IB Certificate - What's the use?

[ch_ris127]

I'm currently taking IB Diploma now, and still unsure of where to go. The stress is taking its toll on me, and I haven't even got a long-term CAS project yet, and there's only seven more months to go before graduating. So, the thought of dropping to IB Certificate came to mind, but I'm afraid that it's practically useless for university applications. All of the unis in Australia only accepts Diploma, and the same goes for Singapore and other IB supporting schools.

What is the use of IB Certificate, exactly, and is there a way to get into a university with it? I'm planning to take communications as a major, and you don't need much for that, so the Diploma serves as only a 'ticket' into the school. It's ridiculous, the way I see it, but I guess it's the only way, unless you have some other suggestions and information?

Thanks a lot for the help

[Sandwich]

Well you identified the problem yourself, it depends on which country you want to go to University in. In the UK, if you don't manage to get the Diploma you're basically not going to University because certificates are worthless except for as a sort-of adjunct to A Levels. I've never heard of an offer which didn't require the Diploma as minimum, even for offers of 24 points. You seem to have found the same for Australian Unis.

The only one I know of is that in the US they do give Certificates some credit (to my understanding) and don't expect you to have put in the effort for the whole Diploma either. I think the Diploma is treated as more of a perk there, because many students don't have an equivalent, only stuff like a GPA and SATs and so on, so not having it isn't a deal-clincher for them. Otherwise hardly anybody would go to Uni!

To be fair though, CAS is such a lame thing to fail the IB because of. Just sort yourself out and get a CAS project!! It's ridiculous that you might drop down and have wasted 2 years purely on account of not being bothered to help little kids glue bits of dried pasta to some card, or whatever activity you might have done. I'd be kicking myself majorly if I were you How on earth you can try to fit your hours in at this late stage, I have no idea (why on earth did you ignore CAS in the first place?), but try to do it.

[Arrowhead]

What Sandwich said.

But to expand a bit more on that: I went to a an American-based international boarding school in Switzerland. Of the 120 students (approx) in my batch, only 40 of us were full-IB students. The remaining 80 did certificates and went on to American Unis. The point of certificates is only when it comes to HLs. With a 5+ grade in your IB exam, you can potentially skip a semester or two of a subject at Uni or fulfil the requirement of a social science etc. That's why people sometimes go for certificates, they're sure they're going to the US, but don't want to do the full diploma.

One of my close friends from boarding basically took an entire IB load (3 HLs and 3 SLs) but he took them as certificate courses and got 6 certificates at the end of it. His reasoning was that he wanted to go to Texas Tech for Engineering and he did not, under any circumstances, want to write an EE or do CAS (unfortunately ToK was mandatory for all students, IB or not).

Those are possibly the only practical uses I've ever seen of the IB certificates. If you're not planning on coming to the US, the chances of said certificates being useful to you, or conducive to you attending Uni are slim to none. You need to finish the diploma.

Also, its really not that hard. Of all the things to be screwed over by, you're planning on abandoning the diploma for CAS? I don't think I've ever heard that one before. CAS is easily one of the funnest parts of the diploma because because of it, you have a legitimate excuse to study less and do something fun or join an extracurricular event. Having a CAS project isn't that hard either (not that I'm very clear on what a CAS Project is since I left the IB before it was implemented, thank God!), but I'm assuming its that long-term project involving at least 2 elements of CAS. Of the top of my head, you could organise a trip with you and your friends to go make a dry run for toys and unwanted clothes from students in your school and go to the local orphanage and spend the day with the kids there whilst giving them your donations. You could do this once a month, where every month you just collect a different thing: old toys, unwanted clothes, books, and so on. If you can pull in a few friends by enticing them with CAS Hours all the more better for you. With that you get the obvious Service hours for helping the kids, you can also get Creativity hours for all the organisation and planning you put into it. The reason I suggest this is because a bunch of my friends and I did the same, except we raised funds with bake sales and stuff, for the old age home and refugee centre nearby our village in Switzerland. I mooched off 20 C and 20 S hours off of that (and that's because 20 was the upper limit from one activity).

A CAS project just takes a bit of creativity and a little organisation and hard work. Don't be lazy about it, just do it! The experience itself is very rewarding.

Arrowhead.

Edited August 4, 2011 by Arrowhead

[ChikkyD]

I'm currently taking IB Diploma now, and still unsure of where to go. The stress is taking its toll on me, and I haven't even got a long-term CAS project yet, and there's only seven more months to go before graduating. So, the thought of dropping to IB Certificate came to mind, but I'm afraid that it's practically useless for university applications. All of the unis in Australia only accepts Diploma, and the same goes for Singapore and other IB supporting schools.

What is the use of IB Certificate, exactly, and is there a way to get into a university with it? I'm planning to take communications as a major, and you don't need much for that, so the Diploma serves as only a 'ticket' into the school. It's ridiculous, the way I see it, but I guess it's the only way, unless you have some other suggestions and information?

Thanks a lot for the help

Just to rectify something quickly, Australian university's DO accept the IB Certificate. And very easily I might add! My boyfriend is currently Studying a Bachelor of Engineering which was offered to him based on his Certificate results. Many people end up going to uni through certificate, so you can ALWAYS get into uni . As long as you meet the prerequisites, then it should be good good luck!

Edit: The IB Certificate, in Australian schools, is done along with Australian normal "mainstream" exam(s), so this might have something to do with it.

Edited August 4, 2011 by Lillian

[ch_ris127]

Well you identified the problem yourself, it depends on which country you want to go to University in. In the UK, if you don't manage to get the Diploma you're basically not going to University because certificates are worthless except for as a sort-of adjunct to A Levels. I've never heard of an offer which didn't require the Diploma as minimum, even for offers of 24 points. You seem to have found the same for Australian Unis.

The only one I know of is that in the US they do give Certificates some credit (to my understanding) and don't expect you to have put in the effort for the whole Diploma either. I think the Diploma is treated as more of a perk there, because many students don't have an equivalent, only stuff like a GPA and SATs and so on, so not having it isn't a deal-clincher for them. Otherwise hardly anybody would go to Uni!

To be fair though, CAS is such a lame thing to fail the IB because of. Just sort yourself out and get a CAS project!! It's ridiculous that you might drop down and have wasted 2 years purely on account of not being bothered to help little kids glue bits of dried pasta to some card, or whatever activity you might have done. I'd be kicking myself majorly if I were you How on earth you can try to fit your hours in at this late stage, I have no idea (why on earth did you ignore CAS in the first place?), but try to do it.

Yeah...I'm sure I won't go to the UK, so I'm just searching for information regarding Australia's schools. As for the CAS, the class of 2012 practically got a whole lot of new rules, including a 'long term' CAS project. That means that you should take up a project and continuously do it for a period of eight months or more. If you don't do that, you basically fail. I only got a couple more hours to complete, which is an easy thing to do, with the projects that I've taken up. It's this long-term stuff that's hard to deal with. But then, thanks for the information, and the suggestions!

[ch_ris127]

I'm currently taking IB Diploma now, and still unsure of where to go. The stress is taking its toll on me, and I haven't even got a long-term CAS project yet, and there's only seven more months to go before graduating. So, the thought of dropping to IB Certificate came to mind, but I'm afraid that it's practically useless for university applications. All of the unis in Australia only accepts Diploma, and the same goes for Singapore and other IB supporting schools.

What is the use of IB Certificate, exactly, and is there a way to get into a university with it? I'm planning to take communications as a major, and you don't need much for that, so the Diploma serves as only a 'ticket' into the school. It's ridiculous, the way I see it, but I guess it's the only way, unless you have some other suggestions and information?

Thanks a lot for the help

Just to rectify something quickly, Australian university's DO accept the IB Certificate. And very easily I might add! My boyfriend is currently Studying a Bachelor of Engineering which was offered to him based on his Certificate results. Many people end up going to uni through certificate, so you can ALWAYS get into uni . As long as you meet the prerequisites, then it should be good good luck!

Edit: The IB Certificate, in Australian schools, is done along with Australian normal "mainstream" exam(s), so this might have something to do with it.

Thanks a lot for the answer! (That's what I'm looking for ) So, this means that I should only do some exams, like IELTS? You don't need to go to college for another year, right (cause that would mean spending another year for studying )?

And thanks again for the motivation! I really appreciate it

[ch_ris127]

What Sandwich said.

But to expand a bit more on that: I went to a an American-based international boarding school in Switzerland. Of the 120 students (approx) in my batch, only 40 of us were full-IB students. The remaining 80 did certificates and went on to American Unis. The point of certificates is only when it comes to HLs. With a 5+ grade in your IB exam, you can potentially skip a semester or two of a subject at Uni or fulfil the requirement of a social science etc. That's why people sometimes go for certificates, they're sure they're going to the US, but don't want to do the full diploma.

One of my close friends from boarding basically took an entire IB load (3 HLs and 3 SLs) but he took them as certificate courses and got 6 certificates at the end of it. His reasoning was that he wanted to go to Texas Tech for Engineering and he did not, under any circumstances, want to write an EE or do CAS (unfortunately ToK was mandatory for all students, IB or not).

Those are possibly the only practical uses I've ever seen of the IB certificates. If you're not planning on coming to the US, the chances of said certificates being useful to you, or conducive to you attending Uni are slim to none. You need to finish the diploma.

Also, its really not that hard. Of all the things to be screwed over by, you're planning on abandoning the diploma for CAS? I don't think I've ever heard that one before. CAS is easily one of the funnest parts of the diploma because because of it, you have a legitimate excuse to study less and do something fun or join an extracurricular event. Having a CAS project isn't that hard either (not that I'm very clear on what a CAS Project is since I left the IB before it was implemented, thank God!), but I'm assuming its that long-term project involving at least 2 elements of CAS. Of the top of my head, you could organise a trip with you and your friends to go make a dry run for toys and unwanted clothes from students in your school and go to the local orphanage and spend the day with the kids there whilst giving them your donations. You could do this once a month, where every month you just collect a different thing: old toys, unwanted clothes, books, and so on. If you can pull in a few friends by enticing them with CAS Hours all the more better for you. With that you get the obvious Service hours for helping the kids, you can also get Creativity hours for all the organisation and planning you put into it. The reason I suggest this is because a bunch of my friends and I did the same, except we raised funds with bake sales and stuff, for the old age home and refugee centre nearby our village in Switzerland. I mooched off 20 C and 20 S hours off of that (and that's because 20 was the upper limit from one activity).

A CAS project just takes a bit of creativity and a little organisation and hard work. Don't be lazy about it, just do it! The experience itself is very rewarding.

Arrowhead.

Wow, thanks a bunch for the suggestions and motivation!

The problem isn't really me being lazy, but it's just that there's a whole lotta limitations and rules for CAS in my school. I almost reached the quota already (only a couple more easy hours to go), but it's that long-term stuff that's gonna be the death of me. I just don't know whether I could pass CAS with only seven (or six, minus the exam month) months... CAS projects <i>are</i> fun and rewarding, but for most of the time, they're forced upon with strict rules and things that kills the experience in my school. It's annoying that way, but I'll see what I can do. Thanks again for the reply