not happy with grade). This grade is not counted in overall IB marks but I guess it's a good cert to have. The boy still takes IB Chinese in IB year. Most do the exam in IB year 1 (similar to JC 1), so that they can concentrate on the other subjects in year 2..

Probably bc having O/A-level Chinese is a requirement of MOE? Does MOE provide for IB Chinese as an alternative ?

Having a Mother Tongue language is part of MOE's bilingual policy. If this requirement is fully met by Year 4, the student may choose another language as a second language for the IB course. Hence a number of students who have already complete Higher Mother Tongue by Year 4 go on to do other languages like Spanish, French or German as an IB second language.

The IB Chinese paper is set at a true second-language level; i.e., not as a mother tongue. It is therefore very easy to do well in, and hence a safe source of IB points. The large majority of ACS(I) Year 5 students get 7/7 points for that paper.

[phankao]

autolycus:

phankao:

[quote=\"gleemom\"] HMT boys can take 'O' level Chinese at Sec 3 (or again at Sec 4 if not happy with grade). This grade is not counted in overall IB marks but I guess it's a good cert to have. The boy still takes IB Chinese in IB year. Most do the exam in IB year 1 (similar to JC 1), so that they can concentrate on the other subjects in year 2..

Probably bc having O/A-level Chinese is a requirement of MOE? Does MOE provide for IB Chinese as an alternative ?

Having a Mother Tongue language is part of MOE's bilingual policy. If this requirement is fully met by Year 4, the student may choose another language as a second language for the IB course. Hence a number of students who have already complete Higher Mother Tongue by Year 4 go on to do other languages like Spanish, French or German as an IB second language.

The IB Chinese paper is set at a true second-language level; i.e., not as a mother tongue. It is therefore very easy to do well in, and hence a safe source of IB points. The large majority of ACS(I) Year 5 students get 7/7 points for that paper.[/quote]What I meant was - is it MOE does not take the IB Chinese paper as a valid fulfilment of requirement, hence the need to take the O level CL/HCL papers instead.

[autolycus]

phankao:

What I meant was - is it MOE does not take the IB Chinese paper as a valid fulfilment of requirement, hence the need to take the O level CL/HCL papers instead.

No, the IB Chinese paper is a valid fulfilment of the bilingual/MT requirement. However, if O-level HCL is taken, that fulfils the pre-university bilingual/MT requirement as well. The student may then do another language besides Chinese for the IB (which itself always requires a second language); in fact, if the student has done HCL at O-level, he shouldn't be doing IB CL Lang B, since that is actually of a far lower level.

There are also ACS(I) students who do O-levels, and those of course must do the MT or HMT paper as part of that certification. They have to do it even if they subsequently get into the IB course, since they wouldn't know if they had got in until the O-level results were released.

[COD Warrior]

Hi autolykus,


What are the second languages offered for IB students in IB-Year 5 at ACSI? (apart from Chinese, Spanish, French and German which you have already mentioned)

Thank you.

[autolycus]

COD Warrior:

Hi autolykus,


What are the second languages offered for IB students in IB-Year 5 at ACSI? (apart from Chinese, Spanish, French and German which you have already mentioned)

Thank you.

It depends on whether there is demand. I think some PRC scholars are doing English as their second language, and Bahasa Indonesia is also a possible option. IB offers many languages including classical Greek and Latin, but I don't think ACS(I) offers them all!

From the current school list (not sure if updated recently): Chinese, English, Malay, Tamil, Hindi, Spanish, German, French.

[Faun]

Hi autolycus,


Thanks so much for all the info.

You mentioned the 34 points requirement. If we minus 3 points for TOK, Extended Essay and Creative, action service, that means it’s 31 points for the subjects for the 6 groups. That comes to about 5 points per subject. 5 point = average, I think. Is 5 point a B3 equivalent in O’level?

My son has started on the iB prog. He’s not strong in Chinese and I’m kinda glad the Chinese requirement is not that high for IB. In Y5&6, a second language is compulsory but must it be Chinese? My friend told me he knew an ACSI boy doing Malay for those 2 years instead because he kept failing his Chinese through the years. Just wondering if it’s possible for my ds to do, say Spanish instead as he’s more interested in that.

[autolycus]

Faun:

You mentioned the 34 points requirement. If we minus 3 points for TOK, Extended Essay and Creative, action service, that means it's 31 points for the subjects for the 6 groups. That comes to about 5 points per subject. 5 point = average, I think. Is 5 point a B3 equivalent in O'level?

This would be excluding bonus points. So you need to have a score of 34 for the best 5 subjects from Groups 1 to 5 and one other subject. For the ACS(I) pre-IB, 7 points is roughly 85% and 6 points is roughly 70%. 5 points is a B3 or B4.

Faun:

My son has started on the iB prog. He's not strong in Chinese and I'm kinda glad the Chinese requirement is not that high for IB. In Y5&6, a second language is compulsory but must it be Chinese? My friend told me he knew an ACSI boy doing Malay for those 2 years instead because he kept failing his Chinese through the years. Just wondering if it's possible for my ds to do, say Spanish instead as he's more interested in that.

The second language must be the Mother Tongue language in order to meet SG bilingualism requirements. However, if your son has met those requirements (e.g. by HMT) by Year 5, he can take another language. It is also possible for him to appeal to change his MT (or MT equivalent). I'm not sure what the procedure for that is, though; I think it must be something like applying to do CL B in the GCE course.

[UncleLim]

I don’t mean to be a wet blanket but any ACS(I) parent feel that your child is struggling or not enjoying this programme ? Any specific issues that are impeding their progress? Thanks in advance!