How hard was your Ib school to get into?

[citizenoftheuniverse]

So this year, my IB school has 50 places and 79 people applied, so about 63% of applicants get in. They give applicants a score out of 20, 10 max. points from average, 8 max. from entrance tests you take and 2 for how international you are. So the people with the 50 best scores get in. How about your schools?

[Sandwich]

I got into my school by passing an entrance exam when I was 7 years old

Basically if you could afford to go and hadn't failed all your GCSEs, you got to do the IB/A Levels. The cut-off was more or less money, as my school was non-state funded. No over-subscription here. They were desperate for people to pick the IB to justify running it. All of my classes had less than 10 people and IB Physics had one person.

[Slovakov]

There are not so many people willing to be in IB in my city. Maybe it's because IB is a new thing here (I'm in the second class taking the exams ever), but there are usually 33 places per year and this year there were no more than 20 applicants. The only thing you have to do is to pass a test checking your English language level, and fulfil the standard requirements for secondary school in my country.

[Hinuku]

First, I had to pass a national junior high exam from which you had to get a high mark, I got 86/100 which is a decent score - this got me into preIB. And as to IB, I had to pass another exam, actually 3 exams; Polish (language), English (language)+ oral English, and maths. So basically, there were two exams. But if you learned a lot then you passed each with ease, at least that was the case with me. Edited May 17, 2011 by Summer Glau
no text speak

[Summer Glau]

My school wasn't that hard to get into. I took a test to get into my school when I was 13 years old. It was a test of basic math, reading comprehension and language structure stuff, plus I had to send in my most recent report card. There was also a teacher recommendation and a 'learning skills' BS section I had to get filled out that nobody even looked at There were 110 places and 240 applicants when I applied. But my IB class has dwindled down to 65 students as of right now.

[Brian Hunt]

I attend a public school. We have no pre-IB program or courses. The requirements to get into the IB program are easily met, meaning anyone who wants to can get in. It wouldn't be innacurate to think that our scores wouldn't be as high, and it does seem like other IB schools make their classes harder, but our IB coordinator tells us that when our IB test scores are compared to the overall average, we are above average.

Edited May 17, 2011 by Brian Hunt

[Proletariat]

It wasn't.

IB classes are free, and at my school they are half the size of any other class, AP included.

If you want in you get in.

[JustAnotherAsian]

240 apply

120 get in

60 leave

60 remain

[cheshie04]

Not very hard. My gifted/accelerated 8th grade class all took the entrance exam in our room one morning. It consisted of reading, grammar, and math sections, as well as a written portion where you had to analyze a poem. Out of 29 kids, I'm pretty sure 27 got in. And that was after the interview with the IB coordinator.

I'm pretty sure a larger number of kids got in city-wide (public school, you know). But our Pre-IB 9th grade had around 110 students. As of IB-1, we have 85-90 candidates.

[dubyawhy]

Had a maths test, english and chinese test. Though I'm pretty sure the Chinese and Maths were placement tests to see if I went into Language B, Language A, maths studies etc

[haley.the.great]

Not hard at all....you just have to sign up. I go to a public school (granted, a pretty good public school) and IB is relatively new - 2011 is its first grad class. If you want to be in IB, they make you write a short essay on your intentions, ambitions, etc (probably to make sure you stand a chance) and you're in. I haven't heard of them rejecting anyone, but most who apply trust their abilities. I think the incoming class last year was around 110ish and about 30 or so dropped out after the first 6 weeks. I'm curious to know how many seniors this year graduated with an IB diploma from my school. I've heard, for my class (2013), anywhere from 50 applicants to 120 applicants sooo I guess I'll find out in August!

[IBKen-Z]

Like a few others on this forum, I go to a public school. In my county, we have 6 elementary schools, one middle school and one highschools. The elementary schools all participate in PYP and every student does it. The middle school and the first two years of high school (so 6-9) have required MYP. So once again, every student participates. When DP begins (in 11th grade) students can choose to take classes. Anyone who wants to can. Students can also just take certificates. Not many choose to take the full programme. The graduating class of 2011 had 183 graduates total and 8 of those graduated from the IB programme. My class (class of 2012) also has 8 members. Most people at our school prefer to take DP Certificate, AP or classes offered by our local community college.

[madisongrace]

My school has only been around for 3 years and this is the first year of the IB for my school,(Graduating 2012) so they were willing to accept anyone with the money to afford it... which was a mistake as half the kids in my grade still don't understand how important these years are and rarely study,

and for the school, it is really hard for us as we are all still learning about the things IB expects us to have.

After summer Im excited to see if we get any new (intelligent and fun) students!

[sarahlouise]

At our school there were no exams/tests or anything, it was supposedly if your previous marks were decent enough you were allowed to do it if you wanted to. However, there were a few people whose marks were definitely well below average, almost failing everything, who hardly tried at all, who still got in. I was quite surprised at that.

So pretty much, anybody who wants to can do it at my school.

[Mahuta ♥]

Very easy actually, I was in my school before it became and IB school. So I just went straight from IGCSE to IB. However, some people who got too many D's and C's weren't allowed to stay.

My school is a private one, so fees were like crazy. Basically, if you have the money and you're not an idiot they want you in that school.

[kiwi.at.heart]

At my school there wasn't any requirements. If you wanted to do IB, you did IB as long as you paid the $3k fees for the two years.

[Ezeh]

Easy, just sat an entrance exam and a quick interview. Over half drop out though...

[Loeszie.]

I never had to do an entrance exam, I just came from MYP5 and moved on into DP1. As long as your grades from MP5 were high enough (4 for subjects to be taken at SL, 5 for subjects to be taken at HL) getting into IB was no problem. I don't know how it went with people that came in from a different school though, they probably just had to have good enough grades. But my school even takes people that didn't pass DP1/IB1 in another school and lets them do it again... so I guess they're quite leniant.

[Dumbledore]

Our school allows you to take IB for free, and you don't have to apply... There are 250 students in our class and 8 of us signed up... There were actually like 12 maybe, but some dropped out.

[citizenoftheuniverse]

People have misunderstood my original post a bit. Just because we have an exam and not everyone gets in does not mean we have to pay! Pretty much all schools in Finland are public and FREE! I think its an American thing that if a school does not let everyone in then it must be private and expensive... Thats a cultural difference, in the US if a school does not let everyone in and is higher standard then everyone assumes it must an expensive private school, while in Finland having to pay for education seems preposterous.