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Student Blog

5 reasons why you should study the IB

Entering into your university years is certainly a daunting thought. Here are 5 reasons why you should take the IB and how it will help you prepare for university.

The IB will 100% prepare you for university

After taking 5, 80 minute classes a day, six subjects (plus Theory of Knowledge), completed 200 hours of CAS, and wrote a 4,000 word extended essay, in addition to 12,000 words of internal assessments for my other courses. Anything university throws at you is trivial in comparison!

I’m not saying you will be able to simply glide by university, but the work-load will be more than manageable, and in many cases will be significantly reduced compared to the IB.

You will become a more well-rounded person

You might be put off by the necessity to take one course in each “subject area”. It is certainly frustrating that you still need to take an IB maths course, even though the degree you want to go in have nothing to do with numbers. However, it means that all doors remain open for you. This will help you in the future if you decide to change your major or career path.

There is a large amount of choice

Despite there being conditions on taking certain courses from each area, there is actually a lot of choice. If you have more of an idea of what you would like to study at university, there are very specific courses you can take. For example, if you want to study the fine arts, it’s actually possible to take both art and theatre.

Even if you see that an IB course is not offered by your school it may be possible to take it online, so do talk to your coordinator about this.

Internationally recognised

Pretty much every university recognized the IB, as is familiar with the scoring system (including the US). This will make applications much easier, as it means you won’t need to explain to them how the grades are given, and how challenging the diploma is.

Puts you ahead of the race before it’s even begun

I’m not going to lie, the two years you spend in the IB, will not be fun. You will probably spend a fair number of nights crying into a textbook. Struggling to juggle CAS, TOK, and all the other acronyms associated with this course. But in the end it will be worth it. While all your peers at University struggle to write lab reports, you will already have written three massive reports. While they complain about the three back to back lectures, you will walk in with your mind open, eager to learn. It might not be fun, but it’s worth it in the end.

For more information visit the IB website.


Written by Sophie Z.

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